Transatlantic flight

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A transatlantic flight is the flight of an

balloons
and other aircraft.

Early

North Atlantic, is unpredictable. Since the middle of the 20th century, however, transatlantic flight has become routine, for commercial, military, diplomatic
, and other purposes.

History

The idea of transatlantic flight came about with the advent of the

Atlantic. The flight lasted less than a day, crash-landing in Henderson, New York. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe prepared a massive balloon of 725,000 cubic feet (20,500 m3) called the City of New York to take off from Philadelphia in 1860, but was interrupted by the onset of the American Civil War in 1861. The first successful transatlantic flight in a balloon was the Double Eagle II from Presque Isle, Maine, to Miserey, near Paris
in 1978.

First transatlantic flights

The Curtiss H-2 America was supposed to make a trans-atlantic flight attempt in 1914 but WW1 broke out. At one point the aircraft had three engines, one on the top wing, to build duration. The plane could not take off fully fueled with three engines.
Martin-Handasyde monoplane to have been used by Gustav Hamel in a east-to-west Atlantic attempt. Hamel disappeared in May 1914 and the large monoplane partially built was never completed.
The U.S. Navy's NC-4, first aircraft to cross the Atlantic though in stages May 1919.

In April 1913 the London newspaper The Daily Mail offered a prize of £10,000[1] (£469,000 in 2019[2]) to

the aviator who shall first cross the Atlantic in an aeroplane in flight from any point in the United States of America, Canada or Newfoundland and any point in Great Britain or Ireland" in 72 continuous hours.[3]

The

Armistice was declared in 1918.[3]
The war saw tremendous advances in aerial capabilities, and a real possibility of transatlantic flight by aircraft emerged.

Between 8 and 31 May 1919, the Curtiss seaplane

Atlantic gave the aircraft points to navigate by. This flight was not eligible for the Daily Mail prize since it took more than 72 consecutive hours and also because more than one aircraft was used in the attempt.[4]

Four teams were competing for the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. They were Australian pilot Harry Hawker with observer Kenneth Mackenzie-Grieve in a single-engine Sopwith Atlantic; Frederick Raynham and C. W. F. Morgan in a Martinsyde; the Handley Page Group, led by Mark Kerr; and the Vickers entry John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown. Each group had to ship its aircraft to Newfoundland and make a rough field for the takeoff.[5][6]

Hawker and Mackenzie-Grieve made the first attempt on 18 May, but engine failure brought them down into the ocean where they were rescued. Raynham and Morgan also attempted on 18 May but crashed on takeoff due to the high fuel load. The Handley Page team was in the final stages of testing its aircraft for the flight in June, but the Vickers group was ready earlier.[5][6]

Main article: Transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown
Clifden, County Galway
, Ireland.
The plane of Alcock and Brown having landed in Ireland

During 14–15 June 1919, the British aviators Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop transatlantic flight.[7] During the War, Alcock resolved to fly the Atlantic, and after the war, he approached the Vickers engineering and aviation firm at Weybridge, which had considered entering its Vickers Vimy IV twin-engined bomber in the competition but had not yet found a pilot. Alcock's enthusiasm impressed Vickers's team, and he was appointed as its pilot. Work began on converting the Vimy for the long flight, replacing its bomb racks with extra petrol tanks.[8] Shortly afterwards Brown, who was unemployed, approached Vickers seeking a post and his knowledge of long-distance navigation convinced them to take him on as Alcock's navigator.[9]

Vickers's team quickly assembled its plane and at around 1:45 p.m. on 14 June, while the Handley Page team was conducting yet another test, the Vickers plane took off from Lester's Field, in

St John's, Newfoundland.[10]

London Heathrow Airport

Alcock and Brown flew the modified Vickers Vimy, powered by two

imperial gallons (3,900 L) of fuel. They made landfall in Clifden, County Galway at 8:40 a.m. on 15 June 1919, not far from their intended landing place, after less than sixteen hours of flying.[10][12]

The Secretary of State for Air, Winston Churchill, presented Alcock and Brown with the Daily Mail prize for the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in "less than 72 consecutive hours".[13] There was a small amount of mail carried on the flight making it also the first transatlantic airmail flight.[14] The two aviators were knighted one week later by King George V at Windsor Castle.[15]

The first transatlantic flight by

airship R34 with his crew and passengers from RAF East Fortune, Scotland to Mineola, New York (on Long Island
), covering a distance of about 3,000 miles (4,800 km) in about four and a half days.

