Those magnificent men in their flying machines..

Rocker · June 2018

Exactly 99 years ago today, Alcock and Brown crash landed their aircraft in a bog close to Clifden in Galway, Ireland. They had completed a flight across the Atlantic ocean. In fact they landed close to the Marconi wireless trans Atlantic radio station there. Alcock and Brown were the first to fly the Atlantic non stop*

Now everyone can fly to America and further but few give those British gentlemen much thought as they do so.

* It must have been non stop as I don't know where they might have stopped.

JezWynd · June 2018

Image: http://connachttribune.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Alcock-and-Brow.jpg

Dominic · June 2018

How long did it take them ?

Hootsmon · June 2018

ICBM · June 2018

Dominic said:

How long did it take them ?

16hrs.

Very brave men. Aircraft were still really quite unreliable then, and if anything serious had gone wrong there was no hope of rescue or survival.

Tragically, Alcock was killed in a flying accident later the same year.

Axe_meister · June 2018

I thought it was the spirit of St Louis that did the first non stop flight?

Neil · June 2018

Axe_meister said:

I thought it was the spirit of St Louis that did the first non stop flight?

No, Alcock and Brown were the first by a long way.

Lindbergh's Spirit of St Louis was the first to fly from the US to France in 1927 in order to win a prize.

Incidentally the Spirit of St Louis was far more advanced than Alcock and Brown's converted WWI bomber.

HAL9000 · June 2018

What amazes me is that the first powered flight was only about 115 years ago. In that time the evolution of aircraft has been nothing short of extraordinary. We now think of airliners in much the same way that we think of buses - a quick and convenient way to get somewhere. Military aircraft regularly fly at around twice the speed of sound, something most of grandparents could never have imagined.

57Deluxe · June 2018

Ryan Air seem to have modeled their business on them...

Fretwired · June 2018

HAL9000 said:

What amazes me is that the first powered flight was only about 115 years ago. In that time the evolution of aircraft has been nothing short of extraordinary. We now think of airliners in much the same way that we think of buses - a quick and convenient way to get somewhere. Military aircraft regularly fly at around twice the speed of sound, something most of grandparents could never have imagined.

True, but look at the evolution of space travel. From the V2 rocket of 1944 to manned space flight in the 1960's culminating in man walking on the Moon. Remarkable. Followed by the tech/information revolution. In 1918 very few people had access to a telephone. Fast forward and we all have a smart handheld device that's a phone, camera, music/games player which is capable of browsing the Internet.

Progress.

Kilgore · June 2018

Fretwired said:

HAL9000 said:

What amazes me is that the first powered flight was only about 115 years ago. In that time the evolution of aircraft has been nothing short of extraordinary. We now think of airliners in much the same way that we think of buses - a quick and convenient way to get somewhere. Military aircraft regularly fly at around twice the speed of sound, something most of grandparents could never have imagined.

True, but look at the evolution of space travel. From the V2 rocket of 1944 to manned space flight in the 1960's culminating in man walking on the Moon. Remarkable.

Remarkable indeed. But I find it depressing that manned space missions have stalled. Those astronauts are now in their 80's and gradually dying off but we have gone no further than low earth orbit since.

The incredible costs and debate about 'value for money' are legitimate concerns but I still want Moon Base Alpha and guys playing golf on Mars. Looks like it's down to Elon Musk.

Clarky · June 2018

Fretwired said:

HAL9000 said:

What amazes me is that the first powered flight was only about 115 years ago. In that time the evolution of aircraft has been nothing short of extraordinary. We now think of airliners in much the same way that we think of buses - a quick and convenient way to get somewhere. Military aircraft regularly fly at around twice the speed of sound, something most of grandparents could never have imagined.

True, but look at the evolution of space travel. From the V2 rocket of 1944 to manned space flight in the 1960's culminating in man walking on the Moon. Remarkable. Followed by the tech/information revolution. In 1918 very few people had access to a telephone. Fast forward and we all have a smart handheld device that's a phone, camera, music/games player which is capable of browsing the Internet.

Progress.

remember the original Star Trek series..
Kirk stood on a planet with his hand held communicator talking to the Enterprise..
and you'd see his face on the big monitor on the bridge..
that was sic-fi
today it's a pretty normal video call

thermionic · June 2018

One of my favourite facts is the gap between the Wright Brothers first stuttering powered flight on a machine bodged from bicycle parts and successfully landing on the Moon is a mere 66 years!

ICBM · June 2018

Kilgore said:

Remarkable indeed. But I find it depressing that manned space missions have stalled. Those astronauts are now in their 80's and gradually dying off but we have gone no further than low earth orbit since.

The incredible costs and debate about 'value for money' are legitimate concerns but I still want Moon Base Alpha and guys playing golf on Mars. Looks like it's down to Elon Musk.

Unfortunately it's beyond the resources of any individual or company - the Apollo project cost over 100 billion dollars in today's money, and that would only be a starting point compared to establishing a permanent base or going to Mars.

