64-734: The Felixstowe F.4 Fury ( serial N123 ), also known as the Porte Super-Baby , was a large British, five-engined triplane flying-boat designed by John Cyril Porte at the Seaplane Experimental Station , Felixstowe , inspired by the Wanamaker Triplane/Curtiss Model T . At the time the Fury was the largest seaplane in the world, the largest British aircraft, and the first aircraft controlled successfully by servo-assisted means. The test-flying programme demonstrated
128-559: A Blackburn -built Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c aircraft in 1916. By 1916 , the first sequence had reached 10000, and it was decided to start an alpha-numeric system, from A1 (allocated to a Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2d) to A9999, then starting again at B1. The letters A, B, C, D, E, F, H, and J were allocated to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), and N1 to N9999 and S1 to S9999 to the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). When
192-527: A '/G' suffix added to the end of the registration number, the 'G' signifying 'Guard', denoting that the aircraft was to have an armed guard at all times while on the ground, examples include: W4041/G, the prototype Gloster E.28/39 jet powered by the Whittle jet engine ; LZ548/G, the prototype de Havilland Vampire jet fighter; or ML926/G, a de Havilland Mosquito XVI experimentally fitted with H2S radar . As of 2009 , registration number allocations have reached
256-461: A capacity large enough could be found as transport and the project was officially opposed on grounds of expense, despite the crossing being well within the Fury's capabilities; fuel capacity was 1,500 gallons (6,819 litres). On 24 April 1919, the Fury performed a 7-hour flight. Flown initially with a designed weight of 24,000 lb (11,000 kg) its overload weight was 28,000 lb (13,000 kg), and
320-535: A few weeks later using a modified Vickers Vimy landing in Clifden , Ireland 15 June. Plans were then made for another long-distance flight, this time for the 8,000-mile (12,875 km) flight from England to Cape Town , South Africa via Gibraltar , Malta , Alexandria , Khartoum , Victoria Nyanza , Lake Tanganyika , Lake Nyassa , Beira and Durban . This was due to start on 12 August 1919 from Plymouth; refuelling and revictualling depots were established throughout
384-698: A loaded weight of 28-29,000 lb, 3100 lbs of cargo. Fitted with three Rolls-Royce Condor engines in a two tractor and one central pusher configuration - as originally intended for the Fury, two 1000 hp Cosmos Hercules engines or four 450 hp Napier Lion engines in push-pull pairs. The design was similar to Porte's G5 variant of the Felixstowe F.5 . Data from Bruce General characteristics Performance Armament Related development United Kingdom military aircraft serials United Kingdom military aircraft registration number , known as its serial number , or tail code
448-589: A model in the Froude tank at the National Physical Laboratory , first with one, then two and three, finally reverting to two steps. It was assembled and photographed at Felixstowe as early as 2 October 1918, but delivered on 31 October, with the first flight taking place on the 11th of November with Porte at the controls. Conceived for military purposes and armed with Lewis guns the Fury did not see active duties, its first flight on Armistice Day meant focus
512-591: A numeric part in the previously-unused 001 to 099 range. Some aircraft are given registrations as an acknowledgement to their civilian type; specifically, the first Airbus Voyager multi-role tanker transport is registered ZZ330 as a nod to the Airbus A330 from which it is derived (with the remainder of the Voyager fleet in series to ZZ343). Distinct registration numbering systems are used to identify non-flying airframes, typically used for ground training. The RAF have used
576-626: A numeric sequence with an 'M' suffix, sometimes referred to as the 'Maintenance' series. Known allocations, made between 1921 and 2000, ranged from 540M to 9344M, when this sequence was terminated. The main series of single letter registration numbers did not use 'M' to avoid confusion with the suffix 'M'. The Fleet Air Arm use an 'A'-prefixed sequence (e.g. A2606), and the Army Air Corps issue 'TAD' numbers to their instructional airframes (e.g. TAD015). The registration numbers are normally carried in up to four places on each aircraft; on either side of
