ALCOCK & BROWN’S COMPETITORS · 2020. 6. 12. · the delivery of Handley Page bombers by air from American factories and tells the stories of the “also-rans” whose bids to be

Journal of Aeronautical History Paper 2020/04

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ALCOCK & BROWN’S COMPETITORS

Peter Elliott

Curator Emeritus, Royal Air Force Museum

ABSTRACT Alcock and Brown are rightly remembered as the first to make a non-stop flight across the Atlantic, but it is not generally appreciated that they were in competition with several other aviators. Some of them had tried and failed, while others had not completed their preparations before Alcock and Brown reached Ireland. This paper will set out the background to the competition and throw light on those who might have become as well-known as Alcock and Brown, had the circumstances changed. 1. Who might have been first across the Atlantic? In 2019 the centenary of the first non-stop crossings of the Atlantic was widely celebrated in the United Kingdom and Ireland, but little attention was paid to those who also set their sights on the distinction of being the first to make a transatlantic flight. It has been said that, if there had been a speck of dust in their carburettors, we would not have heard of John Alcock and Arthur W Brown; whilst their success was doubtless attributable to factors such as reliable engines, others were not so lucky. This paper will describe those who are seldom in the limelight, and who might easily have become as well-known as – if not better-known than – those pioneers. It sets out the background to the competition that motivated many aviators, describes the little-known plans for the delivery of Handley Page bombers by air from American factories and tells the stories of the “also-rans” whose bids to be first across the Atlantic came to naught. Conclusions regarding the competing aircraft are drawn. 2. The Competition Lord Northcliffe, owner of the Daily Mail, gave substantial prizes to help promote aviation and – indirectly – his newspaper. These were (with winners):

• 1906 London to Manchester (Paulhan 1910) • 1908 Cross-Channel (Blériot 1909) • First circular flight of a mile or more by a British pilot in a British-built machine

(Moore-Brabazon) • 1911 1,000-mile Circuit of Britain (Conneau) • 1912 1,000-mile Seaplane Circuit of Britain (not won)

ThispaperisbasedonapresentationgiventoaRAeSHistoricalGroupseminaron3June2019


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In 1913 he announced a prize of £10,000 for the first transatlantic flight. Several people were reported to be making preparations, including Gordon England and Herr Rumpler, and a report in Flight implies that the Bleriot company and Colonel Samuel Cody were also intending to compete. The Belgian Charles Van den Born proposed flying from French Guinea to Brazil, but the competition rules effectively stipulated the North Atlantic.(1) Two firm entries were made, by Gustav Hamel (with a Martinsyde monoplane) and Lt J C Porte (Curtiss flying-boat).(2) Hamel was lost in the Channel in May 1914, and the war then intervened. 3. An Atlantic air bridge? After the US entered the war in 1917 the Standard Aircraft Corporation, located in New Jersey, USA, gained a contract to build 500 Handley Page O/400 bombers, which would be powered by Liberty engines in place of Rolls-Royce Eagles. In October 1917 Sir Frederick Handley Page proposed delivering the aircraft via Newfoundland to Ireland, pointing out the considerable morale effect that such a successful flight would have. “To Germany it would show that no point in that country was secure against Air raid and that the submarine no longer held the key of the transport problem. In this country it would enhance the prestige of the Air Service and increase the confidence of the British public.” He also pointed out that “the Italians planning a flight in the autumn with a Caproni machine. We can beat them if we start now”.(3) Standard also had a contract to build Caproni Ca 46s. The Air Board conducted a thorough investigation of the proposal, involving specialists in meteorology, navigation, aircraft performance, and compasses. The considered three possible routes:

• Newfoundland – Cape Clear • St John’s – the Azores – Lisbon • Labrador – Greenland – Iceland – Scotland

but their calculations indicated that the flight was at the edge of the O/400’s range.(4) In January 1918 reports were received that the US Government were “most anxious to fly their large machines straight across to France instead of by shipment, time and money being saved thereby.” The emphasis had shifted from national prestige to strategic advantage, although the air staff were keen to point out the need for special navigation techniques and instruments if the direct route was to be taken; they preferred going via the Azores. A minute on the file – the author’s name is illegible – states, “Personally I am of the opinion that if machines from America are to be delivered by air, we shall be lucky to get 20% of them across this way.” (5) In March 1918 Vickers sought permission to fly from New York to London in late July, with a Vimy, but the request was turned down by the Air Council. Lord Weir recommended that the decision be reconsidered in three months’ time. (6)


