Transatlantic Flight - First Transatlantic Flight

First Transatlantic Flight

See also: Transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown

Between 8 and 31 May 1919, the Curtiss seaplane NC-4 made a crossing of the Atlantic flying from the U.S. to Newfoundland, then to the Azores and on to Portugal and finally the UK. The whole journey took 23 days. NC-4 was the only one of the three United States Navy aircraft to set out that completed the journey. The journey had been organized by the U.S. Navy to include crew rest, aircraft maintenance and repair and refueling, and had been supported by a trail of 22 "station ships" across the Atlantic giving the aircraft points to navigate by.

On 14–15 June 1919, British aviators Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop transatlantic flight. They flew a modified World War I Vickers Vimy bomber from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. Winston Churchill presented them with the Daily Mail prize for the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in "less than 72 consecutive hours" and they were knighted at Windsor Castle by King George V.