Today In History:  14 July  [1934]   --  Howard Hughes completes a record-breaking flight around the Northern Hemisphere.

Flamboyant flying tycoon Howard Hughes lands in New York after a record-breaking flight of 91 hours (three days, 19 hours, 17 minutes) around the Northern Hemisphere, shattering the previous record of 186 hours set in 1933 (by Wiley Post in a single-engine Lockheed Vega).

Taking off from New York City, Hughes continued to Paris, Moscow, Omsk, Yakutsk, Fairbanks, and Minneapolis, then returned to New York City. For this flight he flew a Lockheed 14 Super Electra (NX18973, a twin-engine transport with a crew of four) fitted with the latest radio and navigational equipment.

PHOTO: Airline KLM operated two Lockheed 14s within Europe during 1938/39.

Photo Attribution:  CC0 via Wikimedia.