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Porte – by now a lieutenant colonel – submitted a paper in May 1918 proposing a flight “in conjunction with the United States Naval Authorities, so as to get their full co-operation and to prevent any jealousy or misunderstanding in the matter.” The aircraft, apparently a modified Felixstowe F.5 flying-boat, should be built in America and powered by Rolls-Royce engines. Porte was rather dismissive regarding landplanes. He felt that private manufacturers would use a transatlantic flight as “advertisement, with its scientific side a very bad second” whereas a national (i.e. service) flight “would be solely for the collection of sufficient data to … show others how to follow after, allowing aircraft to be delivered by air.(7) He pointed out that using a landplane would require the construction of aerodromes in the Azores and that a seaplane would be more likely to survive ditching. Porte had planned to use this route when he entered the competition in 1914. A paper by Lt Col R C M Pink (later of Pink’s War fame) considered a flight by RAF flying-boats via the Azores, noted the US Navy’s preparations and warned that Porte’s proposed flight would “risk the crews of the boats on far too slender a chance”. He contended that it was better not to attempt the flight at all rather than to throw away useful lives on an ill-considered scheme, but tempered this by asking “Is it or is it not worthwhile that the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic shall be built, designed and manned by the British?” (8) Stirring stuff! The Royal Navy were apparently unwilling to provide ships to support the flight. The Air Council included transatlantic flights (whether by landplane or flying-boat) in a proposed programme of demonstration flights discussed at a meeting in December 1918.(9) In Newfoundland, an RAF officer had identified a site for an airfield. A lease was taken out on land at Mount Pearl in the summer of 1918, but the ground had to be cleared and levelled, at significant cost – not least because the landowner was proving difficult, claiming compensation for the destruction of a rhubarb patch! (10 ) The Air Ministry informed the Society of British Aircraft Constructors in April 1919 that the site was available for use albeit requiring further improvement and noted that firms were “making their own arrangements for aerodrome accommodation”.(11) 4. Competition renewed In February 1919 the Royal Aero Club reissued the rules for the Daily Mail prize:

• The flight must be in an aeroplane, rather than an airship or balloon

• It could be made from any point in Great Britain or Ireland to any point in Newfoundland, Canada or the USA, or vice versa. Newfoundland was not part of Canada at the time – it was a separate Dominion until 1949.

• The competition was open to persons of any nationality not of enemy origin, and no aeroplane of enemy origin or manufacture could be used – the war was, technically, not over until the Treaty of Versailles was signed four months later on 28 June 1919.

• There was a limit of 72 consecutive hours for the flight.

• Competitors were allowed only one aircraft per attempt – no changing horses in mid-stream – but


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• An intermediate stop or stops on water would be allowed without penalty. (12) It seems that 11 contenders declared their intention to try for the prize: six of them didn’t make it to the starting line.

Table 1: entrants who did not compete

Pilot & Crew Aircraft

Capt Sundstedt & Maj. Morgan Sundstedt Sunrise (seaplane)

Mr Dawson Kennedy-Dawson (Modified Sikorsky)

S Pickles & Capt A G D West Fairey Atlantic (modified IIIC)

Capt A Payze + 2 Whitehead biplane

J A Peters & Capt W R Curtis Alliance Seabird

Maj Savory, Capt Woolner & A L Howarth Boulton & Paul P.8

Sundstedt was originally Swedish but was applying for American citizenship. His seaplane had a wingspan of 100 ft, with two engines driving pusher propellers and was built in New Jersey. Unfortunately, it crashed on a test flight. Mr Dawson’s aircraft seems not to have been built. Designed by C J H M Kennedy, who had worked with Sikorsky, it would have had a span of 108 feet and been powered by four Napier Lion engines.(13) Little information is available regarding two of the competitors. On 17 April Flight reported: “The Fairey seaplane, Rolls-Royce engine, which will be piloted by Mr. Sydney Pickles, is also nearing completion, but a certain amount of secrecy as to the plans of this entrant is being maintained. The same applies to the Whitehead contingent, from whom not a word concerning their plans has been vouchsafed.” (14) Whitehead had sought a licence in October 1917 to build an aircraft for a flight across the Atlantic. Their 1919 bid might have been Whitehead’s last gasp: a petition to wind up the company was submitted in June 1919.(15) That leaves two more, which we can see in a little more detail. The Alliance Seabird looks – at first sight – like a fairly normal cabin biplane, but Flight suggests that the pilot was seated in the cabin, rather than in a cockpit (Figure 1).(16) It’s reminiscent of Lindbergh in the Spirit of St Louis, only able to see forward through a periscope. The pilot, Peters, was also the designer and presumably felt that keeping the pilot in the cabin would have advantages in terms of reduced drag and pilot fatigue. The aircraft would have had one wireless set for communication and another for direction finding to aid navigation. While the Seabird was evidently not ready in time for the competition, a trial flight of some 900 miles was made from London to Madrid in July 1919. A second Seabird was entered for the Great Britain to Australia prize offered by the Australian Government, but crashed shortly after departure on 13 November 1919, killing both crewmembers.


