FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0804.PDF
at the Club went to Olympia to witness the great boxing match. The following is the story of the crossing as given to the Daily Mail by Capt. Alcock :— " WE have had a terrible journey. 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 300 ft. of the sea. For four hours the machine was covered in a sheet of ice carried by frozen sleet; at another time the fog was so dense that my speed indicator did not work, and for a few seconds it was very alarming. We looped the loop, I do believe, and did a very steep spiral. We did some very comic ' stunts," for 1 have had no sense of horizon. The winds were favourable all the way : north-west and at times south-west. We said in Newfoundland we would do the trip in 6 hours, but we never thought we should. An hour and a half before we saw land we had no certain idea where we were, but we believed we were at Galway or thereabouts. Our delight in seeing Eashal Island and Turbot Island (5 miles west of Clifden) was great. People did not know who we were when we landed, and thought we were scouts on the look-out for the ' Vimy.' We encountered no unforeseen conditions. We did not suffer from cold or exhaustion except whe looking over the side ; then the sleet chewed bits out of our faces. We drank coffee and ale and ate sandwiches and chocolate. The flight has shown that the Atlantic flight is practicable, but I think it should be done not with an aeroplane or sea plane, but with a flying-boat. We had plenty of reserve fuel left, using only two-thirds of our supply. The only thing that upset me was to see the machine at the end get damaged. From above, the bog looked like a lovely field, but the machine sank into it up to the axle and fell over on to her nose." It certainly was unfortunate that what looked like a good meadow from above should have turned out to be a bog. Not only did the " Vimy " bury her nose in it but a R.A.F. machine which flew over from Oranmore to render assistance also came to grief. Later advices indicate that the Vickers machine is not so seriously injured as was at first supposed. Although Capt. Alcock arrived in Ireland before anxiety had had time to develop some mystification was caused by the absence of any wireless messages. It appears, however, that the little airscrew driving the wireless generator blew off five minutes after leaving St. John's. During the greater part of the flight of 1,950 miles the machine was at an average altitude of 4,000 ft. but at one time—about 6 a.m.—in an endeavour to get above the clouds and fog, it went up to 11,000 ft. Lieut. Brown was only able to take three readings for position, one from the sun, one from the moon and one from the Pole Star and Vega. On passing Signal Hill, Lieut. Brown set out a course for the ocean on 124 deg. compass course and at 3 a.m. from an observation on Polaris and Vega he found he was about 2 deg. south. He then set a course of no deg. Between 4 and 5 a.m. the machine ran into a very thick fog bank, and the air speed indicator jammed, through sleet freezing on it, at 90 m.p.h. It was then that Capt. Alcock thinks the machine looped, at any rate it went into a steep spiral which only ended with the machine practically on its back about 50 ft. from the water. The machine was covered with ice, and it continually became necessary to chip ice off the instruments, etc. / Capt. Alcock says that he nursed the engines all the way, and had one-third of his petrol supply left when he landed One of the exhaust pipes blew off, but otherwise there was no trouble from the engine installation. Apparently the start from St. John's provided an anxious time for the onlookers. The machine had a hard job to get away with her heavy load. The aerodrome level was only 500 yards long, but the machine took off at 300 yards, and just managed to clear the trees and houses. However she climbed steadily if very slowly, and when she passed over the harbour at St. John's had reached a height of 1,000 ft. CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES From H.M. the King THE King was delighted to receive the welcome an nouncement that Capt. Alcock and Lieut. Brown have safely landed in Ireland after their Transatlantic flight. His Majesty wishes you to communicate at once with these officers, and to convey to them the King's warmest con gratulations on the success of their splendid achievement.— STAMFORDHAM. JUNE 19, 1919 Maj.-Gen. J. E. B. Seely.^Under-Secretary of State for Air WARMEST congratulations on your wonderful achieve ment in accomplishing the first direct flight across the Atlantic, t is a splendid feat. Maj.-Gen. Sir Hugh Trenchard, Chief of the Air Staff THE Air Council and members of the Air Force send their heartiest congratulations to you and your colleague on your successful flight across the Atlantic. THE VICKERS •* VIMY-ROLLS."—Plan, sidejand front elevations to scale Maj.-Gen. Sir F. H. Sykes, Controller of Civil Aviation MOST sincere congratulations on splendid success on first direct flight. It is a great triumph. The Prime Minister (Mr. D. Lloyd George) HEARTIEST congratulations to you and Lieut. Brown on your audacious and successful flight. It is a splendid achieve ment. I am especially delighted that two British officers who fought in the War should have been the first to link Europe and America in a single non-stop flight. 804
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