The flight was intended as a testing ground for postwar commercial services by airship (see Imperial Airship Scheme), and it was the first flight to transport paying passengers. The R34 wasn't built as a passenger carrier, so extra accommodations were arranged by slinging hammocks in the keel walkway. The return journey to Pulham in Norfolk, was from 10 to 13 July over some 75 hours.

The first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic was made by the Portuguese naval aviators Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral in 1922. Coutinho and Cabral flew from Lisbon, Portugal, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in stages, using three different Fairey III biplanes, and they covered a distance of 8,383 kilometres (5,209 mi) between 30 March and 17 June.

The first transatlantic flight between Spain and South America was completed in January 1926 with a crew of Spanish aviators on board

Dornier Do J flying boat; the crew was the captain Ramón Franco, co-pilot Julio Ruiz de Alda Miqueleiz
, Teniente de Navio (Navy Lieutenant), Juan Manuel Durán, and Pablo Rada.

The first transpolar flight eastbound and the first flight crossing the North Pole ever was the airship carrying Norwegian explorer and pilot Roald Amundsen on 11 May 1926. He flew with the airship "NORGE" ("Norway") piloted by the Italian colonel Umberto Nobile, non-stop from Svalbard, Norway to Teller, Alaska, USA. The flight lasted for 72 hours.

The first night-time crossing of the South Atlantic was accomplished on 16–17 April 1927 by the Portuguese aviators

Dornier Wal
flying boat.

Charles Lindbergh with the Spirit of St. Louis – 1927.

In the early morning of 20 May 1927,

Le Bourget Airport near Paris
, at 10:22 p.m. on 21 May 1927, completing the first solo crossing of the Atlantic.

The first east-west non-stop transatlantic crossing by an aeroplane was made in 1928 by the

Junkers W33 type aircraft, from Baldonnel Airfield in County Dublin, Ireland.[16]

On 18 August 1932 Jim Mollison made the first east-to-west solo trans-Atlantic flight; flying from Portmarnock in Ireland to Pennfield, New Brunswick, Canada in a de Havilland Puss Moth.[17]

In 1936 the first woman aviator to cross the Atlantic east to west, and the first person to fly solo from England to North America, was Beryl Markham. She wrote about her adventures in her memoir, West with the Night.[18]

The first transpolar transatlantic (and transcontinental) crossing was the non-stop flight [ru] piloted by the crew led by Valery Chkalov covering some 8,811 kilometres (5,475 mi) over 63 hours from Moscow, Russia to Vancouver, Washington from 18–20 June 1937.

Commercial airship flights

Flown picture postcard from the "First North American Flight" of the D-LZ127 (1928)

On 11 October 1928,

NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey
, on 15 October.

Thereafter, DELAG used the Graf Zeppelin on regularly scheduled passenger flights across the North Atlantic, from Frankfurt-am-Main to Lakehurst. In the summer of 1931, a South Atlantic route was introduced, from Frankfurt and Friedrichshafen to Recife and Rio de Janeiro. Between 1931 and 1937 the Graf Zeppelin crossed the South Atlantic 136 times.[19]

The British rigid airship R100 made a successful return trip from Cardington to Montreal in July–August 1930, in what was intended to be a proving flight for regularly scheduled passenger services. Following the R101 disaster in October 1930, the British rigid airship program was abandoned and the R100 scrapped, leaving DELAG as the sole remaining operator of transatlantic passenger airship flights.

In 1936 DELAG began passenger flights with LZ 129 Hindenburg, and made 36 Atlantic crossings (North and South). The first passenger trip across the North Atlantic left Friedrichshafen on 6 May with 56 crew and 50 passengers, arriving at Lakehurst on 9 May. The fare was $400 one way; the ten westward trips that season took 53 to 78 hours and eastward took 43 to 61 hours. The last eastward trip of the year left Lakehurst on 10 October; the first North Atlantic trip of 1937 ended in the Hindenburg disaster.

Commercial aeroplane service attempts

Flying boats were used for transatlantic flights in the 1930s

It would take two more decades after Alcock and Brown's first nonstop flight across the Atlantic in 1919 before commercial airplane flights became practical. The North Atlantic presented severe challenges for aviators due to weather and the long distances involved, with few stopping points. Initial transatlantic services, therefore, focused on the South Atlantic, where some French, German, and Italian airlines offered seaplane service for mail between South America and West Africa in the 1930s.

Between February 1934 and August 1939 Lufthansa operated a regular airmail service between Natal, Brazil, and Bathurst, Gambia, continuing via the Canary Islands and Spain to Stuttgart, Germany.[20] From December 1935, Air France opened a regular weekly airmail route between South America and Africa. German airlines experimented with mail routes over the North Atlantic in the early 1930s, with flying boats and dirigibles.

