By Jim Cunningham, EAA 594611

Anyone who has built or restored an airplane is familiar with the process of attaching the wings. A couple of friends hold the wing, maneuver it into position to line up the attachment fittings on the fuselage, and slide in a bolt or two. The whole process takes just a few minutes. Easy.

Attaching the wings on a Douglas World Cruiser reproduction is a little… different. Instead of a couple of friends, it took a team of EAA staff and volunteers — and a forklift — to lift the 15-foot wing 12 feet into the air and then wrestle it into place. Then there were three more to attach.

When we think of vintage biplanes, we set the scale to those we are most familiar with, such as Wacos, Stinsons, and their contemporaries. The World Cruiser, however, is in a league of its own. It’s 35 feet long, has a wingspan of 50 feet, and a maximum gross weight of 7,800 pounds on floats. Nothing about the airplane or its components is small or easy to handle. Nothing.

In April 1924, four Douglas World Cruisers of the United States Army Air Service — Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans — departed Seattle, Washington, attempting to make the first flight around the world. Success would demonstrate aviation’s potential while bringing prestige to both the United States and the fledgling Army Air Service. To support the effort, the U.S. Army and Navy established a vast logistical network of fuel and maintenance stops in more than 20 countries and positioned ships along the route to assist the aircraft.

Of the four aircraft that set out, two completed the journey (a third ship, a backup, joined the group in the last part of the voyage) and landed in triumph back in Seattle five months later.

Two of the aircraft survive today. Chicago is on display in the National Air and Space Museum, and New Orleans is owned by Museum of Flying in Santa Monica, California. Components from the other aircraft are in several other museums.

Nearly a century after the historic flight, two EAA members in Seattle, Bob and Diane Dempster, decided to build an airplane. That wasn’t unusual, as it’s what EAAers tend to do. What was unusual about their decision, however, is what they decided to build. Most EAA members build two-seat airplanes built from kits that typically weigh in at about 2,000 pounds and measure about 30 feet wide and 6 feet tall. Bob and Diane had other ideas and decided to scratch-build a vintage airplane that was a little larger — a full-scale reproduction Douglas World Cruiser. Bob got the idea for the project around 2000 and spent several years gathering technical information, from studying plans at the National Air and Space Museum to visiting the Alaska crash site of the original Seattle. Construction began in 2005 in Bob and Diane’s coffee shop, and the airplane made its maiden flight in December 2014 on wheels and later on floats in 2016.

The airplane was recently shipped, disassembled, to EAA’s Pioneer Airport to be displayed for AirVenture 2026. Bob and Diane supervised a group of EAA staff and volunteers unloading the airplane from trucks and then undertaking the daunting task of reassembling it. Visitors to Pioneer Airport walking past the hangar often did a double take, coming inside and asking, “What is that?” Those who know the history of the World Cruisers were astonished to see one in Oshkosh.

The stories of the original World Cruisers, as well as the amazing people who built this reproduction, will be the subjects of two presentations at AirVenture 2026.

• Wednesday, July 22, 2:30 p.m., Forum Stage 8: “The History of the First World Flight of 1924”
• Thursday, July 23, 2:30 p.m., Forum Stage 8: “Building the Seattle World Cruiser”

The airplane will be on display in the Vintage Aircraft Association area all week and will be on display at the EAA Aviation Museum afterward. The Liberty engine used to power the airplane will also be on display as part of Vintage in Review and will be started and run for demonstrations.