Eight Army airmen set out on April 6, 1924, to become the first people to circle the globe by air, and this silent Army Air Service footage documents the takeoff. The reel opens with the pilots gathered around a table plotting their route, then cuts to President Calvin Coolidge sending them off before the flight begins. Ground crews in Santa Monica, California check over the aircraft ahead of the first leg to Sacramento, where Mayor Elkins greets the fliers and their support crew on arrival. The footage, drawn from National Archives holdings and tied to Rob Crotty's 2010 Prologue magazine article "Magellans of the Sky," shows the mechanical routines of early long-distance aviation: refueling, inspection, and the crowds that gathered at each stop. There is no narration or dialogue, just period film of the preparations and departure for a flight that would run until September 28, 1924. The footage covers only the opening stages of the journey, the planning and the first legs out of California, rather than the full round-the-world route.