This June sees the 100th anniversary of the first flights across the Atlantic in which Alcock & Brown became the first aviators to make a continuous flight from North America to Ireland. BILL READ FRAeS looks at archives from the National Aerospace Library to see how the press covered the dramatic events of the spring of 1919.

Daily Mail prize

On 15 June 1919 a telegram arrived at the Royal Aero Club with the message: ‘Landed Clifden, Ireland, at 8.40 am Greenwich mean time, June 15, Vickers Vimy Atlantic machine leaving Newfoundland coast 4.28 pm GMT, June 14, Total time 16 hours 12 minutes. Instructions awaited.’ The message was from pilots John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown announcing to the world that, for the first time, an aircraft had flown non-stop across the Atlantic.

The epic flight of Alcock and Brown in their converted Vickers Vimy bomber is now an established date of history but at the time their success was by no means expected. An examination of the newspaper archives kept at the RAeS National Aerospace Library showed that Alcock and Brown were not the initial favourites to win the transatlantic race, nor were they the only fliers to cross the Atlantic in 1919. Nor was this the only epic long-distance flight to be made that year by a Vickers Vimy.

The story behind the race began on 1 April 1913 where Lord Northcliffe, owner of the Daily Mail newspaper, offered a prize of £10,000 for the first non-stop flight over the Atlantic by a heavier-than-air aircraft. The advent of WW1 the following year put any attempt at competing for the prize on hold but, with the conclusion of the Great War in November 1918, Lord Northcliffe repeated his Daily Mail challenge.

A map illustrating the three alternative routes of across the Atlantic that the flyers were expected to follow. (Aeronautics/NAL)

To be eligible for the prize, competitors would have to comply with three basic conditions:

(i) The flight had to be between any point in Great Britain and any point in Canada, Newfoundland or the United States

(ii) The flight had to be non-stop.

(iii) The flight had to be completed within 72 hours.

As the world enjoyed its first year of peace in 1919, the aviation press turned its attention away from conflict and towards the peacetime potential of aviation. While the idea of flying the Atlantic in a fixed-wing aircraft had seemed like an impossible dream in 1913, aircraft technology and design had now made considerable progress and the accomplishment of such a long-distance flight now seemed to be within reach. Wartime aircraft manufacturers were keen to enter teams to prove the adaptability of their machines to peacetime applications.

The first entry to the competition was made in November 1918 by Cpt Arthur Payne and Austin Hurson with a four-engine Whitehead biplane who planned to fly east-west from Feltham to Newfoundland with a stop at Galway. As the early months of 1919 progressed, there was increasing coverage in the press of the forthcoming race and the pilots and aircraft that would be competing. Among the entries reported were a ‘large seaplane’ to be flown from Newark, NJ by Swedish airman Cp Hugo Sundstedt, a Martinsyde Raynor, a Handley Page, an Italian Caproni and an entry by the US Navy using Curtiss flying boats.

Pic – An artist’s impression of four of the potential contenders for the transatlantic race – not all of which actually ending up competing. On the top left is the Boulton & Paul biplane, the Martinsyde (top right), the Sopwith (lower left) and the front of the Handley Page (lower right). (The Weekly Dispatch/NAL)

On 8 April, The Daily News listed seven entrants for the Transatlantic Flight – Martinsyde (Raynham), Fairey (Pickles), Short (Wood), Sopwith (Hawker), Whitehead (Payne), ‘seaplane’ (Sundstedt) plus the US Navy flying boats. “Mr Sidney Pickles, a Yorkshireman, is one of the entrants and county pride prompts the hope that he may win,” confided The Yorkshire Observer on 14 April.

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Major Wood’s Short biplane was to have attempted the crossing from east to west. (Daily Sketch/NAL)

Not all the competitors made it as far as the starting line. Sundstedt’s seaplane had crashed while the Daily Mail reported a ‘regrettable mishap’ in which Major Woods’ Short Shirl single-engined biplane Shamrock had crashed into the sea on 18 April after its engine failed on its way to Ireland to begin an east to west flight attempt. Another aircraft tipped to be a possible contender was the new Tarrant triplane flying boat which was completing construction. However, the prospects for the Tarrant project were soon ended as the papers reported at the end of May that the giant triplane after crashed during its first take-off, killing Tarrant Aircraft Construction Company MD Capt Rawlings and injuring several others.

