Wed, Jul 03, 2013
Builder Hopes To Reprise First Around-The-World Flight
In April 1924, four converted WWI Douglas torpedo bombers re-christened "World Cruisers" set off from Sand Point, which at the time was Seattle's Municipal Airport, on an attempt to fly around the world. Two of the aircraft completed the journey after six months and 70 stops along the way.
Now, a Seattle resident hopes to reprise the trip in a replica of the World Cruiser he has spent 12 years building from scratch, and the airplane was brought to the Seattle Museum of Flight on a flatbed trailer towed by an antique truck for its public debut Saturday.
The builder, Bob Dempster, and his wife are no strangers to long trips in small airplanes. In 2001, they flew from Seattle to Japan in a Super Cub, and when they returned, they went looking for their next adventure.
The Seattle Times reports that Dempster has built his open-cockpit biplane replica with assistance from Seattle's Museum of Flight, McDonnel Douglas, the Smithsonian, and others. The airplane was christened the Seattle II with water taken from Lake Washington instead of champagne to christen the aircraft—alcohol was unavailable for such events in 1924 due to prohibition.
While the airplane is an accurate replica, it has been updated with things like non-flammable fabric covering and GPS. Dempster said that the flight path will also be somewhat different, given the instability of some places in the world that were safer in 1924.
The airplane will undergo flight tests and additional inspections over the next year before the circumnavigation attempt.
(Public domain image of original Douglas World Cruiser. Lower image from YouTube video.)
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