Foynes, Ireland was the European terminus for all transatlantic flying boat flights in the 1930s.

In the 1930s a flying boat route was the only practical means of transatlantic air travel, as land-based aircraft lacked sufficient range for the crossing. An agreement between the governments of the US, Britain, Canada, and the Irish Free State in 1935 set aside the Irish town of Foynes, the most westerly port in Ireland, as the terminal for all such services to be established.[21]

Pan American World Airways (PAA) flights from the United States in 1936,[22] but began exploring the possibility of using it for transatlantic flights from 1937. PAA would begin scheduled trans-Atlantic flights via Bermuda before Imperial Airways did,[23] enabling the United States Government to covertly assist the British Government before the United States entry into the Second World War as mail was taken off trans-Atlantic PAA flights by the Imperial Censorship of British Security Co-ordination to search for secret communications from Axis spies operating in the United States, including the Joe K ring, with information gained being shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.[24][25][26] The range of the Short Empire flying boat was less than that of the equivalent US Sikorsky "Clipper" flying boats and as such was initially unable to provide a true trans-Atlantic service.[21]

Two flying boats (Caledonia and Cambria) were lightened and given long-range tanks to increase the aircraft's range to 3,300 miles (5,300 km).

In the US, attention was at first focused on transatlantic flights for a faster postal service between Europe and the United States. In 1931 W. Irving Glover, the second assistant postmaster, wrote an article for Popular Mechanics on the challenges and the need for a regular service.[27] In the 1930s, under the direction of Juan Trippe, Pan American began to get interested in the feasibility of a transatlantic passenger service using flying boats.

Montreal, Quebec
.

On 5 July 1937, A.S. Wilcockson flew a

Newfoundland and Harold Gray piloted a Sikorsky S-42 for Pan American in the opposite direction. Both flights were a success and both airlines made a series of subsequent proving flights that same year to test out a variety of different weather conditions. Air France also became interested and began experimental flights in 1938.[28]

As the Short Empire only had enough range with enlarged fuel tanks at the expense of a passenger room, several pioneering experiments were done with the aircraft to work around the problem. It was known that aircraft could maintain flight with a greater load than is possible to take off with, so Major Robert H. Mayo, Technical general manager at Imperial Airways, proposed mounting a small, long-range seaplane on top of a larger carrier aircraft, using the combined power of both to bring the smaller aircraft to operational height, at which time the two aircraft would separate, the carrier aircraft returning to base while the other flew on to its destination.[21]

The Short Mayo Composite project, co-designed by Mayo and Shorts chief designer Arthur Gouge,[29][30] comprised the Short S.21 Maia,[31] (G-ADHK) which was a variant of the Short "C-Class" Empire flying-boat fitted with a trestle or pylon on the top of the fuselage to support the Short S.20 Mercury(G-ADHJ).[31][32]

The first successful in-flight separation of the Composite was carried out on 6 February 1938, and the first transatlantic flight was made on 21 July 1938 from

heavier-than-air machine. This initial journey took 20 hrs, 21 min at an average ground speed of 144 miles per hour (232 km/h).[35]

Another technology developed for transatlantic commercial flight was

aerial refuelling. Sir Alan Cobham developed the Grappled-line looped-hose system to stimulate the possibility for long-range transoceanic commercial aircraft flights,[36] and publicly demonstrated it for the first time in 1935. In the system, the receiver aircraft trailed a steel cable which was then grappled by a line shot from the tanker. The line was then drawn back into the tanker where the receiver's cable was connected to the refueling hose. The receiver could then haul back in its cable bringing the hose to it. Once the hose was connected, the tanker climbed sufficiently above the receiver aircraft to allow the fuel to flow under gravity.[37][38]

Cobham founded

Armstrong Whitworth AW.23.[39] Handley Page Harrows were used in the 1939 trials to aerial refuel the Empire flying boats for regular transatlantic crossings. From 5 August – 1 October 1939, sixteen crossings of the Atlantic were made by Empire flying boats, with 15 crossings using FRL's aerial refuelling system.[40] After the 16 crossings more trials were suspended due to the outbreak of World War II.[41]

The

RAF before they could begin civilian operation with the onset of World War II
.

The Yankee Clipper in 1939.

