SIR JOHN WILLIAM ALCOCK 1892-1919

Sir John William Alcock & Sir Arthur Whitten Brown      "In 1919, John Alcock and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown made the first nonstop transatlantic flight when they flew from Newfoundland, Canada to County Galway, Ireland. The more than 3,000 kilometer trip lasted just over 16 hours.      Over the course of their flight the pair got lost in sleet and darkness, Sir Arthur Whitten Brown was forced to climb out of the cockpit to clear ice from the plane, they went into uncontrolled spins, at times were forced to fly upside down, and finished the flight with a crash landing" Photograph & legend from: newsVOA.com

 

INSTRUCTOR AT MOISANT SCHOOL Early in 1911, Alfred Moisant opened an aviation school at Hempstead Plains, near Garden City, Long Island, where a vast acreage was admirably adaptable to practice flying. Alfred had the assistance of Harold Kantner, an early exhibition flyer, as well as of George H. Arnold, Mortimer F.. Bates, Sir John William Alcock, and Chief Pilot Shakir S. Jerwan---"all licensed aviators," as the prospectus put it From Henry Villard's CONTACT The Story of the Early Birds Thomas Y. Crowell Co.

 

ONLINE RESOURCES      If you search for "Sir John William Alcock +aviation" using Google, (8-24-03), you will find about 382 links! Among the most helpful are the following:

Alcock and Brown - Great Britain The First Non-Stop Aerial Crossing of the Atlantic      This webpage, on The Aviation History Online Museum website of Solomon August Andrée - Sweden, offers a very comprehensive story of the event, illustrated with several fascinating photographs. It includes a link to a full description of the Vickers F.B.27 Vimy airplane which they used for the crossing. The story is told in exquisite detail and will hold your interest to the very end. To access the site, click on the title above.

LONG FLIGHT      This webpage is found on the Flights of Inspiration website. It is one of four different sections, First Flight, Long Flight, Your Own Flight and Teachers' Zone.   "Flights of Inspiration" was created by The Franklin Institute Science Museum and the Science Museum, London in affiliation with the Science Learning Network a program of Unisys and leading science museums, worldwide."      It offers brief biographies of both Sir John William Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown as well as sections on Before the Flight, The Flight, After the Flight and The Aircraft. You can access the site by clicking on the title above.

If you want to learn more of the details of the story, you have available a multitude of links.

RECOMMENDED READING

Yesterday We Were in America   Brendan Lynch   Product Details Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Haynes Publishing      (November 1, 2009) List Price: $23.07 ISBN-10: 1844256812 ISBN-13: 978-1844256815

 

Editorial Reviews from Amazon.com On 14 June 1919 Sir John William Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown took off from Newfoundland in their open-cockpit Vickers Vimy converted bomber to attempt a non-stop crossing of the Atlantic. Some 16 hours later they landed at Derrygimla in Connemara, Ireland, to become national heroes. Navigating blind for most of the way, they had flown almost 1,900 miles, the longest distance ever flown by man. In researching one of the most significant flights in history, Brendan Lynch has drawn on the written records of Alcock and Brown, and interviewed the last surviving witness of their dramatic arrival in Ireland and the adventurer Steve Fossett, who recreated the flight in 2005.

 

Sir John William Alcock was killed in a crash in 1919.   Editor's Note: If you have any information on this Early Flier, please contact me. E-mail to Ralph Cooper   Back

In 1919, Sir John William Alcock and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown made the first nonstop transatlantic flight when they flew from Newfoundland, Canada to County Galway, Ireland. The more than 3,000 kilometer trip lasted just over 16 hours. Over the course of their flight the pair got lost in sleet and darkness, Sir Arthur Whitten Brown was forced to climb out of the cockpit to clear ice from the plane, they went into uncontrolled spins, at times were forced to fly upside down, and finished the flight with a crash landing.