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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0805.PDF
JUNE 19, 1919 The President of the United States (Dr. Woodrow Wilson) PLEASE accept for yourself and Lieut. Brown my warmest congratulations on your splendid feat. The Lord Mayor of London (Sir Horace Marshall) THB following telegram has been sent to Capt. Alcock and Lieut. Brown by Gen. Sykes, Controller-General of Civil Aviation : "I have much pleasure in conveying to you the following message, which has been received from the Lord Mayor of London : ' Will you kindly convey to Capt. Alcock and Lieut. Brown the sincere congratulations of the City of London on their splendid achievement, which fills the citizens with pride and satisfaction.' " The Lord Mayor of Manchester— MANCHESTER is proud of the high and historic achieve ment of two of her sons. Col. Murray, United States Air Service As representative of the United States Army Air Service in Great Britain, I take great pleasure in extending to you and your splendid crew our heartiest congratulations on your brilliant achievement and the successful consummation of your great historical flight. Comdr. Towers HEARTIEST congratulations from N.C. aeroplane division. Mr. Claude Johnson, managing director of Rolls-Royce, Ltd., received the following telegram signed by Capt. Alcock and Lieut. Brown :— Congratulations on performance of the two " Eagle " Rolls-Royce engines, which propelled the Vickers " Vimy " safely across the Atlantic. In response to a telegram of congratulation to Capt. Alcock and Lieut. Whitten Brown from the editor of the Daily Mail, the following telegram was received from Galway : " Many thanks for your congratulations. Thanks to the Daily Mail, another milestone in aviation has been passed. Hope to reach London to-morrow (Tuesday) night. " ALCOCK AND BROWN." Viscount Northcliffe has sent the following letter to Capt. Alcock:— " My dear Alcock,— ." A very hearty welcome to the pioneer of direct Atlantic flight. Your journey with your brave companion, Whitten Brown, is a typical exhibition of British courage and organising efficiency. " Just as in 1913, when I offered the prize, I felt that it would soon be won, so do I surely believe that your won derful journey is a warning to cable monopolists and others to realise that within the next few years we shall be less dependent upon them unless they increase their wires and speed up. Your voyage was made more quickly than the average Press message of 1919. Moreover, I look forward with certainty to the time when London morning newspapers will be selling in New York in the evening, allowing for the difference between British and American time, and vice versa in regard to New York evening journals reaching London next day. Then we shall no longer suffer from the danger of garbled quotations due to telegraphic compression. Then, too, the American and British peoples will understand each other better as they are brought into closer daily touch. " Illness prevents me from shaking you by the hand and personally presenting the prize. But I can assure you that your welcome will be equal to that of Hawker and his gallant American compeer, Read, whose great accomplishment has given us such valuable data for future Atlantic work. '' I rejoice at the good augury that you departed from and arrived at those two portions of the British Cemmonwealth, the happy and prosperous Dominion of Newfoundland and the future equally happy and prosperous Dominion of Ireland." ITEMS CAPI. ALCOCK brought the mail bag with him to London. At the Royal Aero Club he handed it to a representative of the Daily Mail, who took it to the G.P.O. The letters were delivered in London about 9 p.m. on Tuesday. A RESOLUTION was on Tuesday introduced in the House of resentatives by Mr. La Guardia authorising President llson to confer the Congressional Medal of Honour upon Capt. Alcock and Lieut. Brown, and expressing the admira tion of Congress for their daring feat in flying across the Atlantic. CAPT. ALCOCK and Lieut. Brown will be the principal guests at a luncheon to be given by the Daily Mail at the Savoy ffi'gg) Hotel at 1 o'clock on Friday, when the £10,000 prize cheque will be presented. THE Royal Aero Club will entertain Capt. Alcock and Lieut. Whitten Brown at a banquet at the Savoy Hotel on Monday. Members who wish to be present should apply as early as possible to the Royal Aero Club, Clifford Street, W. 1, for tickets. • A Los ANGELES telegram states that Mr. Thomas Ince, the picture producer, has telegraphed to Capt. Alcock offering $50,000 (£10,000) for a trans-Pacific flight, and has made a similar offer to Mr. Raynham. AT Rugby the train was met by two Grahame-White machines flown by Major R. H. Carr and Capt. Chamberlayne, and they escorted it to Euston. They then carried out a programme of interesting evolutions. THE Rolls-Royce factory at Derby was closed on June 16, n recognition of the part which the workers took in making the engines of the Vimy. THE Vickers employees at Brooklands also enjoyed a holiday. THE successful crossing of the Atlantic provided a crowning achievement for Rolls-Royce engines. In this connection it may be noted that on November 11, 1918, when Armistice was declared, there were in possession of the Royal Air Force Rolls-Royce Aero engines, of a total horse-power of over 1,000,000-h.p., which far exceeded that of any other make of Aero engine in use. WITHOUT detracting in any way from the wonderful perfor mance of the Rolls-Royce engines, a word of praise may be accorded to the Claudel-Hobson carburettors which played their parts without a falter throughout the 16 trying hours. They thus added one more to the sheaf of laurels which they have won during the past few years. SIMILARLY it is but just that mention should be made of the fact that the Rolls-Royce engines were lubricated with Wakefield Castrol " R." The crossing emphasised the great efficiency of this lubricant when working in low temperatures as at times various'parts of the machine were almost covered with ice. THE propellers for the machine were made by Messrs. Lang Propeller, Ltd., of Weybridge, who are delighted to have been associated with such an historic achievement. To old readers of FLIGHT the name ofTCapt. J. Alcock, D.S.C., will be familiar. He first saw the light in Manchester in 1892, and was a born mechanic. After leaving school he spent a short period in a motor works near his home and then came to Brooklands. There he was taught to fly a Farman biplane by Mr. Maurice Ducrocq, and after taking his certi ficate as a pilot in 1912 he was flying a Sunbeam-engined Maurice Farman on which he made some lengthy—for those days—cross-country trips. He secured third place in the London-Manchester race of 1914. On the outbreak of war he joined the R.N.A.S., put in a long spell of instructing at Eastchurch, won a commission, and eventually found himself in the Eastern Mediterranean, engaged on bombing the Goeben, Constantinople, etc., deeds which were recognised by the D.S.C. It was while engaged on one of these bombing trips that his'machine fell into the sea, leading to his capture by the Turks, and the suspension of his] flying career until the Armistice released him. Then he got into touch with" the aviation;department of Messrs. Vickers, and when an entry was made for the Daily Mail prize hejwas selected as the pilot of the Vimy. The name ofJXieut. A.|Whitten~ Brown is also known to FLIGHT readers.who will remember that he recently set forth in these pages some of his ideas on navigation which have now been so excellently proved in practice. He was born in Glasgow in 1886, his parents being American citizens. An engineer by profession, he received his practical training with the British Westinghouse Co., now allied with the Vickers group, and becoming interested in flying studied aerial naviga tion as applied to surveying. He enlisted in the University and Public Schools Corps in 1914, later receiving a commission in the Manchester Regiment, with which he served in France in 1915. Later he transferred to the R.F.C. as observer, and was wounded and taken prisoner. He was interned in Switzerland and repatriated in 1917. After his return to England he spent some time instructing and was then engaged in the engine section of the Aircraft Production Department. He has done quite a deal of flying at home stations. 805
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