Meanwhile, Pan Am bought nine

Atlantic.[43] The "Clippers" were built for "one-class" luxury air travel, a necessity given the long duration of transoceanic flights. The seats could be converted into 36 bunks for overnight accommodation; with a cruising speed of only 188 miles per hour (303 km/h). The 314s had a lounge and dining area, and the galleys were crewed by chefs from four-star hotels. Men and women were provided with separate dressing rooms, and white-coated stewards served five and six-course meals with gleaming silver service.[44]

The Yankee Clipper's inaugural trip across the Atlantic was on 24 June 1939. Its route was from

Pacific fronts
.

In 1938 a Lufthansa Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor long-range airliner flew non-stop from Berlin to New York and returned non-stop as a proving flight for the development of passenger-carrying services. This was the first landplane to fulfil this function and marked a departure from the British and American reliance on flying boats for long over-water routes.[45] A regular Lufthansa Transatlantic service was planned but didn't begin until after World War II.

Maturation

RAF Darrell's Island during World War II. This base was used throughout the war for trans-Atlantic ferrying of aircraft.

It was from the emergency exigencies of World War II that crossing the Atlantic by land-based aircraft became a practical and commonplace possibility. With the

Fall of France in June 1940, and the loss of much war materiel on the continent, the need for the British to purchase replacement materiel from the United States was urgent. Airbases for refuelling were built in Greenland and Iceland, which were occupied by the United States after the German invasion of Denmark (1940)
.

The British and United States Governments hurried a secret agreement before Britain declared war on Germany in 1939 for the United States to establish a base in Bermuda. Ultimately, the agreement would be expanded to include a

Boeing 314 Berwick. Although it had been planned to continue the journey aboard the battleship HMS Duke of York, he made an impulsive decision to complete it by a direct flight from Bermuda to Plymouth, England aboard Berwick, marking the first trans-Atlantic air crossing by a national leader.[47] When the first runway at Kindley Field became operational in 1943, the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm relocated Roc
target tugs that had been operating on floats from RNAS Bermuda to the airfield to operate as land planes, and RAF Transport Command moved its operations there, leaving RAF Ferry Command at Darrell's Island.

The time it was taken for an aircraft – such as the

North Atlantic Ocean made it particularly hazardous for merchant ships between Newfoundland and Britain.[48]

Larger aircraft could be flown directly to the UK and an organization was set up to manage this using civilian pilots. The program was begun by the

Pathfinder Force, led the first delivery flight in November 1940.[49]

In 1941, MAP took the operation off CPR to put the whole operation under the Atlantic Ferry Organization ("Atfero"), which was set up by Morris W. Wilson, a banker in Montreal. Wilson hired civilian pilots to fly the aircraft to the UK. The pilots were then ferried back in converted RAF Liberators. "Atfero hired the pilots, planned the routes, selected the airports [and] set up weather and radiocommunication stations."[50][51]

Major trunk air routes of AAF Ferrying Command, June 1942.

The organization was passed to the Air Ministry administration by retaining civilian pilots, some of whom were Americans, alongside RAF navigators and British radio operators. After completing delivery, crews were flown back to Canada for the next run.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Frederick Bowhill.[53]

As its name suggests, the main function of Ferry Command was the ferrying of new aircraft from factory to operational unit.[54] Ferry Command did this over only one area of the world, rather than the more general routes that Transport Command later developed. The Command's operational area was the North Atlantic, and its responsibility was to bring the larger aircraft that had the range to do the trip over the ocean from American and Canadian factories to the RAF home Commands.[54]

With the entry of the United States into the War, the Atlantic Division of the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command began similar ferrying services to transport aircraft, supplies, and passengers to the British Isles.

By September 1944 British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), as Imperial Airways had by then become, had made 1,000 transatlantic crossings.[55]

After World War II long runways were available, and North American and European carriers such as

Trans Canada Airlines (TCA), BOAC, and Air France acquired larger piston airliners that could cross the North Atlantic with stops (usually in Gander, Newfoundland and/or Shannon, Ireland). In January 1946 Pan Am's Douglas DC-4 was scheduled from New York (La Guardia) to London (Hurn) in 17 hours 40 minutes, five days a week; in June 1946 Lockheed L-049 Constellations had brought the eastward time to London Heathrow
down to 15 hr 15 min.

To aid aircraft crossing the Atlantic, six nations grouped to divide the Atlantic into ten zones. Each zone had a letter and a vessel station in that zone, providing radio relays, radio navigation beacons, weather reports, and rescues if an aircraft went down. The six nations of the group split the cost of these vessels.[56]

The September 1947 ABC Guide shows 27 passenger flights a week west across the North Atlantic to the US and Canada on BOAC and other European airlines and 151 flights every two weeks on Pan Am, AOA, TWA, and TCA, 15 flights a week to the Caribbean and South America, plus three a month on Iberia and a Latécoère 631 six-engine flying boat every two weeks to Fort de France.