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The Boulton & Paul P.8, like the Seabird, had an enclosed cabin, but also had a cockpit canopy. It could carry a wireless operator and a second pilot to share the workload; the tailplane incidence could be adjusted in flight to give an element of pitch trim, and it could be trimmed to fly hands-off, even with one engine stopped. That seems to have involved locking the controls in position and relying on the aircraft’s natural stability. Flying with the controls locked doesn’t seem a terribly good idea! The P.8 was powered by two Napier Lion engines but was only able to maintain height on one engine when two hours’ fuel had been burnt. That was the cause of its downfall on a test flight, when one engine cut after take-off (Figure 2). The P.8 was subsequently developed as a commercial aircraft but did not go into production.(17) Before examining the five who did compete, it is important to mention the people who were the first to make the crossing: the US Navy. On 16 May 1919, three Curtiss flying-boats set off from Newfoundland. They took the Azores route, and only one completed the journey, arriving in Lisbon on the 27 May. They had not entered the competition, and in any case took much longer than the 72 hours allowed. The NC-4 later flew on to the UK, arriving at Plymouth on the 31 (Figure 3). After a formal welcome from the mayor, Commander Read and his crew were whisked off to London. Their aircraft is now in the National Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola, on loan from the Smithsonian Institution.

Figure1.AllianceSeabird(NationalAerospaceLibrary,RoyalAeronauticalSociety)


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Figure 2. The Boulton & Paul P.8 crashed on a test flight

(Royal Air Force Museum photograph P020212)

Figure 3. The Curtiss NC-4 arriving at Plymouth, 31 May 1919

(Royal Air Force Museum photograph PC 73/82/144)


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5. The competitors Table 2. The competitors

Pilot & Crew Aircraft

Maj J C P Wood & Capt C C Wyllie Short Shirl “Shamrock”

H G Hawker & Cdr K Mackenzie-Grieve Sopwith Atlantic

F Raynham & Capt W Morgan Martinsyde Raymor

Maj Herbert Brackley, Adm M Kerr, Maj T Gran, F Wyatt, H A Arnold & C C Clements

Handley Page V/1500

J Alcock & A Whitten Brown Vickers Vimy

Major Wood and Captain Wyllie flew a Short Shirl, a single-engined aircraft designed as a torpedo bomber, with a large fuel tank under the fuselage (Figure 4). Theirs was the only East-West attempt. They left Eastchurch on 18 April to fly to the Curragh, and about four hours later they passed over Holyhead. Some 12 miles later the engine stopped, due to an air lock in the fuel system, and the aircraft ditched. It was towed into harbour, and although they were optimistic that the aircraft could be ready for another time a week later, that was effectively the end of their hopes (Figure 5).

Figure 4. The Short Shirl (Royal Air Force Museum photograph X003-2602-13340)


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Harry Hawker was Sopwith’s test pilot, and the Sopwith Atlantic was based on the B.1 bomber. It was built in a mere six weeks and was powered by a Rolls-Royce Eagle engine. The undercarriage could be jettisoned to reduce drag and weight, and visible on the side of the fuselage is the windmill that powered the generator for the wireless (Figure 6).