640-668: A quarter of a million people lined the streets to watch their arrival. On the same day they landed, 15 June, the Secretary of State for Air , Winston Churchill , presented them with the Daily Mail prize of £10,000 (more than £1 million in 2019) for their historic crossing of the Atlantic. In addition, Alcock received 2,000 guineas (£2,100) from the State Express Cigarette Company and £1,000 from Laurence R Philipps for being
704-531: A service reliability test and no details of the project were published. The Felixstowe Fury was the last aircraft to be designed by Porte at Felixstowe; demobilised , he already left the Royal Air Force working with the Gosport Aircraft Company on their flying boats. Without Porte and Chief Technical Officer John Douglas Rennie to supervise, the Fury may have been loaded incorrectly. Major Moon at
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#1732851635011768-551: A visit by the Duke of Kent to unveil a new bench in the centre of Crayford with a life-size Alcock and Brown seated at each end, and to view public artwork designed by local schools. On 19 March 2017 an edition of the Antiques Roadshow was broadcast in the UK in which the granddaughter of Alcock's cousin presented a handwritten note which was carried by Alcock on the flight. The note, which
832-574: Is a sculpture of an aircraft's tail fin on Errislannan Hill two kilometres north of their landing spot, dedicated on the fortieth anniversary of their landing, 15 June 1959. Three monuments mark the flight's starting point in Newfoundland. One was erected by the Government of Canada in 1952 at the junction of Lemarchant Road and Patrick Street in St. John's, a second monument is located on Lemarchant Road, while
896-844: Is a specific aircraft registration scheme used to identify individual military aircraft belonging to the United Kingdom (UK). All UK military aircraft display a unique serial number, allocated from a unified registration number system, maintained by the Air Section of the Ministry of Defence (MoD Air). The same unified registration system is used for aircraft operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air Arm (FAA), and Army Air Corps (AAC). Military aircraft operated by government agencies and civilian contractors (for example QinetiQ , AirTanker Services , Babcock International ) are sometimes also assigned registration numbers from this system. When
960-688: Is also a monument at Manchester Airport , less than 8 miles from John Alcock's birthplace. Their aircraft (rebuilt by the Vickers Company) is located in the Science Museum in South Kensington , London . The Royal Mail issued a 5d (approximately 2.1p in modern UK currency) stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of the flight on 2 April 1969. In June 2019, the Central Bank of Ireland issued 3,000 €15 silver commemorative coins , commemorating
1024-475: Is entered by the pilot after every flight, thus giving a complete record of the pilot's flying activities and which individual aircraft have been flown. The first military aircraft registrations were a series from 1 to 10000, with blocks allocated to each service. The first actual registration number was allocated to a Short S.34 for the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), with the number 10000 going to
1088-489: Is hazardous without gyroscopic instruments, which they did not have. Alcock twice lost control of the aircraft and nearly hit the sea after a spiral dive. He also had to deal with a broken trim control which made the plane become very nose-heavy as fuel was consumed. At 12:15 a.m., Brown got a glimpse of the stars and, able to use his sextant, found that they were on course. The generator had failed, denying power to their electric heating suits, leaving them very cold in
1152-623: Is now on public display as the centre-piece of a new 'First to the Fastest' Transatlantic flight exhibition in the Museum's Vimy Pavilion but is maintained as a 'live' aeroplane and occasionally performs engine ground running demonstrations outside. One of the propellers from the Vickers Vimy was given to Arthur Whitten Brown and hung for many years on the wall of his office in Swansea before he presented it to