British Overseas Airways Corporation Comet 1 at London Heathrow in 1953

In May 1952, BOAC was the first airline to introduce a

passenger jet, the de Havilland Comet
, into airline service, operating on routes in Europe and beyond (but not transatlantic). All Comet 1 aircraft were grounded in April 1954 after four Comets crashed, the last two being BOAC aircraft which suffered catastrophic failure at altitude. Later jet airliners, including the larger and longer-range Comet 4, were designed so that in the event of for example a skin failure due to cracking the damage would be localized and not catastrophic.

On 4 October 1958, BOAC started the "first-ever transatlantic jet service" between

New York Idlewild with a Comet 4, and Pan Am followed on 26 October with a Boeing 707 service between New York and Paris.[57]

Supersonic flights on Concorde were offered from 1976 to 2003, from London (by British Airways) and Paris (by Air France) to New York and Washington, and back, with flight times of around three and a half hours one-way. Since the loosening of regulations in the 1970s and 1980s, many airlines now compete across the Atlantic.

Present day

In 2015, 44 million seats were offered on the transatlantic routes, an increase of 6% over the previous year. Of the 67 European airports with links to North America, the busiest was London Heathrow Airport with 231,532 weekly seats, followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport with 129,831, Frankfurt Airport with 115,420, and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol with 79,611. Of the 45 airports in North America, the busiest linked to Europe was New York John F. Kennedy International Airport with 198,442 seats, followed by Toronto Pearson International Airport with 90,982, New York Newark Liberty International Airport with 79,107, and Chicago O'Hare International Airport with 75,391 seats.[58]

Million seats offered[58]
Airline 2005 2015 ∆
Delta Air Lines 2.79 5.33 91%
British Airways 4.93 4.85 -2%
United Airlines 2.37 4.78 102%
Lufthansa 2.99 3.80 27%
American Airlines 2.87 2.84 -1%
Air Canada 1.78 2.76 55%
Air France 2.23 2.49 12%
Virgin Atlantic 1.84 2.38 29%
US Airways 1.13 1.75 55%
KLM 1.12 1.45 29%

WOW Air.[59] A total of 431 non-stop routes between North America and Europe were scheduled for summer 2017, up 84 routes from 347 in 2012 – a 24% increase.[60]

In 2016 Dr. Paul Williams of the University of Reading published a scientific study showing that transatlantic flight times are expected to change as the North Atlantic

global warming, with eastbound flights speeding up and westbound flights slowing down.[61]

In February 2017, Norwegian Air International announced it would start transatlantic flights to the United States from the United Kingdom and Ireland in the summer of 2017 on behalf of its parent company using the parent's new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft expected to be delivered from May 2017.[62] Norwegian Air performed its first transatlantic flight with a

Stewart Airport, New York.[63]
The first transatlantic flight with a 737 MAX was performed on 15 July 2017, with a MAX 8 named Sir
Stewart Airport, New York.[64]

Long-haul low-cost carriers are emerging on the transatlantic market with 545,000 seats offered over 60 city pairs in September 2017 (a 66% growth over one year), compared to 652,000 seats over 96 pairs for leisure airlines[definition needed] and 8,798,000 seats over 357 pairs for mainline carriers.[65] LCC seats grew to 7.7% of North Atlantic seats in 2018 from 3.0% in 2016, led by Norwegian with 4.8% then WOW air with 1.6% and WestJet with 0.6%, while the three airline alliances dedicated joint ventures seat share is 72.3%, down from 79.8% in 2015.[66] By July 2018, Norwegian became the largest European airline for

major carriers combined transported 26.1 million transatlantic passengers.[67]


Transatlantic routes

See also: Atlantic Bridge (flight route)

Unlike over land, transatlantic flights use standardized aircraft routes called

Boeing 787) have to be ETOPS
certified.

North America-Western Europe[68]
type 1H2006 1H2016
A310/DC10/MD11 3% 1%
A320/B737 1% 1%
A330 16% 26%
A340 10% 6%
A380 – 3%
B747 15% 9%
B757 6% 9%
B767 28% 19%
B777 21% 20%
B787 – 6%
The shortest ways always are orthodromes (Los Angeles–London)

Gaps in air traffic control and radar coverage over large stretches of the Earth's oceans, as well as an absence of most types of radio navigation aids, impose a requirement for a high level of autonomy in navigation upon transatlantic flights. Aircraft must include reliable systems that can determine the aircraft's course and position with great accuracy over long distances. In addition to the traditional compass, inertials and satellite navigation systems such as GPS all have their place in transatlantic navigation. Land-based systems such as VOR and DME, because they operate "line of sight", are mostly useless for ocean crossings, except in initial and final legs within about 240 nautical miles (440 km) of those facilities. In the late 1950s and early 1960s an important facility for low-flying aircraft was the Radio Range. Inertial navigation systems became prominent in the 1970s.

