THE FIRST PEOPLE TO FLY
FIRST ROUND-THE-WORLD FLIGHTS:
1. Lt LOWELL H. SMITH / Lt LESLIE P. ARNOLD (USA)
DOUGLAS WORLD CRUISER CHICAGO,
SEATTLE / WASHINGTON, USA
TOTAL DISTANCE - 26,345 MILES,
DATES - 6 APRIL -28 SEPTEMBER 1924.
2. Lt ERIK H. NELSON / Lt JOHN HARDING Jr (USA)
DOUGLAS WORLD CRUISER NEW ORLEANS
SEATTLE / WASHINGTON, USA
TOTAL DISTANCE - 27,553 MILES
DATES - 6 APRIL -28 SEPTEMBER 1924.
3. Dr HUGO ECHENER, ERNST LEHMANN & CREW
(GERMANY0 AIRSHIP GRAF ZEPPELIN
LAKEBURST / NEW JERSEY, USA
TOTAL DISTANCE - 20,373 MILES
DATES - 8-29 APRIL 1929
4. WILEY POST & HAROLD GATTY (USA)
LOCKHEED VEGA WINNE MAE
ROOSEVELT FIELD / LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK, USA
TOTAL DISTANCE - 15,474 MILES
DATES - 23 JUNE - 1 JULY 1931
5. WOLFGANG VON GRONAU, GHER VON ROTH, FRANZ HACK, FRITZ ALBRECHT (GERMANY)
DOERNIER SEAPLANE, GRONLAND-WAL D-2053 LIST,
GERMANY
TOTAL DISTANCE - 27,240 MILES
DATES - 22 JULY - 23 NOVEMBER 1932
THE FIRST TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT:
- The first transatlantic flight took place on 16-27 May 1919, when ALBERT CUSHING READ and a crew of five crossed the Atlantic in the US Navy Curtiss seaplane in a series of hops, refueling at sea.
- British pilot JOHN ALCOCK and navigator ARTHUR WHITTEN BROWN achieved the first non-stop flight, ditching in Derrygimla bog after their epic 16 - hour 28- minute journey from Newfoundland to Galway on 14-15 June 1919.
- In early July of that same year, George Herbert Scott and a crew of 30 (including the first transatlantic air stowaway, William Ballabtyne) made the first east-west crossing. The first airship to do so, when the R-34 returned to Pulham, UK, on 13 July it was also the first to complete a double crossing.