There were rumours of more contenders. In May the Fiat Company of Turin were reported to be preparing a machine for an Italian attempt using a single-engine biplane built with an all-metal fuselage divided into watertight compartments so that the aircraft could float in the event of a forced landing. Even as late as June, Flight featured a picture of a second Boulton and Paul-Napier machine being assembled for a transatlantic attempt (the original contender had crashed on a test flight).

How an Atlantic aeroplane is equipped. (Daily Mail/NAL)

As the race hotted up, there was lively debate over the relative merits of the three main types of aircraft that could be utilised for future transatlantic flights – fixed-wing, seaplanes and airships. “The flying boat has the advantage that it could come down on the water and refuel,” commented The Daily Telegraph on 25 March.

The Times was of the opinion that it would be better for all the nations involved to co-operate rather than compete, saying on 26 March that: “The ideal would be that all the nations which are endeavouring to cross the Atlantic should pool their resources. This would make for the establishment of a regular service in the shortest space of time.” “There will be competition in the air but we now know this will be competition without bitterness and for the benefit of both,” stated Maj Gen J B Seeley in The Times on 4 July. “The achievements of the last four weeks are a foretaste of what is to come – conquest of the air means the eternal union of Britain and America.”

The Pall Mall Gazette was more cautious and began to wonder if crossing the Atlantic was a step too far. “I am of the opinion that the modern aeroplane is not yet fit for making the Atlantic crossing with a reasonable margin of safety.” Other papers admonished the Daily Mail for promoting a competition which endangered the lives of those who chose to take part in it.

There was much discussion about weather conditions, navigation challenges and the stresses on pilots of long-distance flying. The Daily Mail calculated that different wind and weather conditions could make a 100mph aeroplane flying from west to east take between 20-24 hours or between 29-47.5 hours from east to west.

Pilots attempting the Atlantic crossing would have to have special qualities. “Whoever wins this straight Atlantic race will do it largely by flying will,” Mr Perrin of the Royal Aero Club is quoted as saying, “It is not handling the machine; not physical endurance – good circulation, powers to withstand extremes of temperature and so forth – so much as will power.”

The US goes first

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Curtiss NC-4 flying boat. (Wikipedia)

In May, the race began in earnest. First off the mark was a US Navy team led by Albert Cushing Read which flew three Curtiss Aeroplane flying boats from Naval Air Station Rockaway in New York on 8 May, firstly up to Newfoundland and then across the Atlantic to Lisbon via the Azores. For the Atlantic crossing, which took 15h 18m from 16-17 May, the aircraft were guided on their way by 22 US Navy ships stationed at 50-mile intervals which were illuminated to act as waypoints. Two of the flying boats failed to complete the journey and had to ditch into the sea but the fourth, NC-4, successfully arrived in Portugal from where it flew on to Spain and then to Plymouth where the crew received a tumultuous welcome on 31 May. Although the US pilots had completed the world’s first transatlantic flight, it had taken a total of 23 days with six stops and did not qualify (nor was not entered) for the Daily Mail prize.

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Cmr Read and crew of NC-4 are welcomed to England at Plymouth. (Illustrated London News/NAL)

Following the success of the US crossing, the French paper Excelsior carried a comment on from Louis Bleriot who had flown the Channel only ten year’s previously on 25 July 1909. “It is multiple motors of high power which have permitted these daring pilots to risk the Atlantic passage,” he said, adding the patriotic comment that: “Though the great merit of having crossed the Atlantic belongs to the Americans, one must remember, while expressing our admiration for them, that French airmen have had the largest share in perfecting flying machines.”

The US transatlantic flight even inspired bad poetry. The New York Times published a composition by Isabel Fiske Conant entitled The Transatlantic Flight which began with immortal lines:

‘Unto the ‘wakened Element, its lover,

The Aeroplane, flying over!

Midocean hears those wings –

The high adventurings

Of man’s soul, so desiring

The upper skies – so long aspiring!’

