Today in Technology History
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May 27
Last week we discussed Charles Lindbergh's historic flight. But Lindbergh wasn't really the first person to fly across the Atlantic -- he was just the first to make the flight alone. In fact, there had been a dozen previous transatlantic plane trips, although none of the transatlantic trips before Lindbergh was flown solo.
The first airplane trip across the Atlantic preceded Lindbergh's flight by eight years. Several teams were preparing for transatlantic trips, all in hopes of winning a prize offered in Britain. But the first team to succeed wasn't even in the running for the prize: it was a team from the U.S. Navy.
The Navy purchased four "flying boats" from Glenn Curtiss, the great airplane designer. These planes, which landed on and took off from water, were given the designation NC, for "Navy-Curtiss." The three that participated in the first transatlantic plane trip were NC-1, NC-3, and the brand-new NC-4. (NC-2 wasn't involved because its wings had been put on NC-1 after the latter was damaged.)
The trip across the ocean began on May 8, 1919. The first leg took the planes from New York to Nova Scotia; the second leg was to Newfoundland; the third leg was planned to end at the Azore Islands, across 1,200 miles of ocean; the fourth leg was supposed to end at another island in the Azores; followed by an 800-mile trip to Portugal. On the most difficult parts of the trip, brightly lit U.S. Navy vessels were to serve as navigational beacons for the planes.
Each of the three planes suffered problems during the trip, and two of them failed in the long third leg. NC-1 landed in the ocean for the purpose of navigation but it couldn't take off again; it eventually sank (after the crew was saved). NC-3 was similarly damaged, but the crew sailed the plane (!) to safety.
Only NC-4 successfully completed the trip. Exactly 84 years ago, on May 27, 1919, the plane flew into Lisbon, Portugal. Lieutenant Commander Albert C. Read and his crew aboard NC-4 became the first men to fly across the Atlantic, but they received only a fraction of the acclaim that Lindbergh would get in 1927.
By the way, a few weeks after NC-4 reached Portugal, a pair of British pilots became the first people to fly across the Atlantic nonstop (instead of in several hops). We'll tell you their story in June.
Related links:
Click here to read a detailed three-part article about NC-4 and its flight.
Click here to read about Elmer Stone, the co-pilot of NC-4.
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