The first transatlantic flight by the British aviator John Alcock
This historic event took place on June 14th, 1919, when John Alcock, a British aviator, completed the first successful non-stop transatlantic flight. Alcock and his navigator, Arthur Whitten Brown, took off from St. John's, Newfoundland, in a modified
John Alcock and Arthur Brown were British aviators who, in 1919, made the first non-stop transatlantic flight. They flew a modified First World War Vickers Vimy bomber from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden, County Galway, Ireland. The Secretary of State for Air, Winston Churchill, presented them with the Daily Mail prize of £10,000 for the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by aeroplane in "less than 72 consecutive hours". The flight carried nearly 200 letters, the first transatlantic airmail. The two aviators were knighted by King George V at Windsor Castle a week later.