1216-539: The Paris Airshow . Brown died on 4 October 1948. Two memorials commemorating the flight are sited near the landing spot in County Galway, Ireland. The first is an isolated cairn four kilometres south of Clifden on the site of Marconi's first transatlantic wireless station from which the aviators transmitted their success to London, and around 1,600 feet (500 m) from the spot where they landed. In addition, there
1280-827: The RAF College Cranwell . It is believed to have been displayed in the RAF Careers Office in Holborn until 1990. It is believed to be in use today as a ceiling fan in Luigi Malone's Restaurant in Cork , Ireland. The other propeller, serial number G1184.N6, was originally given to the Vickers Works Manager at Brooklands, Percy Maxwell Muller and displayed for many years suspended inside the transatlantic terminal ( Terminal 3 ) at London's Heathrow Airport . In October 1990 it
1344-683: The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was formed in 1912, its aircraft were identified by a letter/number system related to the manufacturer. The prefix 'A' was allocated to balloons of No.1 Company, Air Battalion , Royal Engineers , the prefix 'B' to fixed-wing aeroplanes of No.2 Company, and the prefix 'F' to aeroplanes of the Central Flying School (CFS). The Naval Wing used the prefix 'H' for seaplanes ('Hydroaeroplanes' as they were then known), 'M' for monoplanes , and 'T' for aeroplanes with engines mounted in tractor configuration . Before
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#17328516350111408-609: The 100th anniversary of the flight. From April to October 2019 various events were held in Crayford and Bexley to commemorate the Centenary of the flight, and the visit of Alcock and Brown to Crayford in July 1919 when they were surprise guests at the reopening of The Princesses Theatre by the Duke of York (later King George VI). The events included talks, exhibitions, a celebration day at Hall Place and Gardens attended by c3,500 people, and chiefly
1472-401: The 1930s. Construction was superintended by Warrant Officer R. Gowing at Felixstowe. The hull, claimed to have been the best of all Porte's designs, was planked diagonally with cedar wood forming a very wide, slightly concave v-bottom with large fuselage chines. Previous Felixstowe hulls used a straight edged section. Experiments on the effect of different steps in the hull were carried out on
1536-687: The Alcock and Brown flight in a replica of the Vickers Vimy aeroplane. They did not land in the bog near Clifden, but a few miles away on the Connemara golf course. A replica Vimy, NX71MY, was built in Australia and the US in 1994 for an American, Peter McMillan, who flew it from England to Australia with Australian Lang Kidby in 1994 to re-enact the first England-Australia flight by Ross & Keith Smith with Vimy G-EAOU in 1919. In 1999, Mark Rebholz and John LaNoue re-enacted
1600-533: The Atlantic in an aeroplane in flight from any point in the United States of America , Canada or Newfoundland to any point in Great Britain or Ireland in 72 continuous hours. The competition was suspended with the outbreak of war in 1914 but reopened after Armistice was declared in 1918. Brown became a prisoner of war after being shot down over Germany . Alcock, too, was imprisoned and had resolved to fly
1664-483: The Atlantic one day. As Brown continued developing his aerial navigation skills, Alcock approached the Vickers engineering and aviation firm at Weybridge , who had considered entering their Vickers Vimy IV twin-engined bomber in the competition but had not yet found a pilot. The Vimy had originally been manufactured at Vickers in Crayford, the first twelve being made there and tested at Joyce Green airfield, Dartford. It
1728-598: The ZKnnn range. However since about the year 2000, registration numbers have increasingly been allocated out-of-sequence. For example, the first Royal Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III was given the registration number ZZ171 in 2001, and a batch of Britten-Norman Defenders for the Army Air Corps (AAC) were given registration numbers in the ZGnnn range in 2003 (the last ZG serial being allocated more than 14 years previously). Also, some recent registration number allocations have had
1792-565: The age of seventeen and gained his pilot's licence in November 1912. Alcock was a regular competitor in aircraft competitions at Hendon in 1913–14. He became a military pilot during the First World War and was taken prisoner in Turkey after his Handley Page bomber was shot down over the sea. After the war, Alcock wanted to continue his flying career and took up the challenge of attempting to be
