John Alcock and Arthur Brown were British pilots who, in 1919, completed the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. They traveled in a modified Vickers Vimy bomber from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden, County Galway, Ireland. The Secretary of State for Air, Winston Churchill, gave them a prize of £10,000 (equivalent to £450,000 in 2025) for flying across the Atlantic in less than 72 hours without stopping. Their flight carried nearly 200 letters, which marked the first transatlantic airmail delivery. A week later, King George V honored them by giving them the title of knight at Windsor Castle.
Background
John Alcock was born in 1892 in Basford House on Seymour Grove, Firswood, Manchester, England. His family and friends called him "Jack." At seventeen, he became interested in flying and earned his pilot's license in November 1912. He often competed in aircraft races at Hendon from 1913 to 1914. During World War I, he became a military pilot and was captured in Turkey after his Handley Page bomber was shot down over the sea. After the war, he wanted to continue flying and decided to try to be the first person to fly directly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Arthur Whitten Brown was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1886 to American parents. His family moved to Manchester shortly after his birth. His family and friends called him "Teddie." Before World War I began, he worked as an engineer.
In April 1913, the London newspaper The Daily Mail offered a prize of £10,000 for the first person to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean. The competition was paused when World War I began in 1914 but restarted after the war ended in 1918.
Brown was captured by enemy forces in Germany after his plane was shot down. Alcock was also imprisoned and had always dreamed of flying across the Atlantic. As Brown improved his skills in navigating aircraft, Alcock contacted the Vickers engineering and aviation company in Weybridge, England. Vickers had planned to use their Vickers Vimy IV twin-engine bomber in the competition but needed a pilot. The Vimy was originally built in Crayford, but production was moved to Weybridge to avoid the inconvenience of dismantling the planes for testing. The thirteenth Vimy built was the one used for the transatlantic flight. Alcock believed 13 was his lucky number. Sir Henry Norman helped plan the flight, including the route, hangar facilities, and fuel supplies.
Alcock’s determination impressed the Vickers team, and he was chosen as their pilot. Workers began modifying the Vimy for the long flight by replacing bomb racks with extra fuel tanks. Later, Brown, who was unemployed, approached Vickers and was hired as Alcock’s navigator because of his experience with long-distance navigation.
Flight
Several teams had entered the competition. When Alcock and Brown arrived in St. John's, Newfoundland, the Handley Page team was almost finished testing their aircraft for the flight. However, their leader, Admiral Mark Kerr, wanted to wait until the plane was completely ready before taking off. The Vickers team quickly built their aircraft and, around 1:45 p.m. on June 14, 1919, the Vimy took off from Lester's Field. Alcock and Brown flew the modified Vickers Vimy, which had two Rolls-Royce Eagle 360 hp engines. A Rolls-Royce team led by engineer Eric Platford was on-site to support the engines. The two men brought toy cat mascots with them for the flight—Alcock had 'Lucky Jim' and Brown had 'Twinkletoes.'
The flight was difficult. The heavy aircraft had trouble taking off from the rough field and barely cleared the tops of the trees. At 5:20 p.m., the wind-driven electrical generator stopped working, which meant they could not use their radio, intercom, or heating. Soon after, an exhaust pipe broke, making loud noises and preventing them from speaking through the failed intercom.
At 5:00 p.m., thick fog made it hard for Brown to use his sextant to navigate. Flying without gyroscopic instruments in fog or clouds is very dangerous. Alcock lost control of the plane twice and almost hit the sea after a spiral dive. He also had to deal with a broken trim control, which made the plane very nose-heavy as fuel burned.
At 12:15 a.m., Brown saw the stars and used his sextant to confirm they were on course. The generator failure had stopped their electric heating suits, leaving them very cold in the open cockpit.
At 3:00 a.m., they flew into a large snowstorm. Rain soaked them, their instruments froze, and the plane was at risk of icing and becoming uncontrollable. The carburetors also froze. Some say Brown climbed onto the wings to clear the engines, but he never mentioned this.
