In the early days of aviation, the greatest accomplishment a pilot could make was to circumnavigate the globe.

A successful attempt could make a pilot's career and give them celebrity status.

And many would be successful and earn this respect, but many would not and instead end up dead or in horrifying situations.

This is the flight of the Atlantis and as always, viewer discretion

is advised.

The very first successful circumnavigation of the globe in an airplane took place in 1924 by four

airmen from the U. the US Army Air Service.

In total, this groundbreaking journey would see them fly for 175 days and 26,300 miles or 42,400

kilometers.

During the end of the 1920s and throughout the 1930s, the world saw many more attempts by pilots looking

to make a name for themselves, and the public was just as eager to spectate on these attempts,

turning everyday pilots into quasi-celebrities.

Well, today, no one would bat an eye at flying around the world.

This was a dangerous and daring pursuit in the infancy of aviation that captured the public's

imagination.

Flying was still new and

exciting and circling the globe was seen as the greatest feat a pilot could accomplish.

But for as many successful circumnavigations during the time period as there was, there were

plenty more that didn't go as planned. The most infamous among them came in 1937 when aviation pioneer

Amelia Earhart set up to become the first female

pilot to fly around the globe. Her plane eventually went down near Howland Island, the North Pacific Ocean,

and her fate has remained a mystery ever since. Five years before her disappearance, a team of

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