The costs is a legitimate concern, but in fact they can be viewed as investment as much as spending - the employment it creates and the technology developed is worthwhile. Although it can be argued that you could use it for similar high-tech projects on Earth which would benefit more people.

But if Trump *really* wants to "Make America Great Again", manned exploration of the Moon and possibly Mars would be at the top of the list of ways to achieve it, and also establish his place in history.

It may be worth mentioning that if we don't go back, then the President whose name will endure the longest is Richard Nixon... because it's written on the descent stage of Apollo 11, which will last for millions of years

.

sinbaadi · June 2018

JezWynd said:

That's a very loose definition of crash-landed.

vale · June 2018

& 'earth rise' will be 50 years old this christmas, by way of perspective. how time flies...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise.jpg/600px-NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise.jpg

darthed1981 · June 2018

ICBM said:

Kilgore said:

Remarkable indeed. But I find it depressing that manned space missions have stalled. Those astronauts are now in their 80's and gradually dying off but we have gone no further than low earth orbit since.

The incredible costs and debate about 'value for money' are legitimate concerns but I still want Moon Base Alpha and guys playing golf on Mars. Looks like it's down to Elon Musk.

Unfortunately it's beyond the resources of any individual or company - the Apollo project cost over 100 billion dollars in today's money, and that would only be a starting point compared to establishing a permanent base or going to Mars.

The costs is a legitimate concern, but in fact they can be viewed as investment as much as spending - the employment it creates and the technology developed is worthwhile. Although it can be argued that you could use it for similar high-tech projects on Earth which would benefit more people.

But if Trump *really* wants to "Make America Great Again", manned exploration of the Moon and possibly Mars would be at the top of the list of ways to achieve it, and also establish his place in history.

It may be worth mentioning that if we don't go back, then the President whose name will endure the longest is Richard Nixon... because it's written on the descent stage of Apollo 11, which will last for millions of years .

A joint US-Chinese project, with heavy Russian, European and commercial involvement, would be the best way to get the space program advancing again.

Sadly, the world is heading in exactly the opposite direction, more conflict and brinksmanship and less co-operation.

Makes getting to Mars in my lifetime increasingly less likely

darthed1981 · June 2018

Neil said:

Axe_meister said:

I thought it was the spirit of St Louis that did the first non stop flight?

No, Alcock and Brown were the first by a long way.

Lindbergh's Spirit of St Louis was the first to fly from the US to France in 1927 in order to win a prize.

Incidentally the Spirit of St Louis was far more advanced than Alcock and Brown's converted WWI bomber.

Yep, Linbergh's flight was the first SOLO crossing of the atlantic ("solo" as in by himself, not what Kathleen Kennedy screams when she wakes up at night).

He later became a massive celebrity, had his child kidnapped and murdered, and became a prominent opponent of the US entry into WW2.

The original Spirit of St Louis is in the Smithsonian Museum. You can see a replica of the Vickers Vimy, as flown by Alcock and Brown, at the RAF Museum Hendon in the lovely Graham White building.

Bridgehouse · June 2018

ICBM said:

Kilgore said:

Remarkable indeed. But I find it depressing that manned space missions have stalled. Those astronauts are now in their 80's and gradually dying off but we have gone no further than low earth orbit since.

The incredible costs and debate about 'value for money' are legitimate concerns but I still want Moon Base Alpha and guys playing golf on Mars. Looks like it's down to Elon Musk.

Unfortunately it's beyond the resources of any individual or company - the Apollo project cost over 100 billion dollars in today's money, and that would only be a starting point compared to establishing a permanent base or going to Mars.

The costs is a legitimate concern, but in fact they can be viewed as investment as much as spending - the employment it creates and the technology developed is worthwhile. Although it can be argued that you could use it for similar high-tech projects on Earth which would benefit more people.

But if Trump *really* wants to "Make America Great Again", manned exploration of the Moon and possibly Mars would be at the top of the list of ways to achieve it, and also establish his place in history.

It may be worth mentioning that if we don't go back, then the President whose name will endure the longest is Richard Nixon... because it's written on the descent stage of Apollo 11, which will last for millions of years .

“Moongate”

ICBM · June 2018

sinbaadi said:

That's a very loose definition of crash-landed.

It's not as bad as it looks - they landed normally, but what they had thought was a grassy meadow turned out to be a soft bog, so as the plane slowed down the wheels then dug in at the end and it flipped up like that. Planes of that era were incredibly fragile, so the damage isn't actually that serious, and neither man was injured. Vickers repaired the plane and it's now in the Science Museum.

darthed1981 · June 2018

ICBM said:

Vickers repaired the plane and it's now in the Science Museum.

Yeah great point.

The aircraft gallery in their is lovely, they have the Supermarine S6B that won the Schneider Trophy (and indeed the trophy) in there as well, the Spitfire's older brother.

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Those magnificent men in their flying machines..

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