Transatlantic flight

From Free net encyclopedia

Transatlantic flight is any flight of an aircraft, whether airplane, balloon or other device, which involves crossing the Atlantic Ocean -- with a starting point in North America or South America and ending in Europe or Africa, or vice versa.

Early notable transatlantic flights

• May 8 - May 31, 1919. U.S. Navy flying boat NC-4 under command of Albert Cushing Read makes first transatlantic flight, 4,526 statute miles (7,284 km), from Rockaway, New York, to Plymouth, England, via Newfoundland, Azores, Lisbon, Portugal, and other intermediate stops, in 53 hours, 58 minutes.

Image:Alcockandbrown takeoff1919.jpg

• June 14 - June 15 1919. Capt. John Alcock and Lieut. A.W. Brown of the United Kingdom in Vickers Vimy bomber make first nonstop transatlantic flight, between islands, 1,960 nautical miles (3,630 km), from St. John's, Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland, in 16 hours, 12 minutes.
• July 1919. Major George Herbert Scott of the Royal Air Force with his crew and passengers flies from East Fortune, Scotland to Mineola, Long Island in an airship R34, covering a distance of about 3,000 statute miles (4,800 km) in about four and a half days, the first East-West transatlantic flight, then he made a return trip to England.
• March 30-June 17, 1922. Lieutenant Commander Sacadura Cabral (pilot) and Cdr. Gago Coutinho (navigator) of Portugal, using three Fairey IIID floatplanes ("Lusitania", "Portugal" and "Santa Cruz") used successively after two ditchings, make first flight across the South Atlantic, using only internal means of navigation (the Coutinho-invented sextant with artificial horizon) from Lisbon, Portugal to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. [1]

• October 1924. The Zeppelin airship ZR-3 (LZ-126) flies from Germany to New Jersey with a crew commanded by Dr. Hugo Eckener, covering a distance of about 4,000 statute miles (6,400 km). It was the first nonstop aircraft flight between Europe and America mainlands.
• May 8 - May 9, 1927. Charles Nungesser and François Coli attempted at crossing the Atlantic from Paris to the USA in Levasseur PL-8 "L'Oisseau Blanc" biplane, but were lost. According to some witnesses, they might have crashed already in Maine, USA.
• May 20 - May 21, 1927. Charles A. Lindbergh flies Ryan monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis, in first solo transatlantic flight and first nonstop airplane flight between America and Europe mainlands, 3,600 nautical miles (6,667 km), from New York City to Paris, in 33 1/2 hours.
• June 4 - June 5, 1927. First transatlantic air passenger: Charles A. Levine was carried as a passenger by Clarence D. Chamberlin from Roosevelt Field, N.Y., to Eisleben, Germany, in a Wright-powered Bellanca.
• October 14 - October 15 1927 - Dieudonne Costes and Joseph le Brix make the first non-stop aerial crossing of the South Atlantic, flying a Breguet 19 from Senegal to Brazil.
• April 12 - April 13, 1928. Gunther von Huenfeld and Capt. Hermann Koehl of Germany and Comdr. James Fitzmaurice of Ireland fly the Junkers monoplane "Bremen" in first nonstop airplane westbound flight over North Atlantic, 2,070 statute miles (3,331 km), from Ireland to Labrador, in 36 1/2 hours.
• June 17 - June 18 1928. Amelia Earhart in Fokker F.VII trimotor Friendship is first woman to fly Atlantic as a passenger.
• September 1 - September 2, 1930. Dieudonne Costes and Le Brix fly the Breguet 19 Super Bidon biplane "Point d'Interrogation" (Question Mark) in first nonstop westbound airplane flight between European and American mainlands, from over North Atlantic, 6,200 km from Paris to New York City.
• June 23-July 1, 1931. Wiley Post as pilot and Harold Gatty as navigator fly Lockheed Vega monoplane Winnie Mae in around-the-world flight, 15,477 nautical miles (28,663 km), from Long Island, N.Y., in 14 stops, in 8 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes; flying time, 107 hours, 2 minutes.
• May 20 - May 21, 1932. Amelia Earhart in Lockheed Vega makes first transatlantic solo flight by a woman, 2,026 nautical miles (3,752 km), from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, to Londonderry, Ireland, in 15 hours, 18 minutes.
• August 18 - August 19 1932. Jim Mollison makes the first solo westbound crossing of the Atlantic, flying a de Havilland Puss Moth from Dublin to New Brunswick
• May 7 - May 8, 1933. Stanislaw Skarzynski makes a solo flight across the South Atlantic, covering 3,582 km (2,226 statute miles), in a smallest plane that crossed the Atlantic, the RWD-5bis - empty weight below 450 kg (990 lb).
• July 1 - July 15 1933. Gen. Italo Balbo of Italy leads 24 Savoia-Marchetti seaplanes in mass transatlantic flight, 6,100 statute miles (9,817 km), from Orbetello, Italy, to Chicago, Ill., in 47 hours, 52 minutes.
• July 15 - July 22 1933. Wiley Post flies Lockheed Vega monoplane Winnie Mae in first around-the-world solo flight, 15,596 statute miles (25,099 km) in 11 stops, in 7 days, 8 hours, 49 minutes; flying time, 115 hours, 36 minutes.