The Hawker attempt

Hawker’s single-engine Sopwith Atlantic prepares for take-off. (NAL)

While the US Navy flight was in progress, four other teams were in Newfoundland preparing to make the attempt at a continuous Atlantic crossing - Harry Hawker and Kenneth Mackenzie-Grieve in a single engine Sopwith Atlantic; Frederick Raynham and C. W. F. Morgan in a single-engined Martinsyde Raymor; a team led by Mark Kerr in a four-engined Handley Page V/1500 bomber Atlantic; and John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown flying a two-engined Vickers F.B.27A Vimy bomber with bomb racks replaced with extra fuel tanks.

On 18 May, while Alcock and Brown were still waiting for the crated sections of the Vimy to arrive to be reassembled, the Sopwith and Martinsyde teams were ready to set off. However, the Martinsyde Raymor piloted by Raynham and Morgan did not manage to get into the air as it bounced on uneven ground on take-off and nose-dived into the ground after only travelling 300yards. “Well, that’s the end of a perfect day,” said Raynham to a reporter.

Headlines at the height of the Atlantic race. (NAL)

However, Hawker’s aircraft (which took off first) did make it into the air. “Tell Raynham I’ll greet him at Brooklands,” Hawker is reported as saying before take-off. “The great problem is to find Ireland but I have every confidence in Grieve.” Many papers carried descriptions of Hawker and Grieve’s Sopwith Atlantic Eagle. Fitted with a single Rolls-Royce Eagle Mark VIII engine capable of 100-10mph, it was hoped that the 1,800mile flight to Ireland (and then to Brooklands) would be completed in around 25 hours. The Daily Mail described such details as to how the two aviators would take their meals from boxes prepared in London containing sustaining and easily digestible food. ‘The two men sit side by side but conversation is next to impossible owing to the noise of the Rolls-Royce but doubtless they will hold many conversations ‘of a sort’.’

However, as the hours went by and there was no news of how the flight was progressing, the initial excitement and anticipation began to give way to concern. Although the aircraft was fitted with a radio capable of transmitting to nearby ships, no messages had been received. ‘If forced into the sea Mr Hawker and Commander Grieve can have very little hope of rescue,’ observed the Daily Mail pessimistically. ‘Suspense – No news of Hawker’, said an unidentified newspaper clipping, which then went on somewhat alarmingly to compare Hawker’s decision to set off in unfavourable weather with ‘the same temper which led Captain Scott to press on at any risk to South Pole’.

There were also complaints that the British Atlantic flyers were not receiving the same support from the Royal Navy as their US counterparts. “While 60 American warships were told to patrol the American route, Mr Hawker was left to himself,” complained an article.

‘Mr Hawker suffers from this handicap, that he has no help from the British Government other than the supply of daily weather reports.’

However, on Sunday 25 May came welcome news. ‘Hawker saved. Rescued by Danish steamer’, wrote the Sunday Evening Telegraph which also included descriptions of ‘remarkable scenes’ in London with papers being snatched from newsboys.

The Daily Mail gave extensive details of the ditching and subsequent rescue. ‘Struggle against boiling radiator, Nose dive to clear the filter, 21/2 hours’ hunt for a ship’. It transpired that the radio fitted in the aircraft had failed early in the flight which is why no messages had been sent. The aircraft had then run into bad weather with low cloud and heavy rain. After covering 1,250 of the 2,000mile flight Hawker’s aircraft had been forced down on 19 May due to a ‘stoppage of circulation in the waterpipe between the radiator and the waterpump’. Flying too high made the water boil while the only way to clear the filter was to point the nose of the aircraft down which meant that the Sopwith got closer and closer to the sea. Hawker realised that they now did not have enough fuel left to complete the flight, so the crew decided to divert from their course towards more southerly shipping routes to try and find a passing ship. Fortunately, the pilots were able to spot the Danish freighter Mary and were both rescued. The Mary was not fitted with a radio and it was not until the ship reached the Hebrides that it had been possible to tell tell the world that the two flyers were safe.

In a subsequent statement to the press, Hawker was quick to attach no blame to the aircraft’s Rolls-Royce engine. “It was no fault of the motor,” he said. “The motor ran absolutely perfectly from start to finish, even when all the water had boiled away.”

Read and Hawker shake hands. (Flying/NAL)

On arrival in England the two flyers were given another tumultuous welcome. The team from the NC-4 were also in England and several papers feature a photo of Read and Hawker shaking hands. “There is not much glitter about the practical American effort as the sporting British effort,” commented Flying on 4 June. “The splendid failure of Hawker and Grieve obscures the non-sensational effort of the American Navy."