They landed in County Galway at 8:40 a.m. on June 15, 1919, near their intended landing spot, after less than sixteen hours of flying. The aircraft was damaged because they landed on what looked like a green field from the air, but it was actually Derrigimlagh Bog near Clifden, Ireland. This caused the plane to tip forward, but neither pilot was hurt. Brown said that if the weather had been better, they could have continued to London.
During the flight, their altitude ranged from sea level to 12,000 feet (3,700 meters). They took off with 865 imperial gallons (3,900 liters) of fuel. They crossed the coast at 4:28 p.m., spending about fourteen-and-a-half hours over the North Atlantic. They flew 1,890 miles (3,040 kilometers) in 15 hours and 57 minutes, averaging 115 mph (185 km/h; 100 knots). Their first interview was with Tom 'Cork' Kenny of The Connacht Tribune.
Alcock and Brown were celebrated as heroes after completing their flight. Crowds in Ireland cheered them at every train station on their way to Dublin. When they arrived in Britain by boat, people gathered at Holyhead to welcome them. Planes escorted their train journey to London, where a quarter of a million people lined the streets to watch their arrival. On the same day they landed, June 15, the Secretary of State for Air, Winston Churchill, gave them the Daily Mail prize of £10,000 for their historic Atlantic crossing. Alcock also received 2,000 guineas (£2,100) from the State Express Cigarette Company and £1,000 from Laurence R. Philipps for being the first Briton to fly across the Atlantic. Both men were knighted by King George V at Windsor Castle a week later.
Alcock and Brown flew to Manchester on July 17, 1919, where they received a public celebration from the Lord Mayor and Corporation, along with awards for their achievement.
Alcock died on December 18, 1919, when he crashed near Rouen while flying a new Vickers Viking amphibian to the Paris Airshow. Brown died on October 4, 1948.
Two memorials in County Galway, Ireland, honor the flight. One is a cairn near Clifden, where the aviators sent a message about their success to London. Another is a sculpture of an aircraft's tail fin on Errislannan Hill, dedicated in 1959.
Three monuments in Newfoundland mark the flight's starting point. One was built by the Canadian government in 1952, another is on Lemarchant Road, and a third was unveiled by Premier Joey Smallwood on Blackmarsh Road.
A statue by sculptor William McMillan was placed at London Heathrow Airport in 1954 to honor their flight. It was taken to Ireland for centenary celebrations in 2019 and later moved to Brooklands Museum. A monument at Manchester Airport is also near Alcock's birthplace. Their rebuilt aircraft is displayed at the Science Museum in London.
The Royal Mail issued a 5d stamp in 1969 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the flight. In 2019, the Central Bank of Ireland released 3,000 €15 silver coins to mark the 100th anniversary.
From April to October 2019, events in Crayford and Bexley honored the centenary of the flight. These included talks, exhibitions, and a celebration at Hall Place and Gardens with about 3,500 people. The Duke of Kent unveiled a bench in Crayford with life-sized statues of Alcock and Brown and viewed artwork from local schools.
On March 19, 2017, an episode of Antiques Roadshow featured a handwritten note carried by Alcock during the flight. The note, valued at £1,000–£1,200, was presented by the granddaughter of Alcock's cousin.
Other crossings
Two weeks before Alcock and Brown's flight, the first "stopping" flight across the Atlantic was completed by the NC-4, a United States Navy flying boat commanded by Lt. Commander Albert Cushing Read. The NC-4 flew from Naval Air Station Rockaway, New York, to Plymouth with a crew of five over 23 days, making six stops along the way. This flight was not eligible for the Daily Mail prize because it took more than 72 consecutive hours and because more than one aircraft was used in the attempt.
A month after Alcock and Brown's flight, the British airship R34 made the first double crossing of the Atlantic. It left England on 2 July and arrived in the United States on 4 July, carrying 31 people (including one stowaway) and a cat. For the return flight, 29 crew members, two flight engineers, and a different American observer traveled back to Europe.
