Aviation History – July 14, 1938. On July 14, 1938, a new air record was set: that of the speed to circle the Earth. A performance to the credit of Thomas Thurlow and Harry Connor, navigators-pilots, Richard Steddart, radio operator, Edward Lund, mechanic, and Howard Hughes, industrialist. The latter signing a tour of the planet from July 10 to 14, 1938.
It was from New York City that they began their air raid on July 10, 1938, taking off that day at the controls of the “New York World’s Fair of 1939”, the baptismal name of their motorized Lockheed with two Cyclone blocks of 1,100 horsepower per unit. Their circumnavigation of the globe totaling no less than 22,944 kilometers will be completed in 71 hours and 11 minutes of actual flight time, passing through Paris, Moscow, Omsk, Yakutsk, Fairbanks and Minneapolis, before reaching the Floyd Bennett airfield.
The aviator Wiley Post, who until then held the record, is dethroned, he had for his part taken 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes to complete his world tour, piloting on this occasion a Lockheed Vega monoplane type device. 5B.