Busiest transatlantic routes

The twenty busiest commercial routes between North America and Europe (traffic traveling in both directions) during June until August 2022 were:[69]

Rank
North American
Airport
European
Airport
Scheduled Flight
June-Aug 2022
1 John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, United States Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom 1648
2 Newark Liberty International Airport, New York City, United States Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom 863
3 Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, United States Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom 828
4 John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, United States Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France 825
5 O'Hare International Airport Chicago, United States Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom 801
6 San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, United States Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom 617
7
Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport
, Montreal, Canada 		Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France 614
8 Logan International Airport, Boston, United States Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom 598
9
Washington Dulles International Airport
, Washington, D.C., United States 		Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom 488
10 John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, United States
Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport
, Rome, Italy 		460
11 John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, United States Milan Malpensa Airport, Milan, Italy 460
12 Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Dallas-Fort Worth, United States Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom 447
13 Mexico City International Airport, Mexico City, Mexico Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, Madrid, Spain 445
14 John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, United States Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Amsterdam, Netherlands 439
15 John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, United States Frankfurt Airport, Frankfurt am Main, Germany 433
16 John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, United States Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, Madrid, Spain 430
17 Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, United States Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France 416
18 Toronto Pearson International Airport, Malton, Canada Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom 408
19 Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta, United States Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France 369
20 Miami International Airport, Miami, United States Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom 369

Notable transatlantic flights and attempts

1910s

Airship America failure
In October 1910, the American journalist
dirigible, America. A storm off Cape Cod sent him off course, and then engine failure forced him to ditch halfway between New York and Bermuda. Wellman, his crew of five – and the balloon's cat – were rescued by RMS Trent, a passing British ship. The Atlantic bid failed, but the distance covered, about 1,000 statute miles (1,600 km), was at the time a record for a dirigible.[70]
US Navy warships "strung out like a string of pearls" along the Navy Curtiss NC-4's flightpath (3rd leg)
First transatlantic flight
On 8–31 May 1919, the
Ponta Delgada (both Azores) and Lisbon (Portugal
) in 53h 58m, spread over 23 days. The crossing from Newfoundland to the European mainland had taken 10 days 22 hours, with the total time in flight of 26h 46m. The longest non-stop leg of the journey, from Trepassey, Newfoundland, to Horta in the Azores, was 1,200 statute miles (1,900 km) and lasted 15h 18m.
Sopwith Atlantic failure
On 18 May 1919, the Australian Harry Hawker, together with navigator Kenneth Mackenzie Grieve, attempted to become the first to achieve a non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. They set off from Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, in the Sopwith Atlantic biplane. After fourteen and a half hours of flight the engine overheated and they were forced to divert towards the shipping lanes: they found a passing freighter, the Danish Mary, established contact and crash-landed ahead of her. Mary's radio was out of order, so that it was not until six days later when the boat reached Scotland that word was received that they were safe. The wheels from the undercarriage, jettisoned soon after takeoff, were later recovered by local fishermen and are now in the Newfoundland Museum in St. John's.[71]
First non-stop transatlantic flight
On 14–15 June 1919, Capt.
St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden
, Ireland, in 16h 12m.
First east-to-west transatlantic flight
On 2 July 1919, Major
R34, covering a distance of about 3,000 statute miles (4,800 km) in about four and a half days. R34 then made the return trip to England arriving at RNAS Pulham
in 75 hours, thus also completing the first double crossing of the Atlantic (east-west-east).

