Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 141, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1919 — FLYERS SPAN SEA IN ONE HOP [ARTICLE]

FLYERS SPAN SEA IN ONE HOP

VIMY PLANE COVERS THE J,900 MILE* IN SIXTEEN HOURS—REMARKABLE FEAT. London, June 15. —Captain John Aleock and Lieutenant Arthur Brown, in their Vickers-Vimy biplane, landed at Clifden, Ireland, this morning, completing the first nonstop airplane flight across the Atlantic. Their trip from St. Johns, N. F., was made in sixteen hours, twelve minutes. The landing was made at 9:40 d’clock, British summer time. In ing the ground the machine struck heavily and the fuselage ploughed inthe" sand. Neither of the occupants was injured. Much of the flight was made through a fog, with an occasional drizzle. This hampered the airmen considerably during their journey. Captain Alcock explained the silence of his radio instrument during the trip by saying that the wireless propeller blew off soon after the airplane left Newfoundland. “We were much jammed by strong wireless signals not intended for us,’’ he added.

London, June 15.—The final goal of all the ambitious which flying men have ventured to dream since the Wright brothers first rose from the earth in a heavier-than-air machine, was realized this morning, when two young British officers, Captain John Alcock and Lieut. Arthur W. Brown, landed on the Irish coast after the first nob-stop flight across the Atlantic ocean. Their voyage was without accident and without unforseen incident, as far as can be learned. It was a straightaway, clean-cut flight achieved in sixteen hours and twelve minutes —from Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland, a distance of more than 1,900 miles. But the brief and modest description which comes from the airmen at Clifden tells of an adventurous and amazingly hazardous enterprise. Fog and mists hung over the north Atlantic and the VickersVimy biplane climbed and dove, struggling to free herself from the folds of the airplane’s worst enemy. She rose to 11,000 feet, swooped down almost to the surface of the sea, and at times the two navigators found themselves flying upside doWn, only ten feet above the water. < coming to earth near the Clifden wireless station, Alcock circled the wireless aerials seeking the best spot to reach the earth. But no suitable ground was found, so he chanced it in a bog. The wireless staff rushed to the aid of the aviators. They found Brown dazed and Alcock temporarily deafened by the force of the impact. As soon as they were able to be es- t corted to the wireless station, they 1 telegraphed the news to their friends, then had breakfast. “That is the best way to cross the Atlantic,” said Lieut. Brown after he had eaten.