Donald P. Taylor (October 1, 1918 – December 2, 2015) was an American aviator, notable for being the first person in history in the late summer and early fall of 1976 to successfully fly a homebuilt aircraft around the world.
"[2] His plane, Victoria '76 (named for the only one of Ferdinand Magellan's ships to complete her mission), a Lycoming-powered Thorp T-18 (N455DT) was fitted with improved communications and navigational equipment as well as a new fuel system after his initial 1973 round-the-world attempt had to be aborted due to bad weather between Japan and the Aleutian Islands.
Although the aircraft had a special heritage, he used "her" for routine transportation to-and-from his isolated ranch in the Southern California high semi-desert.
Instead, Victoria '76 is now on display at the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture museum in Oshkosh.
He was on a mission-control team supporting the round-the-world flight of the Rutan Voyager in December 1986 Taylor retired at the rank of lieutenant colonel from the United States Air Force in 1962, having seen action during World War II in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater.