By Bill Armstrong, April 2000
How can an aviator depart from an airport, maintain the same heading, and eventually return to that same point of departure, while still having his aircraft pointed in the same direction? Well, we do occupy a presence on the planet called Earth, and that sphere is roughly the shape of a huge basketball. There are some rough surfaces, rising mountains on land areas, a whole lot of open water in the oceans and seas, there may be a slight bulge in the middle (after all our sphere has been rapidly spinning on its axis for many years), but, basically the planet we occupy is round.
Therefore, it does seem logical that if an aviator is capable of directing his craft on a steady, constant heading corrected for any effective cross winds, and does so for long enough, then that aviator will eventually return to his point of departure on the same heading from which he departed. As a matter of fact, logic would dictate that it matters not what heading is maintained, as long as that heading remains constant, the result will eventually be the same. A globe of our planet displays lines of longitude (running north and south) and lines of latitude (running east and west). A visual picture of such a flight simply follows one of those lines as it circles a spherical path around Earth, or in aeronautical terms, a great circle route.
Obviously, this is nothing new – an increasing number of folks have accomplished the unique circling of our globe in the method described above. Only two, Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager, in the famous Voyager, that one of a kind aircraft, were able to make the full circle without a stop of any kind, and without aerial refueling. This was a truly unique accomplishment. This and other famous flights have spawned an organization that has come to be known as the “Earthrounders”.
The first recognized round-the world flight was accomplished 75 years ago by a team of United States Army Air Service pilots. The four specially-built Douglas World Cruisers – each with a two-man crew – successfully circumnavigated the globe April 6 – September 28, 1924. The Earthrounders organization is the brainchild of Johann Gutmann, from Wieselburg, Austria, who flew his Glasair IIS-RG solo around the world in 1996. Gutmann is currently compiling a list of pilots who have accomplished a similar feat.
There is a local veteran aviator who is among those individuals who qualify as an Earthrounder. Lt. Colonel Harold Armstrong is a thirty-two year veteran of the United States Air Force who is able to say with absolute certainty that our planet Earth is round.
From 1968 to 1973 while stationed at McGuire Air Force Base , New Jersey, Harold was assigned to the 12th Aeromedical Airlift Squadron under the Military Airlift Command. For most of that time he was the Command Pilot of a crew that flew the huge C-141 “Starlifter” for a variety of mission requirements in far distant destinations. Many of those trips took Lt. Col. Armstrong, and his crew of nine, great distances around the world, with subsequent returns to McGuire AFB to prepare for their next mission. In 1972, a horrendous flooding occurred in India on the opposite side of the globe. Harold and his crew were tasked to perform a flood relief mission to the site of this catastrophe.
The flight departed McGuire and flew to Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, where the large aircraft was loaded with mercy relief supplies for the victims of the flooding in India. The C-141 was flown from Little Rock to Madrid, Spain, to Adana, Turkey, and on to New Dehli, Gauhati, India where the much sought and needed supplies were off loaded. Now having flown roughly half way around the world, the crew decided to make their return around the other half. Their return flight was through Utapao, Thailand, to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, then to Elmendorf, Alaska, and finally returning to the home base at McGuire AFB.
This Earthrounder flight consumed a total time of 51 flying hours and was accomplished over a five day period, with the various stops along the way. It was obviously not flown in a completely straight line. But the basic premise of circling the Earth, in this case heading generally east all the way, was an accomplishment enjoyed by all the Air Force members aboard.
The criteria established by the Earthrounder organization does not officially include military flights. The reason for that defies logic since the very first aircrew members to accomplish an around-the-world flight were in fact military men. The Earthrounders are defined as an exclusive group of people who have piloted, or served as air crew, on flights around the world. The crewmen of the four Douglas World Cruisers in 1924 were doing their duty and accomplishing an assigned historic military mission.
Lt. Col. Harold Armstrong and his crew were likewise successfully completing a mercy mission specifically assigned to them by the United States Air Force. For that they can now and forever be truly known as “Earthrounders”.
Wings Over Cumberland 