Sunday, June 16, 2019

Capt. Alcock, Lt. Brown First to Complete 1,800 Mile Flight From Newfoundland to Ireland, June 15, 1919

From The Daily Times, Wilson, N.C., Monday, June 16, 1919. If you'd like to read the details of this amazing flight, visit The Aviation History Online Museum at http://www.aviation-history.com/airmen/alcock.htm

Biplane Crosses Atlantic Ocean In 16 Hours and 12 Minutes. . . Makes Continuous Non-Stop Flight to Ireland

London, June 15—The final goal of all the ambitions which flying men have ventured to dream since the Wright Brothers first rose from the earth in a heavier-than-air machine, was realized yesterday morning when two young British officers, Captain John Alcock and Lieut. Arthur W. Brown, landed on the Irish coast after the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic ocean.

Their voyage was without accident and without unforeseen incident so far as can be learned. It was a straightaway clean cut flight achieved in 16 hours and 12 minutes, from New Foundland to Cliften, Ireland, a distance of more than 1,800 miles.

But the brief and modest description which comes from the airmen at Cliften tells of an adventurous and amazingly hazardous enterprise. Fog and mists hung over the North Atlantic, and the Vickers Vimy biplane climbed and dove, struggling to extricate herself from folds of the airplane’s worst enemy.

She rose to 11,000 feet, swooped down almost to the surface of the sea, and at times the two navigators found themselves flying upside down only 10 feet above the water.

Before coming to earth near the Clifden wireless station, Alcock circled the wireless aerials, seeking the best spot to reach the earth, but no suitable ground was found, so he chanced it in a bog.

The wireless staff rushed to the aid of the aviators. They found Brown dazed and Alcock temporarily deafened by the force of the impact. As soon as they were able to be escorted to the wireless station they telegraphed the news to their friends; then they had breakfast.

“That is the best way to cross the Atlantic,” said Lieut. Brown after he had eaten.

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