Figure 6. The Sopwith Atlantic

(Royal Air Force Museum photograph X003-2602-16638)

Figure 5. The Short Shirl met a watery end



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There seems to have been an expectation that those who crossed the Atlantic would carry on, to land at Brooklands, although that wasn’t required by the rules – so how should they prove who had crossed first? Flight reported, “Among the final details arranged is the method by which the competitors will indicate their crossing of the Irish coast, which may be at any point between Malin Head and Cape Clear. Mr. Hawker has decided to throw his charts and maps overboard with a message asking the finder to forward them to the Royal Aero Club, London. The time of reaching the coast and other identification marks will be written on the back of the charts. Mr. Raynham has decided to utilise message bags with streamers. Captain Morgan, his navigator, will write the messages and throw them overboard as soon as the coast is crossed. Everyone within ten miles of the Irish coast is asked to keep a look-out for these papers.” (18) All this seems rather risky, even in comparison to the dangers involved in the flight – it would be possible to qualify for the prize but lose the evidence! The weather was expected to be most favourable around the time of the full moon – between 12 and 19 May. Hawker and Mackenzie Grieve took off from Mount Pearl on the 18th, and after some six hours they encountered engine cooling problems. The water in the radiator began to boil and although they managed temporary improvements it became clear that they would have to ditch. Fortunately, they found a steamer – the Mary – and made a text-book ditching close by. The aircraft was equipped with a makeshift dinghy, and they were soon rescued. A message was received that the aircraft had ditched some 40 miles West of the mouth of the River Shannon, and the Royal Navy despatched a large number of ships to search the area, but the report was later classed as unreliable and the ships were recalled.(19) The Mary had no wireless, so it was several days before news of their escape reached the UK and their families. On 25 May the Coastguard station at Butt of Lewis relayed a message to the Admiralty, from the Mary, “Saved hands Sopwith aeroplane”. The fliers were taken aboard the destroyer HMS Woolston and transferred to HMS Revenge. Their ditching position was recorded as 50 o 20 I N 29 o 30 I W.(20) Although the naval message stated that the aircraft “was not salved” another ship had recovered it and the mail they were carrying was delivered in London on 30 May.(21) It is said that out of adversity comes opportunity, and some people were able to make use of the aviators’ 15 minutes of fame. Gordon Selfridge was never known to miss an opportunity, and he had the wrecked aircraft displayed on the roof of his store (Figure 7) – in 1909 he had displayed Blériot’s cross-channel aircraft inside the store. Motor Radiators Ltd placed an advertisement in Flight boldly stating, “If Hawker had used our radiator his flight would have been successful.” (22) It was initially thought that the radiator had become blocked by a loose piece of solder, but X-ray photographs of the radiator showed no sign of any blockage. The company that took the “radiographs” also pointed out how useful the technique would be for the aircraft industry – another marketing opportunity! (23)


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The United States Navy sent a telegram to the Admiralty expressing gratification on hearing that Hawker and Mackenzie Grieve were safe, and the Admiralty responded, congratulating the crew of the NC 4, having received “the epoch making intelligence that the space between America and Europe has now been successfully spanned by air by way of the Azores.” (24) Claude Grahame-White’s London Aerodrome dedicated one of its weekend meetings to the two men. The US Navy crew were also there, and there was an auction for passenger flights with Hawker. The programme for the event gives a list of the remaining contestants. There were three serious contenders:

• Raynham’s Martinsyde • Handley Page’s V/1500 being prepared in Newfoundland, • Alcock and Brown’s Vimy at St John’s.(25)

Raynham and Morgan had been intending to depart at the same time as Hawker and Mackenzie Grieve. Hawker had sent Raynham his respects and “hopes of seeing him at Brooklands”. Raynham, however, is reported to have said “The bugger’s double-crossed me; we were to have gone together”.(26) Photographs in Raynham’s album show preparations for the flight: the aircraft being fuelled from a barrel on a platform, and an airman (probably Raynham) pacing out the runway before taking off in his heavy aircraft, which would need a long run. They began their take-off about an hour after Hawker left, in a strong crosswind. Just as they lifted off a gust hit them, and they crashed heavily (Figure 8).

Morgan was injured and lost the sight of his left eye. Raynham’s aircraft was repaired, and he tried again with a different navigator, Lieutenant Biddlecombe, on 17 July, but again crashed on take-off.

Figure 7. Hawker’s salvaged Sopwith machine on the roof of Selfridge’s, Oxford Street

(Royal Aero Club Trust)


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Handley Page’s aircraft arrived in Newfoundland on 10 May, in several large crates, and work began to assemble the V/1500 at Harbour Grace. Figure 9 gives an idea of the size of the aircraft from the relative size of the undercarriage.