1856-410: The aircraft (typically its fuselage ) on a vertical surface, and on the underside of each wing . The under-wing registration numbers, originally specified so that in case of unauthorised low flying , affected personnel could report the offending aircraft to the local police force, have not been displayed since the 1960s, as by then jet aircraft speeds at low level had made the likelihood of a person on
1920-665: The aircraft performed well at both limits. The Air Ministry 's preference to leave the non-stop achievement to a commercial venture, led to the abandonment of the attempt about the third week of May 1919, when flight tests resumed. The first Atlantic crossing by the Curtiss NC-4 starting 8 May, reached Lisbon 27 May 1919 arriving in Plymouth on the 31st to great fanfare as the first flight from North America (United States, Canada, and Newfoundland) to Great Britain and Ireland. The first non-stop Atlantic crossing by Alcock and Brown followed
1984-479: The aircraft's suitability for long-distance flight, however on 11 August 1919 (the eve of a planned flight from England to South Africa ) it stalled and crashed into the sea after take-off, killing one member of the crew and suffering irrepairable damage. Started in early 1917, the Porte Super-baby was a huge aircraft by the standards of the time, with a wingspan comparable to the monoplane flying-boat designs of
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2048-734: The coast at 4:28 pm, having spent around fourteen-and-a-half hours over the North Atlantic, flying 1,890 miles (3,040 km) in 15 hours 57 minutes at an average speed of 115 mph (185 km/h; 100 knots ). Their first interview was given to Tom 'Cork' Kenny of The Connacht Tribune . Alcock and Brown were treated as heroes on the completion of their flight. Crowds in Ireland cheered them at each train station on their way to Dublin. Arriving in Britain by boat, they were mobbed at Holyhead, and planes escorted their train journey to London where
2112-575: The competition and, when Alcock and Brown arrived in St. John's, Newfoundland , the Handley Page team were in the final stages of testing their aircraft for the flight, but their leader, Admiral Mark Kerr , was determined not to take off until it was in perfect condition. The Vickers team quickly assembled their aircraft and, at around 1:45 p.m. on 14 June the Vimy took off from Lester's Field. Alcock and Brown flew
2176-432: The controls apparently left the water before the safe flying speed and with insufficient power left to draw on, the aircraft stalled. Two months after the Fury's destruction Porte succumbed suddenly to pulmonary tuberculosis , dying on 22 October 1919, aged 35. Unrealised commercial version of the Fury designed primarily for carrying mail and valuable cargo long distance over sea or 10-12 passengers and three crew with
2240-484: The end of the first year, a unified aircraft registration number system was introduced for both Army and Naval ( Royal Naval Air Service ) aircraft. The registration numbers are allocated at the time the contract for supply is placed with the aircraft manufacturer or supplier. In an RAF or FAA pilot's personal service log book , the registration number of any aircraft flown, along with any other particulars, such as aircraft type, flight duration, purpose of flight, etc.,
2304-533: The first 'stopping' flight of the Atlantic had been made by the NC-4 , a United States Navy flying boat , commanded by Lt. Commander Albert Cushing Read , who flew from Naval Air Station Rockaway , New York to Plymouth with a crew of five, over 23 days, with six stops along the way. 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
2368-527: The first Briton to fly the Atlantic Ocean. Both men were knighted a week later by King George V at Windsor Castle . Alcock and Brown flew to Manchester on 17 July 1919, where they were given a civic reception by the Lord Mayor and Corporation , and awards to mark their achievement. Alcock was killed on 18 December 1919 when he crashed near Rouen whilst flying the new Vickers Viking amphibian to
