THE TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20318, 28 January 1928, Page 2

THE TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHTS

Since some confusion of thought seems to have arisen as regards the flights that have been made across the Atlantic Ocean, the following facts regarding such flights made prior to 1927 may be of timely interest (says the Christian Science Monitor) . The first actual transatlantic flight was made in May, 1919, when the American naval seaplane NC4, in charge of Lieutenant commander A. C. Read, flew in five hops from Rockaway Beach, L. 1., to Plymouth, England, under the auspices of the United States Government. This trip took from May 8 to May 27, the distance covered being 3936 nautical miles, and the flying time 52 hours and 31 minutes. This flight was arranged not as a venture of any kind, but by official order and under official endorsement, to be conducted in the safest possible manner. The first non-stop transatlantic flight was accomplished in a VickersVimy bomber by two British fliers, Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Brown, the distance of nearly 19000 miles from St. Johns, Newfoundland, to Clifden, on the west coast of Ireland, being covered in 16 hours and 12 minutes on June 14-15, 1919. The report of the cr .string of their machine on landing has been greatly exaggerated, the truth being that as Alcock neared the ground he saw. when it was too late to help himself, that the supposed field he was making for was really a bog. The instant the Vimv’s wheels hit the muck they ploughed into it to their hubs, pitching the nose of the machine deeply into the mire, and all but hurling the aviators out of the cockpit. In a few minutes, however, they had fully recovered. Some of the incidents connected with this flight recall vividly stories of more recent date. One reads, for instance, that while Alcock and his friends were being lavishly feted in London a sweet little woman in Manchester, whose eyes were unwontedlv brilliant, was besieged in her home by visitors. There were so many of them that they had to stand in line as she returned their greetings, and often she was hoard to say; “Thank you very kindly. I had faith in my son. John told me h would make that long trip safely, and he did! " Closely following this flight, i. July of the same year, came the trip of the British lighter-than-air machine, R-35. Under the command of Major G. H. Scott, this huge dirigible sailed from East Fortune, on the east coast of Scotland, to New York, between July 2 and 8, carrying six officers, 20 crew, and three passengers, and covering 3200 miles in 108 hours. This same balloon made the return trip a few days later, covering the distance in 64 hours and 13 minutes. Finally the monster Zeppelin, ZR-3, made the flight from Friedrichshafen, Germany, by way of (but not landing at) the Azores, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia, to Lakehurst, N.J., the distance being 5600 miles. This trip began on October 12, 1924, the time in the air being 81 hours and 17 minutes. It was this airship which the United States Government later accepted and named the Los Angeles.