The Atlantic Flight
1919; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 103; Issue: 2590 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1038/103306a0
ISSN1476-4687
Tópico(s)World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact
ResumoTHE honour of the first direct trans-Atlantic flight, for which the Daily Mail offered a prize of 10,000l., has fallen to two English aviators on a British machine. The Vickers “Vimy” bomber has made the crossing, with Capt. J. Alcock as pilot, and Lt. Whitten Brown as navigator. Newfoundland was left at 4.25 p.m., G.M.T., on June 14, and a landing made at Clifden, Galway, at 8.40 a.m., G.M.T., on June 15. The machine is a standard bombing-aeroplane, slightly modified for the present flight, and has a span of 67 ft. It carries two Rolls-Royce engines of 375 h.p. each, and the gross load is about 12,500 Ib. The passage was made in 16 hours 15 min., giving an average speed of nearly 120 miles per hour. The wind was favourable, but the weather very bad, according to the report of the aviators. Clouds were met at all altitudes, and it was generally impossible to see either ocean or sky. At the higher altitudes the machine became covered with ice, and at one time the air-speed indicator became clogged, thus robbing- the pilot of his best guide as to the attitude in which he was flying. The sense of hori-zontality was for the time lost, and the machine executed various evolutions until it had fallen so low that the sea became visible, and Capt. Alcock was able to recover a normal attitude.
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