Flight International – 11 June 2019

76 | Flight International | 11-17 June 2019 flightglobal.com

PARIS

Special report

I

t was by all accounts, “a terrible journey”.

So said Captain John Alcock after the

world’s first nonstop transatlantic flight,

which he completed a century ago this

month with navigator Lieutenant Arthur

Whitten Brown.

“The wonder is we are here at all. We

scarcely saw the sun or the moon or the stars.

For hours we saw none of them. The fog was

very dense and at times we had to descend to

within 300ft of the sea,” Alcock continued.

“The flight has shown that the Atlantic

flight is practicable, but I think it should be

done not with an aeroplane or seaplane, but

with a flying-boat. We had plenty of reserve

fuel left, using only two-thirds of our supply.”

That historic crossing by a twin-engined

“Vickers Vimy-Rolls” was flown on 14-15 June

1919 between St John’s, Newfoundland and

Clifden in the west of Ireland, in response to a

challenge laid down by the Daily Mail and

others. The prize was £10,000 from the Daily

Mail, as well as “2,000 guineas” from the Ar-

dath Tobacco Company and £1,000 from Law-

rence R Phillips, for “the first British subject to

fly the Atlantic”.

More than 1,200 airliners now make “the

water jump” across the Atlantic each day, but

100 years ago Flight was in no doubt as to the

importance of that accomplishment by Alcock

and Brown, opening its 19 June 1919 issue as

follows: “By their successful crossing of the

wild Atlantic, Captain Alcock and Lieutenant

Brown have achieved a performance which

will remain a landmark in history throughout

the ages, and have placed to the credit of Brit-

ain and her sons a record second to none in the

story of achievement by land, sea and air.”

RELATED IN DETAIL

Flight provided in-depth coverage of the ad-

venture in that 19 June edition, describing the

whole flight in full detail along with quotes

from pilot Captain Alcock.

Flight wrote: “The news that the machine

had definitely started on its voyage came in the

MAX KINGSLEY-JONES LONDON

To mark 100 years since Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown’s first

transatlantic flight, we look through the archive at how Flight covered their historic crossing

Jumping the water

Flight provided in-depth coverage of the

momentous journey in 19 June 1919 issue

form of the following message from Lieutenant

Clements, RAF, the official starter at New-

foundland: ‘Captain Alcock and Lieutenant

Brown left St. John’s, Newfoundland, in a

Vickers Vimy machine on a flight to England

today, 14 June, at 4.13pm (GMT).’

“Then followed a silence of a little over 16

hours, ending by the following message from

Captain Alcock and Lieutenant Brown to the

Royal Aero Club, sent off from the wireless sta-

tion at Clifden: ‘Landed Clifden, Ireland, at

8.40am (GMT), 15 June; Vickers Vimy Atlantic

machine, leaving Newfoundland coast 4.28pm

(GMT), 14 June. Total time: 16 hours, 12 min-

utes. Instructions awaited’.”

Flight reported that for most of the flight of

1,950 miles, the Vimy averaged an altitude of

4,000ft. “But at one time – about 6am – in an

endeavour to get above the clouds and fog, it

went up to 11,000ft. Lieutenant Brown was

only able to take three readings for position;