The wreckage of Hawker’s crashed aircraft was rescued from the Atlantic and put on display on the roof of Selfridge’s department store in London. (Illustrated London News/NAL)

Later on came the news that the wreckage of Hawker’s aircraft had been discovered on 23 May still floating in the Atlantic and was recovered by the US steamer Lake Charlotteville. The wreckage was brought to England and subsequently displayed for public inspection on the roof of Selfridges department store.

Despite the fact that they had not succeeded, the Daily Mail awarded Hawker and Grieves half the prize money as a consolation prize. “The Daily Mail gave Hawker and Grieve £5,000 for their plucky flight. We understand that at Perth Station an elderly Scotsman gave them – his kind regards,” joked Aircraft.

Alcock & Brown flight

Alcock and Brown’s Vimy takes off at the beginning of its record-breaking flight. (NAL)

With the Daily Mail prize still unclaimed, there was still time for Alcock and Brown to make their attempt at the non-stop Atlantic crossing. On 14 June, the Vickers Vimy was assembled and ready to start. The aircraft took off at 5.13 pm and headed east across the Atlantic. The Vimy was also fitted with a radio but this too failed after only sending one message and there was nothing the press could do but wait until more news came. On 15 June came the telegram quoted at the beginning of this article with the news that the Vimy had landed in Ireland, having completed the 1,860mile flight in 15 hours 57 minutes.

Surprisingly, the news of Alcock and Brown’s success was not initially greeted with jubilation but with demands for confirmation. ‘After the experience of Hawker’s attempt the question often asked was “Is it true?”’ said a press report. However, once the news of the landing had been confirmed from Ireland, the news was ‘received with great enthusiasm and satisfaction’. A member of the Aero Club was quoted as saying: “Well, it must be something for a man in Ireland today to be able to say “Yesterday, when I was in America”” – a quote that was later attributed to have come from the pilots themselves.

The papers were soon reporting on the rigours of the flight in more detail. “We had a terrible journey,” Alcock was reported as saying. “The wonder is we are here at all. We scarcely saw the sun or the moon or the stars. The fog was very dense and at times we to descend to within 300 feet of the sea. For four hours the machine was covered in a sheet of ice caused by frozen sleet; at another time the sleet was so dense that the speed indicator did not work. We looped the loop, I do believe, and did a very steep spiral. We did some very comic stunts for I have had no sense of horizon.”

Another wireless press message remarked somewhat dryly that: ‘Captain Alcock never moved from his pilot’s seat during the whole course of the flight and long after landing felt stiff as a result of the close confinement. Lt Brown on the other hand appeared comparatively fresh, probably as a result of his perilous exercise in crawling along the machine to scrape the ice from the petrol gauge.’

Pic – The Vickers Vimy nose down in a bog at Clifden on the west coast of Ireland. ‘The machine will be unable to rise again, as the ground is unsuitable,’ said a telegram to the press.

More details began to come through. ‘The landing was effected without injury to the machine,’ said a telegramme to the press - which failed to include the detail that the Vickers Vimy was now standing on its nose in an Irish peatbog. The telegramme instead continued: ‘The occupants were so tired out and saturated with rain that, though having a sufficient supply of petrol, they chose not to go on to Brooklands.’

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A motorcade with Alcock and Brown approaches the Royal Aero Club. (Flight)

News of the successful flight was greeted with enthusiasm around the world with Alcock and Brown being sent messages from both King George V and US President Woodrow Wilson. Both Alcock and Brown were knighted by George V. The French journal L’Auto remarked somewhat dryly that: ‘England has the delight of seeing a prize offered by an English newspaper won by an English team in an English aeroplane driven by an English motor.'

The enthusiastic welcome which greeted Alcock and Brown on their arrival in London was reported on at length in the press with vivid descriptions of the police struggling to hold back crowds who climbed aboard the car that was taken them from Euston Station to the Royal Aero Club in Clifford Street. The two airmen were also feted at a number of other functions, including a heavyweight boxing match in Olympia. Brown also attended a civic reception in Ealing (where his fiancée lived) where he gave a speech out of a window: “People of Ealing,” he said. “I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this overwhelming reception. One can only reply in the words of Wilbur Wright when he was called upon to make a speech after his first flight in France. ‘You call us birdmen. The only bird that talks is the parrot and that cannot fly.”

