Bob is re-creating one of the planes, “World Cruiser”, that flew around the world.  Using a 1918 Lincoln motor in the plane.  Bob has flown nearly around the world himself.

 

First flight around the world was from Seattle in 1924.  The airplanes were originally Navy torpedo planes.   Four left, only three made it around the world, one crashed but all survived.  They left on St. Patrick’s Day.  Boeing helped put the planes on floats.  They christened the airplanes.  Encountered some troubles on the first leg of the flight.  Throughout the flight they hit storms, damage to the planes, engine problems, sailors helped change engines, and returned to a large crowd.

 

It took the crew 175 days to complete the flight.  363.7 hours flying.

Bob went to the crash site.  The crash site has not grown over in all this time.    The tundra is very delicate. 

Bob visited the Smithsonian to take pictures of the original planes.

 

December 20^th the first test flight was performed with the recreated the plane.  They will be flying at Arlington to test certain functions on the plane.

 

Visit Seattleworldcruiser.org to view more about the flight and the recreation project.