Ken, It may be the use of language. Your last sentence lost something important, the words "non-stop". "I think most non-yanks would have known that Alcock and Brown's was the first <<non-stop>> crossing of the Atlantic by air."
Alcock and Brown flew by air from Newfoundland to Ireland for the Daily Mail Prize in June,1919. Earlier, in May of that year, one of four American planes made the first successful crossing of the Atlantic by air from Newfoundland to Plymouth,England, by way of the Azores and Portugal. Alcock and Brown flew non-stop 50% longer than the longest leg flown by the Americans. Lindberg was the first solo flight, it also was over 50% longer than the route of Alcock and Brown. His route was dictated by the terms of the Raymond Orteig Prize, which specified the longer New York to Paris route. David Morelli On Behalf Of Ken Wallis Subject: RE: Optimisation ? ... Did you know...? Charles Lindbergh was not the first man to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean. Two men had achieved the same goal eight years earlier! Flying for sixteen and a half hours from June 14-15, 1919, Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten-Brown had copiloted a Vichers-Vimy twin-engine plane nonstop from Newfoundland across the Atlantic to Ireland. Lindbergh was just the first person to do it alone. She could just as easily have said "Lindbergh was just the first American to do it". I think most non-yanks would have known that Alcock and Brown's was the first crossing of the Atlantic by air. -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
