Alcock and Brown
British aviators
Alcock and Brown (Captain
John Alcock and Lieutenant
Arthur Whitten Brown) made the first nonstop flight across the
Atlantic Ocean in June 1919. One month earlier, the first flight across the Atlantic was made by the
NC-4, a
United States Navy flying boat; however, the flight took over 19 days, with multiple stops along the way.
They flew a modified
Vickers Vimy IV twin-engined bomber powered by two
Rolls-Royce Eagle engines, each of 360hp, taking off off from Lester's Field in
St. John's,
Newfoundland in the late afternoon of
June 14,
1919. The aircraft crash landed () in a bog near
Clifden in
Connemara,
Ireland, at 8:40am on
June 15,
1919, crossing the coast at 4.28pm. They flew 1890 miles (3040 km) in 15 hours 57 minutes, at an average speed of 118 mph (190 km/h).
John Alcock was born in 1892 at Seymour,
Old Trafford,
England. He first became interested in flying at the age of seventeen and became an experienced pilot during
World War I, though he was shot down during a bombing raid, and taken prisoner in
Turkey. After the war, Alcock wanted to continue his flying career and took up the challenge of attempting to be the first to fly directly across the Atlantic. Alcock was the pilot for the Atlantic flight.
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Alcock and Brown at Lester's Field in St. John's, Newfoundland, 1919. |
Arthur Whitten Brown was born in
Glasgow in 1886. He began his career in engineering before the outbreak of the First World War. Brown also became a prisoner of war, after being shot down over
Germany. Once released and back in Britain, Brown continued to develop his aerial navigation skills. While visiting the engineering firm of Vickers he was asked if he would be the navigator for the proposed transatlantic flight, partnering John Alcock, who had already been chosen as pilot.
In April 1913, the
Daily Mail offered a prize of £10,000 for the first flyers to cross the Atlantic non-stop.
The flight lasted 19 hours, at an average speed of 118 mph (190 km/h), the
altitude variying between sea level and 12,000 ft (3,700 m), 865 gallons (3,900 L - assuming imperial
gallons) of fuel were on board. The flight nearly ended in disaster several times owing to engine trouble, fog, snow and ice. It was only saved by Brown's continual climbing out on the wings to remove ice from the engine air intakes and by Alcock's excellent piloting despite extremely poor visibility at times and even snow filling the open cockpit. The aircraft was badly damaged upon arrival due to the attempt to land in what appeared from the air to be a suitable green field but which subsequently turned out to be a
bog, but neither of the airmen were hurt.
 |
Alcock and Brown takeoff from St. John's, Newfoundland in 1919. |
Alcock and Brown were treated as heroes on the completion of their flight. In addition to the Daily Mail award of £10,000, the crew received 2,000
guineas from the
Ardath Tobacco Company and £1,000 from
Lawrence R. Phillips for being the first British subjects to fly the
Atlantic Ocean. Both men were knighted. A memorial statue was erected at
London Heathrow Airport in 1954 to celebrate their flight. There is also a monument at
Manchester International Airport, less than 8 miles from John Alcock's birthplace. Three monuments mark their starting point and another marks their landing point. Their aircraft (rebuilt by the Vickers Company) can be seen in the
London Science Museum in South Kensington.
Alcock was killed on
December 18,
1919 whilst flying the new
Vickers Viking amphibian to the Paris airshow when its wing struck a tree at Cote d'Everard, near
Rouen,
Normandy after stalling in fog. Brown however lived until
October 4,
1948. He never flew again.
The achievement, much celebrated at the time, was later eclipsed in the mind of the
American public by
Charles A. Lindbergh's 1927 achievement, winning the
Orteig Prize, which was the first solo crossing, and also the first crossing from the American mainland to the European mainland. Even recently, the
X Prize organisation remembered Lindbergh's flight and omitted Alcock and Brown, announcing Lindbergh's flight as the first aviation crossing of the Atlantic, whereas, by the time Lindbergh actually did it, he was in fact the 66th. (The other 64 included 31 in the British airship, the
R34, and 33 from the German dirigible LZ-126, built as war reparation and re-christened the
U.S.S. Los Angeles, the crossing was its delivery flight, the NC4, and others.)
On
July 2-3
2005, American adventurer
Steve Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz recreated the flight in a replica of the Vickers Vimy aircraft. This time, they landed on the Clidfen golf-course rather than in a bog. However, true to tradition, they had to call on the services of a local motor mechanic to fabricate a replacement part from materials to hand.
One of the propellors from the Vickers Vimy is in use as a ceiling fan in Luigi Malone's Restaurant in Cork City, Ireland.
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Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 has a re-creation of the flight
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Timeline of aviation*
Alcock and Brown at 'Flights of Inspiration'*
Alcock and Brown's plane at the London Science Museum
