Around the World 100 with Bob and Barry

Through the UFO (United Flying Octogenarians) organization, Ken Brown met UFO members, Bob Bates and Barry Payne. Bob is from Papua New Guinea and Barry is from Australia. The two pilots are flying around the world in Barry’s Piper Comanche ZK-BAZ, commemorating a similar flight 100 years ago. They started their flight June 1 from Papua New Guinea, landing at Tacoma Narrows Airport (TIW) on September 9. Ken contacted UFO members in the area, asking them to meet and greet Bob and Barry. Several members from various towns in the area showed up, despite the inclement weather, driving instead of flying to the airport. When the plane touched down, they were greeted by a group of several UFOs and spent several hours with Bob and Barry, hearing the story of their flight.

There will be several events in Seattle at the end of the month to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the start of the first successful aerial circumnavigation of the globe. Because of weather limitations, the two pilots left Tacoma on September 11 to finish their flight, heading to Alaska, Russia, Japan, Guam, and ending in Papua New Guinea at the end of the month.

The first aerial circumnavigation of the world was completed in 1924 by four aviators from an eight-man team (pilots and mechanics) of the US Army Air Service, the precursor of the US Air Force. On 6 April 1924, four Douglas World Cruisers (DWC) left Sand Point near Seattle, Washington, and completed the first circumnavigation of the globe by air in 175 days on 28 September, after making 74 stops and covering about 27,550 miles. Two of the four aircraft crashed or were forced down at the beginning of the journey; the actual expedition was made for most of the flight with two single-engine open-cockpit DWC (the Chicago and the New Orleans) configured as floatplanes, especially developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company to meet a requirement from the US Army Air Service for an aircraft suitable for an attempt at the first flight around the world.

https://applications.icao.int/postalhistory/aviation_history_aerial_circumnavigation.htm