Alcock << AWL kok, >> and Brown, were pioneering British aviators who made the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Sir John William Alcock (1892-1919) was the pilot, and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown (1886-1948) was the navigator. On June 14, 1919, the two men took off from Lester’s Field near St. John’s, Newfoundland (now Newfoundland and Labrador), in a twin-engine Vickers Vimy, a converted bomber. They landed the plane in a bog near Clifden, Ireland, the next day. The aviators traveled nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) in 16 hours and 27 minutes.
Alcock and Brown were knighted for their effort by King George V. They also received a prize of 10,000 pounds ($46,200) that the London Daily Mail newspaper in 1913 had offered to the crew of the first airplane to make a nonstop transatlantic crossing.
Alcock was born on Nov. 6, 1892, in Manchester, England. During World War I (1914-1918), he was considered one of the best pilots in the United Kingdom’s Royal Naval Air Service. He died on Dec. 18, 1919, in an air crash six months after his transatlantic flight.
Brown was born on July 23, 1886, of American parents in Glasgow, Scotland. He became a British citizen and served in the Royal Flying Corps. Brown died on Oct. 4, 1948.
