Around the World in Aircraft

In the early 1920s the world’s leading aviation nation was Great Britain. It had an independent air force, commercial airlines and a booming aircraft manufacturing industry. By contrast, the United States, where the heavier-than-air aircraft first flew was nearly dead last. Its aviation industry consisted of barnstormers, stunt pilots flying war surplus biplanes. It had no airlines, few developed airfields, and most manufacturers were fighting bankruptcy. Americans were indifferent to aviation.

Into Unknown Skies: An Unlikely Team, a Daring Race, and the First Flight Around the World, by David K. Randall, shows how an unofficial air race around the world changed American attitudes, leading to eventual US preeminence in aviation.

By 1923 many aviation firsts had been accomplished. The Atlantic had been crossed; there had been flights across the North American continent, and from England to India. But no one had circumnavigated the globe in an airplane. Great Britain and France tried and failed.

The US Army Air Service wanted to rekindle American interest in aviation. Its cheif, Major General Mason Patrick, decided an Air Service team would make that first with an around-the-world flight in 1924. His plan differed from previous attempts. Instead of a single aircraft he planned to send four, allowing the mission to be accomplished despite losses incurred along the way.

He also planned flying west, not east as previous attempts had done. This put the hardest part of the flight – crossing the Pacific – at the beginning. It also gave the US an opportunity to achieve another aviation first. Even if the aircraft failed to circumnavigate the globe, they would have made the first flight across the Pacific.

The announcement triggered a spate of rival attempts. Britain would not allow the upstart Yanks to upstage them. They started their own circumnavigation attempt. French, Portuguese, Argentinian and Italian aviators soon followed. The race was on.

Randall follows the various teams in each of their tries. He switches focus between the American team, flying four Douglas World Cruisers as they followed the sun around the world and the British contestant, Archibald Stuart-MacLaren, and his three-man aircraft going east. These were the most serious contenders. Randall weaves in the flights of the other nations, generally done by a single pilot on a logistical shoestring.

Into Unknown Skies is a fascinating book, one highlighting a forgotten accomplishment of early aviation history. Randall shows the human face of a remarkable achievement.

“Into Unknown Skies: An Unlikely Team, a Daring Race, and the First Flight Around the World,” by David K. Randall, Mariner Books, September, 2024, 304 pages, $32.99 (Hardcover), 15.99 (E-book), $24.29 (Audiobook), $45.95 (Audio CD)

This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.