• July 14 1948. six de Havilland Vampire F3s of No 54 Squadron RAF became the first jet aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Commanded by Wg Cdr D S Wilson-MacDonald, DSO, DFC, they flew via Stornoway, Iceland and Labrador to Montreal on the first leg of a goodwill tour of Canada and the US.
• February 21 1951. An RAF Canberra B Mk 2 (WD932) flown by Sqd Ldr A Caillard, became the first jet aircraft to make a non-stop transatlantic flight when it flew from Aldergrove, Northern Ireland to Gander, Newfoundland. The flight covered almost 1,800 miles in 4h 37m. The aircraft was being flown to the US to act as a pattern aircraft for the Martin B-57.

Commercial transatlantic flight

Transatlantic airline travel was pioneered by Pan American World Airways of the United States, Imperial Airways of Britain, and Aéropostale of France, which used flying boats to connect the Americas to Europe via Bermuda and the Azores during the 1930s. On 26 March 1939, the Pan American made its first trial transatlantic flight from Baltimore, Maryland to Foynes, Ireland using a Boeing-314 Yankee Clipper with a scheduled flight time of about 29 hours. After World War II, American and European carriers such as Pan Am, TWA, Trans Canada Airlines, BOAC, and Air France acquired larger piston aircraft, which allowed services over the North Atlantic with intermediate stops (usually in Gander, Newfoundland and/or Shannon, Ireland). Jet service began in the late 1950s, and supersonic service (Concorde) was offered from 1976 to 2003. Since the loosening of regulations in the 1970s and 1980s, a large number of airlines now compete in the transatlantic air travel market.

Other early transatlantic flights

Apart from most notable flights described above, many persons attempted to fly across Atlantic, which was quite dangerous in early years of aviation. These include:

• June 4 - June 5 1927. Clarence D. Chamberlain and Charles Levine in Bellanca monoplane make first nonstop New York-Germany flight, 3,911 statute miles (6,294 km), in 43 hours, 49 minutes, 33 seconds.

• June 29 - July 1 1927 - Richard Evelyn Byrd with crew flies Fokker F.VIIa/3m "America" from New York City to France.

• July 13 1928 - Ludwik Idzikowski and Kazimierz Kubala attempted at crossing the Atlantic westbound from Paris to the USA in Amiot 123 biplane, but crashed on Azores.

• January 16 1933 - Jean Mermoz and crew make a non-stop flight from Senegal to Brazil, across South Atlantic, in 17 hours 27 minutes.
• February 6 - February 9 1933. Jim Mollison flies a de Havilland Puss Moth from Senegal to Brazil, across South Atlantic, becoming the first person to fly solo across the North and South Atlantics.
• July 15 - July 17 1933. Lithuanians Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas were supposed to make a non-stop flight from New York City via Newfoundland to Kaunas, but crashed in the forests of Germany after 6411 km of flying, only 650 km short of their final destination. Flying time 37 hours, 11 minutes.
• June 29 - June 30 1934 - Polish-Americans Benjamin and Joseph Adamowicz brothers, amateur pilots, flew across the Atlantic from Newfoundland to France.