Around the World in 20 Days was an informal race around the world held in autumn of 1936. The competition started on September 30 in New York City and the participants were allowed using only commercial airline flights and other means of transportation available to the general public. The competition finished on October 19 as the winner arrived back to New York City after merely 18 ½ days.

The contest was to show that travel by air no longer was exclusive, time consuming and expensive but was accessible and affordable to the broader public. Earlier around the world trips such as the fictive journey in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days published in 1873 and Nellie Bly's actual 1889 journey later described in Around the World in Seventy-Two Days published in 1890 were made before the introduction of aircraft.

The timing of the race was handled by the National Aeronautic Association and the race started on the evening of September 30.

All participants were working as journalists at daily newspapers in New York.

During the race all three participants sent daily posts by telegram about the journey to their respective newspapers for further spreading. Kilgallen's participation was noticed especially being the sole female.

The race started on September 30, Kieran went to Newark Airport to take an "American Airlines" flight to Lakehurst in New Jersey. There all three participants joined on the "Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei" rigid airship LZ 129 Hindenburg for the flight to Flug- und Luftschiffhafen Rhein-Main in Frankfurt, Germany. The journey across the Atlantic Ocean took 58 hours and the Hindenburg landed on October 3, but being 4 hours delayed) the participants all missed their planned connections jeopardizing the crucial connection at Manila for the journey across the Pacific Ocean. Ekins now chose a flight to Vienna, Kieran decided on a flight to Basel and Kilgallen boarded a flight to Munich.

Ekins, now choosing a different route to reach Manila, took a "Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij" DC-2 flight via Vienna to Athens, Greece, there transferring on to a flight via Alexandria and Gaza to Baghdad, Iraq where he stayed overnight. From Baghdad he continued across the Indian subcontinent (stop-over overnight Jodhpur) and Southeast Asia (stop-over overnight Rangoon) until arriving at Batavia, Dutch East Indies. During this leg of the race some parts of the route were piloted by aviation pioneer Jan Hondong. At Batavia Ekins now switched to the "Koninklijke Nederlandsch-Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappij" flight to Manila via Balikpapan, Indonesia and Zamboanga finally arriving in Manila, Philippines on October 10.

Kieran and Kilgallen rejoined in Brindisi, Italy after using various means of transport (airplane, train and automobile). Kieran and Kilgallen now boarded a flight to Athens where they switched to an "Imperial Airways" flight across the Near East (with stop-overs in Rutbah Wells, Basra and Baghdad, Iraq) and across the British Raj (stop-overs Karachi, Jodhpur, Delhi, Calcutta and Rangoon) to Bangkok (at the time Siam). On arrival in Bangkok Kilgallen split from Kieran choosing a different route to reach Hong Kong. On arrival in Hong Kong Kieran and Kilgallen obtained information that Ekins had left Manila already on October 14 on an irregular "Pan American" Martin M-130 testflight carrying no passengers, the "Hawaii Clipper", by pretending to be part of the crew (even so the route being the same they considered this a violation of the rules). Kieran and Kilgallen left Hongkong on the "Dollar Steamship Line" steamship SS President Pierce for Manila. Their flight across the Pacific Ocean was scheduled first on October 17.