1920s

First flight across the South Atlantic
Main article: First aerial crossing of the South Atlantic
On 30 March–17 June 1922, Lieutenant Commander Sacadura Cabral and Commander Gago Coutinho of Portugal, using three Fairey IIID floatplanes (Lusitania, Portugal, and Santa Cruz), after two ditchings, with only internal means of navigation (the Coutinho-invented sextant with artificial horizon) from Lisbon, Portugal, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[72]
First non-stop aircraft flight between European and American mainlands
On 12 October 1924, the Zeppelin LZ-126 (later known as ZR-3 USS Los Angeles), began an 81-hour flight from Germany to New Jersey with a crew commanded by Dr. Hugo Eckener, covering a distance of 4,867 statute miles (7,833 km).[73]
First night-time flight across the Atlantic
On the night of 16–17 April 1927, the Portuguese aviators Sarmento de Beires, Jorge de Castilho and Manuel Gouveia, flew from the Bijagós islands, Portuguese Guinea to Fernando de Noronha island, Brazil in the Dornier Wal flying boat Argos.
First flight across the South Atlantic made by a non-European crew
On 28 April 1927, Brazilian
Santo Amaro (São Paulo), making stops in Spain, Gibraltar, Cape Verde and Fernando de Noronha
, in the Brazilian territory.
Disappearance of
L'Oiseau Blanc
On 8–9 May 1927, Charles Nungesser and François Coli attempted to cross the Atlantic from Paris to the US in a Levasseur PL-8 biplane L'Oiseau Blanc ("The White Bird"), but were lost.
First solo transatlantic flight and first non-stop fixed-wing aircraft flight between America and mainland Europe
On 20–21 May 1927,
Roosevelt Field, New York to Paris–Le Bourget Airport
, in 33½ hours.
First transatlantic air passenger
On 4–6 June 1927, the first transatlantic air passenger was
Bellanca
.
First non-stop air crossing of the South Atlantic
On 14–15 October 1927,
Breguet 19, flew from Senegal to Brazil
.
First non-stop fixed-wing aircraft westbound flight over the North Atlantic
On 12–13 April 1928,
Junkers W33 monoplane (named Bremen), 2,070 statute miles (3,330 km), from Baldonnell near Dublin, Ireland, to Labrador, in 36½ hours.[74]
First crossing of the Atlantic by a woman
On 17–18 June 1928, Amelia Earhart Amelia Earhart was the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air with pilot Wilmer Stultz and copilot/mechanic Louis Gordon.
Notable flight (around the world)
On 1–8 August 1929, in making the circumnavigation, Dr Hugo Eckener piloted the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin across the Atlantic three times: from Germany 4,391 statute miles (7,067 km) east to west in four days from 1 August; return 4,391 statute miles (7,067 km) west to east in two days from 8 August; after completing the circumnavigation to Lakehurst, a final 4,391 statute miles (7,067 km) west to east landing 4 September, making three crossings in 34 days.[75]

1930s

First scheduled transatlantic passenger flights
From 1931 onwards, LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin operated the world's first scheduled transatlantic passenger flights, mainly between Germany and Brazil (64 such round trips overall) sometimes stopping in Spain, Miami, London, and Berlin.
First nonstop east-to-west fixed-wing aircraft flight between European and American mainlands
On 1–2 September 1930,
Breguet 19
Super Bidon biplane (named Point d'Interrogation, Question Mark), 6,200 km from Paris to New York City.
First non-stop flight to exceed 5,000 miles distance
On 28–30 July 1931,
Special J-300 high-wing monoplane named the Cape Cod from New York City's Floyd Bennett Field to Istanbul in 49:20 hours in completely crossing the North Atlantic and much of the Mediterranean Sea; establishing a straight-line distance record of 5,011.8 miles (8,065.7 km).[76][77]
First solo crossing of the South Atlantic
27–28 November 1931. Bert Hinkler flew from Canada to New York, then via the West Indies, Venezuela, British Guiana, Brazil and the South Atlantic to Great Britain in a de Havilland Puss Moth.[78]
First solo crossing of the Atlantic by a woman
On 20 May 1932, Amelia Earhart set off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, intending to fly to Paris in her single engine Lockheed Vega 5b to emulate Charles Lindbergh's solo flight. After encountering storms and a burnt exhaust pipe, Earhart landed in a pasture at Culmore, north of Derry, Northern Ireland, ending a flight lasting 14h 56m.
First solo westbound crossing of the Atlantic
On 18–19 August 1932, Jim Mollison, flying a de Havilland Puss Moth, flew from Dublin to New Brunswick.
Lightest (empty weight) aircraft that crossed the Atlantic
On 7–8 May 1933,
RWD-5bis – empty weight below 450 kilograms (990 lb). If considering the total takeoff weight (as per FAI records) then there is a longer distance Atlantic crossing: the distance world record holder, Piper PA-24 Comanche in this class, 1000–1750 kg. FAI[permanent dead link
]
Mass flight
Notable mass transatlantic flight: On 1–15 July 1933, Gen. Italo Balbo of Italy led 24 Savoia-Marchetti S.55X seaplanes 6,100 statute miles (9,800 km), in a flight from Orbetello, Italy, to the Century of Progress International Exposition Chicago, Illinois, in 47h 52m. The flight made six intermediate stops. Previously, Balbo had led a flight of 12 flying boats from Rome to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in December 1930 – January 1931, taking nearly a month.
First solo westbound crossing of the Atlantic by a woman and first person to solo westbound from England
On 4–5 September 1936, Beryl Markham, flying a Percival Vega Gull from Abingdon (then in Berkshire, now Oxfordshire), intended to fly to New York, but was forced down at Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, due to icing of fuel tank vents.
First transatlantic passenger service on heavier-than air aircraft
on 24 June 1939,
Boeing 314 flying boats. On 8 July 1939, a service began between New York and Southampton
as well. A single fare was US$375.00 ($8,214 in 2023 dollars). Scheduled landplane flights started in October 1945.

