logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2020
23m 7s

The First Flight Around the World

The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
About this episode

April 6, 1924. Four planes rest in the water, preparing for take-off. At 8:30 AM, they pick up speed and hit the air. Eight pilots have begun a dangerous mission: to be the first to fly around the world. This will change our future in a way that few could see in 1924. What did it take to complete this historic flight? And, when this new technology went global, what were the unintended consequences?


Special thanks to our guest, Jeremy Kinney, Chair of the Aeronautics Department at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Additional thanks to Tim Grove, author of "First Flight Around the World: The Adventures of the American Fliers Who Won the Race"


To our listeners, thank you for subscribing to History This Week. We want to hear your feedback: https://bit.ly/3a4FGqJ


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Up next
Yesterday
José Cuervo Rebuilds a Tequila Empire
August 28, 1920. In the town of Tequila, fireworks burst overhead as people celebrate Mexico’s independence. Then… gunshots. Malachías Cuervo, heir to the famous tequila dynasty, has just reignited a bitter feud with his family’s rivals, the Sauzas. For decades, his brother José ... Show More
37m 6s
Aug 21
The True Winnie-the-Pooh
August 24, 1914. A train pulls up to the lumber town of White River, Ontario, carrying a regiment of Canadian troops on board. On the tracks where they disembark is a small black bear cub. An army veterinarian decides to buy the bear and name her Winnipeg—Winnie for short—after t ... Show More
29m 51s
Aug 18
Egypt’s Last Hieroglyph and the Fiery Archbishop of Alexandria
August 24, 394. On the walls of a fading Egyptian temple, a priest carves what will become the last known hieroglyph in history. At the same moment, in Alexandria, a fiery archbishop named Theophilus is rising to power. He mocks the ancient Egyptian gods, desecrates their temples ... Show More
33m 21s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2019
Airplane | The Flight of the June Bug | S14-E1
Think for a moment about some of the pioneering developments from the earliest days of American aviation: The first pilot’s licence; the first flight from one city to another; the first airplane sold commercially. More than a century later, most people attribute these milestones ... Show More
44m 15s
Jun 2023
The Wright Brothers
Approximately 100 thousand flights take off and land each and every day. A months long journey on a boat is condensed to just a few hours with the help of aircraft, and the birth of planes introduced an entirely new form of warfare. Orville and Wilbur Wright, the Wright brothers, ... Show More
45m 58s
Jun 2022
The Unlikely Fate of the Wright Brothers
On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Wright Brothers changed history when they took the world's first engine-powered flight. It didn't take long for countries around the world to realise that the Wright flying machine had the potential to revolutioni ... Show More
26m 54s
Dec 2021
Episode #146- Who Was First in Flight? (Part I)
In mythology from around the world the ability to fly was reserved strictly for the gods. Stories about human beings constructing flying machines were usually punctuated with a moral about hubris. Vain attempts at flight were an easy metaphor for the limits of human ingenuity. Ev ... Show More
1h 4m
Mar 2023
Balloons of World War II
We’ve gotten requests to talk about the balloon bombs that Japan used to target North America during World War II. But these were not the only balloons in use during the war, or the first balloons used for military purposes. Research: Barnett, Glenn. “Another Way to Bomb Germany. ... Show More
39m 36s
Jan 2024
A Boeing Wonderland, Part One: A Magician Tries to Camouflage Entire Airfields
In the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, paranoia reigned across the western US -- and the country entirely. From California to Washington, civilians and the military alike were terrified that another attack was imminent. The country's aircraft manufacturers were promi ... Show More
51m 21s