On 2–3 July 2005, American adventurer Steve Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz recreated the Alcock and Brown flight using a replica of the Vickers Vimy airplane. They did not land near Clifden, but instead landed a few miles away on the Connemara golf course.
A replica Vimy, NX71MY, was built in Australia and the United States in 1994 for an American named Peter McMillan. He flew it from England to Australia with Australian Lang Kidby in 1994 to re-enact the first England-Australia flight by Ross and Keith Smith in 1919. In 1999, Mark Rebholz and John LaNoue used the same replica to re-enact the first flight from London to Cape Town. In late 2006, the airplane was donated to Brooklands Museum in Weybridge, Surrey. After making a special Alcock and Brown 90th anniversary return visit to Clifden in June 2009 (flown by John Dodd and Clive Edwards), and some final public flying displays at the Goodwood Revival in September 2009, the Vimy made its final flight on 15 November 2009 from Dunsfold Park to Brooklands, crewed by John Dodd (pilot), Clive Edwards, and Peter McMillan. It is now on public display as the centerpiece of a new "First to the Fastest" Transatlantic flight exhibition in the Museum's Vimy Pavilion and is occasionally used for engine ground running demonstrations.
One of the propellers from the Vickers Vimy was given to Arthur Whitten Brown and hung on the wall of his office in Swansea for many years. He later gave it to the RAF College Cranwell. It is believed to have been displayed in the RAF Careers Office in Holborn until 1990. It is believed to be used today as a ceiling fan in Luigi Malone's Restaurant in Cork, Ireland.
The other propeller, serial number G1184.N6, was originally given to the Vickers Works Manager at Brooklands, Percy Maxwell Muller, and was displayed for many years inside the transatlantic terminal (Terminal 3) at London's Heathrow Airport. In October 1990, it was donated by the BAA (through its former chairman, Sir Peter Masefield) to Brooklands Museum, where it is now displayed as part of a full-size Vimy wall mural in the Vickers Building.
A small amount of mail—196 letters and a parcel—was carried on Alcock and Brown's flight, marking the first time mail was transported by air across the ocean. The government of the Dominion of Newfoundland overprinted stamps for this journey with the inscription "Transatlantic air post 1919."
After landing in Paris following his own record-breaking flight in 1927, Charles Lindbergh told the crowd welcoming him that "Alcock and Brown showed me the way!"
To honor the original transatlantic crossing, on 1 June 1979, two Royal Air Force McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR.2s—XV424 (from No. 56 Squadron) and XV486 (based at RAF Coningsby)—were painted in special commemorative schemes. The design was created by aviation artist Wilfred Hardy. The scheme honored the anniversary of the transatlantic flight, the use of Rolls-Royce engines in both aircraft (the Rolls-Royce Eagle in the Vimy and the Rolls-Royce Spey in the Phantom), and the 30th anniversary of NATO.
XV424 was chosen to make the flight, with XV486 serving as backup. On 19 June, XV424 departed from RAF St Athan to CFB Goose Bay, where the crossing would begin. The crew selected for the flight were Squadron Leader A. J. N. "Tony" Alcock (pilot and nephew of Sir John Alcock, who made the original crossing) and Flight Lieutenant W. N. "Norman" Browne (navigator). For the journey, they carried Brown's original cat toy mascot, "Twinkletoes."
On 21 June, XV424 took off from Goose Bay, Labrador, and began the crossing to Ireland. The Phantom flew subsonically for the entire journey, which took 5 hours and 40 minutes, setting a new record. The Phantom was refueled five times during the flight by Handley-Page Victor K.2 tankers of No. 57 Squadron. Today, XV424 is preserved at the RAF Museum in Hendon, painted in the colors of No. 56 (Fighter) Squadron, while XV486 was scrapped in 1993.