Signed photos of Alcock & Brown on display at the RAeS National Aerospace Library.

Sadly, Alcock did not have long to enjoy his success. The papers later carried reports of how he was killed when his Vickers Viking hydroplane crashed in thick fog over France on 18 Dec 1919 on his way to the Sixth International Aeroplane Exhibition in Paris.

The fourth competitor

The Handley Page V/1500. (NAL)

Meanwhile, back in Newfoundland, the Handley Page team did not attempt the Atlantic crossing but later made history in a different way when the V/1500 delivered the first air mail from Canada to the USA on 9 October 1919.

R34 flight

The R34 was the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic from east to west. (NAL)

More Atlantic flights were to follow – this time by airship. On 2 July the 634ft long R34 airship set off from RAF East Fortune in Scotland to cross the Atlantic not only for the first time from east to west but also back again. It was not the first lighter-than-air attempt to make the Atlantic crossing, as there had been a previous west-to-east attempt as early as 1910 by the airship America which had come down in the sea and the crew rescued by ship.

The R34 also carried a radio and was able to report on its progress. There was a brief alarm during the voyage when reports came that the R34 ‘had been in distress’ after running low on fuel due to adverse winds and had requested assistance from US Navy destroyers. However, their assistance was not required and the airship arrived successfully at Montank Point in Novia Scotia to refuel. “We are sticking it,” the Sunday Evening Telegram reported a message sent from the airship. On 5 July, The Times reported that the R34 had made landfall and was on its way to New York where it arrived at Mineola on Long Island on 5 July after a journey covering 3,000miles in four and a half days. The crew expressed the regret that foggy conditions had made it impossible for the airship to arrive in time for Independence Day on 4 July. More history was made when Major Pritchard became the first visitor to arrive in the US by air when he parachuted out of the R-34 from 2,000ft to supervise the landing arrangements.

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The R34 officers in the USA. (NAL)

The flight of the R34 was much reported in the press. The Times reported that: ‘No one would have thought, looking at the group of well-groomed men in the smartest of blue uniforms which bore not a crease or a stain that they had finished such a journey. Their off-hand manner of talking of their experiences is the greatest surprise in the world. Major Pritchard’s remark “I can’t see what all the howl is about” – is regarded as a classic utterance and will be featured in all the New York papers.’

The papers also reported that, during the flight over the Atlantic, the crew discovered that they had a stowaway on board the airship – a ‘youth named William Ballantine’ who was a rigger member of the crew but who had not been selected for the flight. After landing in America, Major Scott commented: “When we discovered Ballantyne, of course we could not drop him overboard. He will not make the return trip but he left here and I expect in due course he will be Court Martialled though I don’t think he will be subjected to any very severe punishment.

Well aware that there’s nothing more the public loves than an animal story, the 1919 media were also able to report that, in addition to Ballantyne, the R34 had a second stowaway in the form of a tabby cat called Whoopsie. (“It is looking longingly at one of the emergency pigeons,” wrote engineering officer Lt Shotter in his diary) Later, when flying through fog over Novia Scotia, it was reported that ‘the cat suddenly arched her back, bristled and furiously lashed her tail’. The reason for this strange behaviour became apparent when, ‘through the roar of the engines, from the ground came the faint bark of a dog’.

After their arrival, it was reported that the crew of the R34 were able to ‘obtain some much needed sleep, while the officers went off to New York in motor-cars.’ Despite that fact that the USA was in the throes of prohibition, it was also reported that: ‘the officers were ‘not allowed to remain “dry”. Through the intervention of a lady they are provided at the hotel from her stock with welcome supplies of Scotch and soda.’

Map of the R34’s routes across the Atlantic. (The Times/NAL)

At 11.55pm on 9 July, the R34 set off from New York on her return trip, arriving at Pullham in Norfolk 73hr 3m later on 11 July. Interestingly, her cargo included two gold medals awarded to Alcock and Brown by the Aero Club of America.

