Yesterday We Were in America: Alcock and Brown - First to Fly the Atlantic Non-Stop

by Brendan Lynch

On 14 June 1919 John 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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Aviation

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Reviews

[Boris · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's amazing to read that the two British pilots, Alcock and Brown, crossed the Atlantic ocean in what was a World War I era biplane, a Vickers Vimy bomber. The weather was heavily overcast virtually the entire trip and they experience a near-fatal mechanical malfunction. As always an element of luck was involved.

The UK newspaper The Daily Mail sponsored a competition and prize for the first parties to cross the Atlantic by airplane with the Vickers entry flown Alcock and Brown.

It was amusing to read that they were the first ever to experience jet lag; upon alighting in Ireland after their departure from New Foundland 16 hours earlier they found their body 'clocks' were off by about 3 hours.

[brian andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

How the first men crossed the Atlantic in an open cockpit plane - Vimmy.
Alcock and Brown's story of their life in the first world war, the challenge of the Daily Mail of 10,000 stg to do the crossing and their preparation in New Foundand to cross to Galway, Ireland.

The author gives a good narrative tail of the epic adventure, where failure was a probably crash in the Atlantic and perhaps death.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

My father first took me to the Science Museum when I was a child. I can't pretend I understood or appreciated all the machinery and technology on show but I remember the wonderful, if small, collection of aircraft there. I never knew back then but the large, ancient looking, dirty-white aircraft in the centre of the display was once flown, for the first time ever, non-stop across the Atlantic ocean in the summer of 1919 by two British airmen. This book details that flight in a way that really captures the imagination.

The book begins, as you would imagine, giving a brief history of human flight. It is truly amazing to consider the first flight by the Wright brothers took place in 1903 then, less than 20 years later, a plane flew non-stop across the Atlantic ocean. That's quite some achievement. It still amazes me to think we've only been flying for just more than 100 years.

You often hear or read the word 'hero' thrown around these days but I feel it is not always a deserved title. To call Alcock and Brown heroes is not exaggeration. I cannot really begin to say in the limited space of this review what these men achieved but it is difficult to imagine the hardships these men had to endure...and that's BEFORE their historic flight. The amount of money, organisation, planning, set-backs and cost involved in launching their mission was staggering.

Although the book gives a lot of detail it doesn't fall into the trap of giving you too much. It is relatively short for a historical book, which suits me down to the ground, but within its pages it really conveys a sense of excitement, expectation, tragedy and optimism all of which were experienced by the airmen and their ground crews.

There were some sections of the book I found myself glazing over on. There are not many examples but sometimes a sentence such as “I found we were moving on a course 75 deg true, at 110 knots ground speed, with a wind of 30 knots from the direction of 215 degrees true” just had to be skimmed over because I do not understand such terms. Navigation was (and still is) a very complex, mathematical and precise science which is well and truly beyond me, therefore a lot of the sections which tried to explain what Brown was doing were lost to me but nevertheless it is still an intrepid story which I enjoyed reading about a great deal.

The modesty of the pilots themselves was also very touching, they seemed to give all the credit to each other and their aircraft. There was no arrogance about either of them which I find refreshing in these modern times of narcissism and self-selling.

The book had its tragedies too with many terrible examples of brave pioneering airmen losing their lives prematurely in the pursuit of aviation glory. Captain Alcock himself became one of these unfortunates near the end of the book with saddened me greatly.

All told its a great story of courage and inspiration, I wouldn't describe it as a page-turner because you already know how the story is going to end and the book did struggle to keep me interested in the last 30 or so pages but for a book of its category it is exciting. I find it amazing and sad that most people these days don't seem to know who Alcock and Brown are. I think more people should read this book and certainly it should be required reading for anyone planning on crossing the Atlantic on holiday. I know the next time I get on a trans-Atlantic aircraft I will be thinking of those two heroes.

I'm returning to the science museum soon and the next time I see that dirty-white plane in the centre of the display I will have more appreciation for it!

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a hard, dangerous way to get across the Atlantic. In a WW-I airplane, that was designed for fairly short overland missions, and which had absolutely zero creature comforts. Riding a mule from NY to LA would have been pleasant, by comparison. Undaunted, Brown and Alcock took on the challenge, and succeeded. An incredible feat!

This book is a highly credible account of a historical event that deserves much more attention.

[iain meek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written book about the first non-stop Atlantic crossing by aeroplane.

Seems well researched.

Some interesting photographs of the strange machines being flown in those far off days. Centenary is due in only 6 years. How time flies!




thanks to City of London libraries for this.

[Doug Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely well-researched and detailed account of this historic flight, its preparations and aftermath. Lynch does not get overly technical and yet keeps the story personal and interesting. He also corrects many errors such as the popular notion that Brown walked on a wing during the flight. He portrays both of the airmen factually and in depth. An engaging read.