Gran and Kerr were old friends of Handley Page. Raymond Collishaw had been chosen as Chief Pilot, but he was posted to command RAF forces in Russia. Brackley had commanded 214 Sqn,

Figure 8. Raynham’s aircraft crashed on take-off. Note the people running to help.


Figure 9. The Handley Page crew. Left to right: H A Arnold or C C Clements (Fitter & Rigger), Mr Wyatt (Wireless operator), Major Tryggve Gran, Admiral Mark Kerr, Major

Herbert Brackley (Royal Air Force Museum photograph, Album B555)


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flying the O/400. He later played key roles in Imperial Airways, BOAC and British South American Airways. The V/1500 was ready for test flights by early June, but they too had problems with the radiators (Figure 10). By the time new radiators had arrived and been fitted, Alcock & Brown had reached Clifden. Handley Page therefore cancelled the Atlantic flight; instead they would make a nonstop flight of 1,000 miles to New York.

The aircraft took off on 5 July to fly to Long Island, intending to greet the airship R34. Once again, the engines overheated and an oil-pipe broke – members of the crew climbed out on to the wing several times to make repairs but eventually a forced landing was made in Nova Scotia. A spare nose section, undercarriage and starboard bottom wing were shipped to Canada and the aircraft finally reached Mineola on 13 October. It made several demonstration flights in the US until being badly damaged on 16 November.(27) 6. Alcock and Brown

Although this paper concentrates on the other competitors, it is important to say something about Alcock and Brown. They showed remarkable endurance and skill, not to mention a stiff upper lip! Brown used a notebook to give Alcock messages in the noisy cockpit, and at one stage wrote, “This is a lovely trip – no ships, no stars or anything. Have a sandwich?” (28) Brown was not an experienced navigator – he had studied it as a prisoner of war in Germany, but it is difficult to get much practice in a camp that’s in the same place for month after month. When he arrived in

Figure 10. The V/1500 being readied for flight



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Newfoundland, he wrote in a letter that he had “spent most of the voyage on the bridge learning to navigate properly!” (29) They set off on 14 June, which would have been in the new moon period likely to bring favourable winds. Despite various problems including fog banks, icing and disorientation they made landfall remarkably close to their intended track, halfway down the western coast of Ireland. They became instant celebrities and were knighted. It was reported that Vickers was repairing the Vimy and “The souvenir hunters who annexed some parts of the machine might have the decency under the circumstances to return their captures – even if it be anonymously, and no questions asked.” (30) The Vimy was donated by Vickers to the Science Museum. The Under-Secretary of State for Air, Brigadier General Seely, felt that it would be “A far more interesting relic to succeeding generations than many other things that have been kept, such as Stephenson’s Rocket.” (31) That’s the trouble with museums – they’re full of old stuff! 7. Conclusions In today’s world, where twin-engined aircraft operate the majority of transatlantic (and other long-range) flights, it is surprising that Wood & Wylie and Hawker & Mackenzie Grieve were sufficiently optimistic to put their faith in a single engine, which let them down. All the competitors used water-cooled engines, and radiators seem to have caused some of the problems: Hawker’s suffered a blockage and Handley Page had overheating problems, even with their new radiators. Alcock and Brown’s big advantage was having two engines. Some of the aircraft entered for the competition showed novel design features. The Boulton & Paul aircraft had elevator and rudder trim to reduce control forces – by contrast, Alcock and Brown had only a piece of elastic to ease the stick forces as the aircraft became increasingly nose- heavy, and that proved to be too short. The Sopwith Atlantic had a jettisonable undercarriage, which reduced weight and drag, and made ditching much safer. It also had a built-in dinghy, (Figure 11), as did the Vimy. The Boulton & Paul could jettison fuel, and the empty tanks would aid flotation; the V/1500 had three inflatable bags for that purpose.(32) Several of the competitors were equipped with wireless, either for communication with ships (handy for checking their position or for a Mayday) or as an aid to navigation. There seems to have been friendly rivalry among the teams in Newfoundland. Hawker, Raynham and Alcock all knew each other from pre-war Brooklands, and when Alcock and Brown arrived at St John’s they found all the best fields had been taken. Raynham, whose aircraft was being repaired, lent his site to Alcock and Brown. The story that Brown climbed out on to the Vimy’s wing has been shown to be a legend based on a misunderstanding, but has that story also been influenced by the Handley Page crew’s efforts?