1940s

First transatlantic flight of non-rigid airships
On 1 June 1944, two
K class blimps from Blimp Squadron 14 of the United States Navy (USN) completed the first transatlantic crossing by non-rigid airships.[79] On 28 May 1944, the two K-ships (K-123 and K-130) left South Weymouth, Massachusetts, and flew approximately 16 hours to Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland. From Argentia, the blimps flew approximately 22 hours to Lajes Field on Terceira Island in the Azores. The final leg of the first transatlantic crossing was about a 20-hour flight from the Azores to Craw Field in Port Lyautey (Kenitra), French Morocco.[80]
First jet aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean
On 14 July 1948, six
Stornoway, Iceland, and Labrador to Montreal
on the first leg of a goodwill tour of the U.S. and Canada.

1950s

First jet aircraft to make a non-stop transatlantic flight
On 21 February 1951, an RAF
Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment, flew from Aldergrove Northern Ireland, to Gander, Newfoundland. The flight covered almost 1,800 nautical miles (3,300 km) in 4h 37 m. The aircraft was being flown to the U.S. to act as a pattern aircraft for the Martin B-57 Canberra
.
First jet aircraft transatlantic passenger service
On 4 October 1958, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) flew the first jet airliner service using the de Havilland Comet, when G-APDC initiated the first transatlantic Comet 4 service and the first scheduled transatlantic passenger jet service in history, flying from London to New York with a stopover at Gander.

1970s

First supersonic commercial flight across the Atlantic Ocean
On 21 January 1976, the Concorde jet made its first commercial flight. Supersonic flights were available until 2003.
First transatlantic flight by balloon
The Double Eagle II, piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman, became the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it landed 17 August 1978 in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours 6 minutes after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.[81]
Double Eagle II

1980s

First solo crossing by helicopter
Dick Smith, Bell Jetranger III, August 1982.[82]
First balloon crossing by a woman
In September 1986, Evelien Brink, her husband Henk and Willem Hageman completed the first transatlantic balloon flight by a European team and first with a woman aboard. The Dutch Viking (
Almere, Netherlands in 51 hours and 14 minutes. This bested the time set by the Double Eagle II significantly, though the Dutch Viking suffered a near-disastrous landing.[83][84]

Other early transatlantic flights

Notable transatlantic flights of the 21st century

The prototype Sling 4 Light Sport Aircraft on arrival at Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa

Failed transatlantic attempts of the 21st century

In September 2013, Jonathan Trappe lifted off from Caribou, Maine, United States in an attempt to make the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by cluster balloon.[88] The craft was essentially a small yellow lifeboat[89] attached to 370 balloons filled with helium.[90] A short time later, due to difficulty controlling the balloons, Trappe was forced to land near the town of York Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.[91] Trappe had expected to arrive in Europe sometime between three and six days after liftoff. The craft ascended by the dropping of ballast, and was to drift at an altitude of up to 25,000 ft (7.6 km). It was intended to follow wind currents toward Europe, the intended destination, although unpredictable wind currents could have forced the craft to North Africa or Norway. To descend, Trappe would have popped or released some of the balloons.[89] The last time the Atlantic was crossed by helium balloon was in 1984 by Colonel

Joe Kittinger.[92]

Records

The fastest transatlantic flight was done by a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird from New York to London in 1 hour 55 minutes in 1974.[93] The fastest time for an airliner is 2 hours 53 minutes for JFK–London Heathrow by Concorde in 1996.[94] The fastest JFK-LHR time for a subsonic airliner is 4 hours 56 minutes by a British Airways Boeing 747-400 in February 2020.[95] The distance JFK-LHR is 5,540 kilometres (3,440 mi).

See also

References

Notes

  1. Pathfinder Force
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Bibliography

External links
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