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Frau Eckener awaited her husband with a birthday cake, candles, homely gifts. Said she: "My very best present for him is to make sure that he can sleep undisturbed. He appreciates rest more than anything else."
Ferdinand Magellan, first world circumnavigator, required three years (1519–22) for his sailing trip. Author Jules Verne's fictitious "Phileas Fogg" required 80 days; Nellie Bly, New York World reporter, 72 days (1889); U. S. Army planes, 175 days, of which 15 were actual flying days (1924); John Henry Mears and C. B. D. Collyer, record holders, 23 days (1928). The Graf Zeppelin expected to fly twelve or 14 days, with four-day stops for fueling at Friedrichshafen, Tokyo, Los Angeles—in all, a few days more than three weeks. The Mears-Collyer dash cost them $29,507, or $14,753.50 each. Dirigible passengers paid $9,000 each.