Albert I. Lodwick, born in Mystic, Iowa on March 4, 1904, played a major role as flight operations manager in Howard Hughes's record-setting around-the-world flight on July 10, 1938. Owing in large part to Lodwick's organizational skills, Hughes completed the journey in just 91 hours, or 3 days and 19 hours, beating the previous record by more than 4 hours and returning home ahead of photographs of his flight. Departing from New York City, the route continued to Paris, Moscow, Omsk, Yakutsk, Fairbanks, Minneapolis, and back to New York City. The flight used a Lockheed Super Electra 14, a twin-engine transport with a four-man crew, fitted with the latest radio and navigational equipment. Hughes and Lodwick intended the achievement to be a triumph of American aviation technology that showed safe, long-distance air travel was possible.