Comments on: Across the Atlantic by Vimy

By: Chris Williams

Chris Williams — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:35:07 +0000

When did the international association set the rule that if you crashed it didn’t count? It must have still been in force in 1961, because that was apparently why the USSR lied about Yuri Gagarin riding his capsule all the way down, rather than ejecting like the other Vostok cosmonauts.

By: JDK

JDK — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:05:37 +0000

Fair comment. However he got famous for being solo and well, cute.

Another aviation trivia item is what do the Wright Bros, Bleriot and Alcock & Brown have in common with their records?

A: They all crash-landed on arrival.

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 05:44:47 +0000

The thing about Lindbergh, though, was that he took off from an airfield and landed at an airfield (as opposed to a bog), and it was the one he was planning to land at. It was the transatlantic equivalent of calling your shots in pool.

By: JDK

JDK — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:50:07 +0000

Very good Chris.

By: Chris Williams

Chris Williams — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:00:21 +0000

PS Ballantyne’s Diversion rules do _not_ apply over the Christmas period in ‘First 91 Mornington Crescent’

By: Chris Williams

Chris Williams — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:58:42 +0000

Coolest arrival – Major Pritchard, who travelled east-west a couple of hours before everyone else, and did so by airship and parachute. He was only the third man to make a non-stop crossing by air in either direction.

About a third of the 91 are the crew of R34, including the First Stowaway (airman Ballantyre – washed dishes and pumped ballast after discovering, then was returned by ship) and the First Kitten (stowed away with First Stowaway – allowed to return by air, IIRC)

I’d like to add that the R34 crew also had time to wash and shave before arrival (whilst Pritchard was doing his thing briefing the ground crew) and thus ought to be nominated for some sort of special personal hygene award.

You can see where I’m coming from here, can’t you? In 1919 LTA allowed you to arrive in style, had enough lift to spare to allow a stowaway (try that in an NC4), and could do the return journey in the time it took to lift A&B’s Vimy from its bog. _That’s_ the hi-tech of 1919.

By: JDK

JDK — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:04:16 +0000

I’ve never added up ‘The 91 Before Lindbergh’*, but it would be an interesting exercise, perhaps?

Most stylish crossing – Balbo & Co.

Maybe this could be Mornington Crescent for Aviation buffs? I’ll claim the Azores diversion rule, with the Newfoundland Start variation. :-D

Regards,

*The 91 Before Lindbergh by Peter Allen, Airlife, 1984.

By: Chris Williams

Chris Williams — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:11:06 +0000

First return flight – R34

By: JDK

JDK — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:15:01 +0000

Good spot, Brett. I was privileged to see the same Vimy leave Farnborough on its recreation of the flight to Australia in 1994, and this aircraft also undertook the Vimy types third record to South Africa – the three pioneering efforts requiring at least five original Vimys! So the replica certainly achieved a lot and has just entered worthy retirement at Brooklands late this year.

I’m afraid that the story of Brown climbing onto the wings is almost certainly a myth, due to a misunderstanding in reports over the instruments’ position that Brown was clearing. We covered that recently in the Aircrew feature I write on for Aeroplane magazine, in the June 2009 issue and Ian Bott, the illustrator showed Brown climbing onto the fuselage decking aft of the cockpit.

As author Brendan Lynch, acknowledging the research help of an un-named curator at the Science Museum, said of Brown:
“He stood up in cockpit and swivelled around in confined space – painful for a man with his wartime leg injuries – and cleared (several times) snow from fuel-overflow gauge on a strut a metre above his head.”

The flight was a a great achievement, as was Lindbergh’s and the 91 people before him and Amelia Earhart afterwards. The solo flights I’d suggest were personal achievements of limited route-finding use, while Alcock’s “Yesterday I was in America – and I’m the first man in history to say that!” summarised how much they had broken ground for intercontinental flight. The men of the USN in the Nancy Boats shouldn’t be overlooked, though, and the Smithsonian has loaned the imposing NC-4 to the National Museum of US Naval Aviation, where it is an impressive exhibit.

A mean game to play with people who think they know their aviation history is to get the achievements correct: The credits read: first across the Atlantic by Air – US Navy NC-4; First non-stop across the Atlantic – Alcock & Brown; first solo non stop – Lindbergh.

Regards,