Commercial aerospace companies were quick to seize the publicity opportunities from both the Vimy and the R34 Atlantic flights, as illustrated in this Castrol advert. (Aircraft/NAL)

Despite the success of the R34’s flight, there appeared to be less public enthusiasm in Britain for its record-breaking achievement. However, the Glasgow Herald for 25 September described a reception for the crew of the (Scottish-built) R-34 crew at St Andrew’s Hall in Glasgow attending by 3,000 guests. The event was organised by the newly founded three-month old Scottish branch of the RAeS. Speaking for the RAeS Sir Robert Horne proposed that R34 should be renamed Columbia, ‘that discovering dove which we sent out from this ancient ark and which brought back the news that America was going dry.”

The first flight to Australia

Vickers Vimy about to start its 28-day, 10,925mile flight to Australia. (NAL)

Although the race across the Atlantic was now over, the year of wonders was not yet ended. With the prize for flying the Atlantic now claimed, the Australian government offered another £10,000 prize, this time for the first aircraft to fly from Britain to Australia in 30 days. Six teams entered for the new contest. The first to start were George Matthews as pilot and Thomas Kay who took off from Hounslow in a Sopwith Wallaby on 21 October 1919 but, after an eventful journey, the aircraft crashed on landing in Bali on 17 April 1920. On 12 November, Ross Smith, Keith Smith, W.H. (Wally) Shiers and J.M. (Jim) Bennett set off in a Vickers Vimy which finally reached Darwin on 10 December, after flying 10,925 miles. The Daily Mail reported an entry in Ross Smith’s journal of the flight describing an incident on 20 November when the aircraft was taking off in Calcutta in which it suffered a bird strike when it collided with a flock of hawks. “Racecourse at Calcutta is small. When taking off, many hawks flying around close to the ground. Very frightened lest a hawk should hit the propeller and smash it. Just off the ground the machine struck two hawks, one hitting the propeller. A nasty moment as the machine almost hit the trees in avoiding more birds. No damage to the propeller but pieces of hawk hanging on the machine the whole journey.”

Map of Ross Smith’s flight from England to Australia.

Sadly, for two of the other teams, the challenge proved to be fatal. The date after the Vimy started, on November 1919, Roger Douglas and J.S.L. Ross took-off from Hounslow Heath in an Alliance P.2 Seabird but only got as far as Surbiton when the aircraft crashed killing both men. On 21 November, V. Rendle, Captain Wilkins, D.R. Williams and Garnsey Potts set off in a Blackburn Kangaroo but their flight ended when the aircraft crashed landed in Crete on 8 December, fortunately without injury. They were followed on 5 December by Cedric Howell and George Henry flying a Martinsyde Type A which suffered a fatal crash on 9 December near Corfu. The final attempt was made on 8 January 1020 after the prize had already been won when Ray Parer and John McIntosh flew for an epic 206 days in an Airco DH9, finally arriving in Sydney on 21 August. For their perseverance, the crew was awarded a consolation prize of £1,000.

Surviving aircraft

Alcock & Brown’s Vickers Vimy was presented to the Science Museum in 1919. (Hugh Llewelyn/Wikipedia)

In December 1919 Vickers presented the Transatlantic Vimy to the Science Museum in South Kensington to form the nucleus of a permanent aeronautical museum. A hundred years later, it is still there.

The NC-4 flying boat has also been preserved and is now on display at the National Aviation Museum in Florida. (Signal Charlie/Wikipedia)

In addition to Alcock and Brown’s Vimy, several of the other aircraft involved in the 1919 flights still survive. The NC-4 flying boat is on display at the National Aviation Museum in Florida while Ross Smith’s Vimy is also preserved at Adelaide airport in Australia. The DH.9 which made the second flight to Australia is also on display at the Australian War Memorial at Canberra.

The beginning of commercial aviation

A statue of Alcock & Brown. Originally on display at Heathrow Airport, it was relocated at the Heathrow Academy but was moved to Clifden in Ireland on 7 May for an eight-week stay to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the flight on 15 June.

The long-distance flights of 1919 had shown what the rapidly developing aircraft was now capable of achieving. The same year also saw the first short-distance commercial flights and attention in aviation circles now began to look at the future potential of both fixed-wing and light-than-air aircraft in creating expanding networks of routes carrying both passengers and cargo – a subject which will be covered in more detail in a subsequent article.

 

 

 

Bill Read
12 April 2019

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