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At the lunch given for Alcock and Brown by the Daily Mail, Winston Churchill said that they were: “the victors of the first non-stop Atlantic flight. They are the real victors, and they are the only victors. It is no disparagement to the gallantry of Mr. Hawker. It is no disparagement to the brilliantly executed exploits of the United States Navy which, working along service lines, have obtained results of extraordinary value from a service point of view, apart from all other points of view.” (33) If the circumstances had been slightly different, he might have been praising several other aviators whose efforts have sadly become overshadowed. References 1. ‘The New Daily Mail Prizes’, Flight, Volume 5 no. 14, 5 April 1913, pp 375 & 393

2. Flight, Volume 6 No. 7, 14 February 1914, p.157

3, The National Archives (hereafter TNA) AIR 2/38/AIR67196/1917 Letter from Handley Page to Sir William

4. TNA AIR 38/APT 51357/1918, ‘The possibilities of flying the Atlantic’, 8 April 1918 5. TNA AIR 2/38/Air 67196/17 Unsigned minute 6. TNA AIR 6/16 Enclosure 90, Letter from Vickers Ltd to the Secretary of the Air Council,

19 March 1918; Enclosure 99, Note by Lord Weir, 29 March 1918 7. TNA AIR 2/38/AB279/42, ‘Re Transatlantic Flight’, 26 May 1918

8. TNA AIR 1/461/15/312/110, ‘Trans-Atlantic flight by Flying-boat, 14 February 1919 9. TNA AIR 6/19, Air Council Precis 322, 3 December 1918

Figure 11. The Sopwith Atlantic’s dinghy



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10. TNA AIR 2/80/B3464, List of expenditure, 14 December 1918 11. TNA AIR 2/80/B3464, Letter to SBAC dated March 1919

12. Flight, Volume 11 No. 6, 6 February 1919, p.175 13. The Aeroplane, Volume 16 No. 9, 5 March 1919, p.989

14. Flight, Volume 11 No. 16, 17 April 1919, p.503 15. Flight, Volume 11 No. 27, 3 July 1919, p.896

16. Flight, Volume 11 No. 20,15 May 1919, p.636 17. Alec Brew, Boulton Paul Aircraft since 1915, (London: Putnam Aeronautical Books,

1993), pp 154-158 18. Flight, Volume 11 No. 18, 1 May 1919, p.583

19. TNA ADM 1/8561/162, Telegrams from Commander-in-Chief, Queenstown, 19 and 20 May 1919

20. TNA ADM 1/8561/162, Telegrams sent 25 and 28 May 1919 21. Flight, Volume 11 No. 23, 5 June 1919, p.740

22. Advertisement, Flight, Volume 11 No. 23, 5 June 1919, p.XXVI 23. H F King, Sopwith aircraft 1912-1920, (London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1981),

p.290 24. TNA ADM 1/8561/162, letter dated 28 May 1919

25. RAF Museum (hereafter RAFM) 001996, The Hawker-Grieve Souvenir 26. Peter Allen, The 91 before Lindbergh, (Shrewsbury, Airlife: 1984), p.43 He cites

Transport Pioneers of the 20th Century: Interviews recorded by the Transport Trust, (Cambridge: Patrick Stephens, 1981) but this quote does not appear therein.

27. C H Barnes, Handley Page Aircraft since 1907, (London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1976), pp 143-145

28. RAFM DC 72/39/2 29. RAFM AC 71/1

30. Flight, Volume 11 No. 28, 10 July 1919, p.928 31. TNA AIR 2/111/A22443: Letter from Seeley to Sir Alfred Mond, 20 August 1919

32. Brew, Boulton Paul Aircraft since 1915, p.157; Barnes, Handley Page Aircraft since 1907, p.142

33. Flight, Volume 11 No. 26, 26 June 1919, p.849 The author Peter Elliott is the RAF Museum’s first Curator Emeritus, having retired as Head of Archives in 2016. He has lectured to a number of RAeS branches on Alcock and Brown’s flight and in 2019 to a RAeS Historical Group seminar to mark its centenary. He is currently studying for a PhD investigating the growth of aviation museums in the United Kingdom. Peter has been a member of the Society’s Historical Group since 1998 and was Chairman from 2012 to 2020.

Documents

ALCOCK & BROWN’S COMPETITORS · 2020. 6. 12. · the delivery of Handley Page bombers by air from American factories and tells the stories of the “also-rans” whose bids to be