FIRST ACROSS: The VICKERS VIMY of ALCOCK and BROWN

摘要

DURING THE FIRST MONTHS OF 1919, NEWFOUNDLAND,PRIMARILY BECAUSE OF ITS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION,WAS HOST TO A NUMBER OF COMPETITORS FOR THE HONOUR OF MAKING THE FIRST TRANS-ATLANTIC AERIAL FLIGHT.There were four British teams and a mas-sively supported detachment of the United States Navy. The British teams intended to make a nonstop crossing, spurred on by the prize offered by Lord Northcliffe's Daily Mail, while the Americans in-tended to fly in relays. All five encountered various degrees of for-tune. Suffice it to say that the only truly successful attempt was the Vickers team of John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown in a Vickers Vimy which flew from St. John's to Ireland on 14/15 June 1919.Not only was this flight significant as an example of endurance and airmanship but it also demonstrated the incredible develop-ment of aircraft and aviation during the First World War, the po-tentiality of commercial transatlantic aviation, albeit some time in the future, and the possibility of the strategically located domin-ion of Newfoundland as part of this. Indeed, the Newfoundland government and various private interests would be energetically involved in this activity for the next decade and a half.