Odom's earlier RTW flight in April 1947 with Tex Sallee and Milton Reynolds was not
official as they did not apply to the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) before
starting their flight.
Odom was dissatisfied with the unofficial status of this flight and with his recent
experience wanted to try it again. He was determined to make a solo RTW flight without a
co-pilot, navigator or mechanic. Reynolds who had vowed he would never make another RTW flight
endorsed Odom's plan and lent him the "Bombshell" for his flight.
After an aborted first start, Odom began his solo RTW flight on August 7, 1947. The first
half of his flight was on auto-pilot (he called it "Little Willie"). As he progressed he was
plagued by bad weather. He lost his auto-pilot over Burma and flew hands-on to Tokyo. He fell
asleep out of Anchorage and wasted fuel as he wandered off course. He re-fueled in Fargo, ND
and landed at Chicago's Douglas Airport on August 11, 1947. He posted a flight time of
73H 5M 11S having flown 19,645 miles RTW.
View some additional pix (copyright Elmer Johnson) taken before Odom's Chicago
take-off (Pix-1), (Pix-2) & (Pix-3).