Donald Taylor (aviator)
Donald P. Taylor (October 1, 1918 – December 2, 2015) was an American aviator, notable for being in the late summer and early fall of 1976 the first person in history to successfully fly a homebuilt aircraft around the world. From an early age, he'd resolved "I will build an airplane, and I will fly it round-the-world." 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. Taylor, who lived at the time in California, returned to his starting point of Oshkosh, Wisconsin a hero two months to the day after the 1976-08-01 start of his eastbound journey. The planning of this circumnavigation was especially complicated considering that both the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were closed to U.S. general aviators at the time.
Order of Magellan
The Order of Magellan is an honor bestowed on distinguished individuals who have circumnavigated the earth and who, to the course of their career, have contributed to the world of science or the environment or future progress through peace and understanding. 
Among the pantheon of winners of this award are Douglas MacArthur, philanthropist and mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, ethnographer and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl, Dr. William Walsh, who started Project Hope, oceanographer and underwater archaeologist Dr. Robert Ballard, oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and astronaut and United States Senator John Glenn. The Magellan Award is the highest award bestowed by the Circumnavigators Club, founded in 1902. 
The honor is named after the Portuguese born explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, who is widely known as the first captain to sail around the world—though he didn't complete the circumnavigation as he died during the voyage in the Philippines, that being the Spanish navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano, who took over command of the expedition after Magellan's death, and completed the trip.