Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock completed the first solo round-the-world flight by a woman in 1964, twenty-seven years after Amelia Earhart’s unsuccessful attempt. The surviving airplane, route map, flight paperwork and Smithsonian archive make the journey exceptionally well documented.
Mock flew a 1953 Cessna 180 she called Spirit of Columbus. Additional fuel tanks, radios, navigation equipment and survival gear converted an ordinary four-seat general-aviation aircraft for long ocean and international legs.
She departed Columbus, Ohio, on March 19, 1964. National Aviation Association procedures required documentation at stops so the record could be officially verified.
The route crossed the Atlantic through North Africa and the Middle East, continued across South and Southeast Asia, crossed the Pacific through island stops and returned across the United States.
Mock landed back at Port Columbus on April 17 after 29 days, 11 hours and 59 minutes and more than 23,000 miles. Smithsonian collections preserve the aircraft and papers from the flight.
Another pilot, Joan Merriam Smith, was attempting a world flight at nearly the same time. Mock’s completed route was the first recognized solo circumnavigation by a woman, while Smith followed a route associated with Earhart’s plan.
Mock later set additional aviation records but did not receive the sustained public fame attached to earlier record pilots. Her own book Three-Eight Charlie provides a participant account that should be read alongside official flight documentation.
For TransitSatellite, Mock’s route can be mapped with far more confidence than many early aviation journeys because stop records, maps and flight plans survive in the Smithsonian collection.