2432-497: The first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by aeroplane in "less than 72 consecutive hours". The flight carried nearly 200 letters, the first transatlantic airmail. The two aviators were knighted by King George V at Windsor Castle a week later. John Alcock was born in 1892 in Basford House on Seymour Grove, Firswood , Manchester , England . Known to his family and friends as "Jack", he first became interested in flying at
2496-632: The first flight from London to Cape Town with this same replica, and in late 2006 the aeroplane was donated to Brooklands Museum at Weybridge , Surrey . After making a special Alcock and Brown 90th anniversary return visit to Clifden in June 2009 (flown by John Dodd and Clive Edwards), and some final public flying displays at the Goodwood Revival that September, the Vimy made its final flight on 15 November 2009 from Dunsfold Park to Brooklands crewed by John Dodd (pilot), Clive Edwards and Peter McMillan. It
2560-652: The first to fly directly across the Atlantic . Arthur Whitten Brown was born in Glasgow , Scotland , with American parents in 1886 and shortly afterwards the family moved to Manchester. Known to his family and friends as "Teddie", he began his career in engineering before the outbreak of the First World War. In April 1913 the London newspaper the Daily Mail offered a prize of £10,000 to: ...the aviator who shall first cross
2624-516: The flight and that XV486 would serve as backup. On 19 June, XV424 departed from RAF St. Athan to CFB Goose Bay from where the crossing would be made. The crew chosen for the crossing were: Squadron Leader A. J. N. "Tony" Alcock (pilot and nephew of Sir John Alcock who made the original crossing) and Flight Lieutenant W. N. "Norman" Browne (navigator). For the journey the pair took with them Brown's original cat toy mascot 'Twinkletoes.' On 21 June, XV424 took off from Goose Bay , Labrador and began
Felixstowe Fury - Misplaced Pages Continue
2688-499: The ground being able to read, and thus report them, increasingly remote. The registration number on each side is usually on the rear fuselage, but this can vary depending on the aircraft type, for instance the delta winged Gloster Javelin had the registration number on the forward engine nacelle, and the Avro Vulcan had the registration number on its tail fin . Helicopters have only carried registration numbers on each side, either on
2752-503: The inscription "Transatlantic air post 1919". Upon landing in Paris after his own record-breaking flight in 1927, Charles Lindbergh told the crowd welcoming him that "Alcock and Brown showed me the way!" To mark the original transatlantic crossing, on 1 June 1979 two Royal Air Force McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR.2s – XV424 (of No. 56 Squadron ) and ( RAF Coningsby based) XV486, were painted in special commemorative schemes. The scheme
2816-729: The journey supported by detailed meteorological reports. Final preparations were being made on 11 August at Felixstowe when the aircraft side-slipped at low altitude and crashed at 90 mph shortly after take-off, breaking up on impact. The accident in the harbour, about 500 yards off-shore was witnessed by large crowds of holiday makers. Despite attempts at rescue, one of the 7-person crew (wireless operator Lt S.E.S. McLeod), remained strapped to his seat and drowned. The surviving crew members rescued by pinnaces were: Officer in charge, Colonel T.S.M. Fellowes, Pilots, Major E.R. Moon and Captain C.L. Scott, chief engineer, Lt J.F. Armitt and mechanics, W/O J.G. Cockburn and W/O H.S. Locker. McLeod's body
2880-549: The last three digits of its US Navy Bureau Number 124097. Recently, past unassigned registration numbers, including those having numerals 001-099, have been assigned. Some letters have not been used to avoid confusion: C could be confused with G, I confused with 1, O and Q confused with 0, U confused with V, and Y confused with X. During the Second World War , RAF aircraft carrying secret equipment, or that were in themselves secret, such as certain military prototypes , had
2944-544: The middle wing and supported by additional struts, configured as two outboard tandem tractor/pusher ( push-pull ) pairs and one central pusher. In addition to its triplane wing configuration, the Fury had a biplane tailplane with three rudders, mounted on a single vertical fin similar to the Curtiss triplane. The Fury was initially provided with servo -motors for the main flight control surfaces, designed by Major Arthur Quilton Cooper, but these were removed later without compromising
3008-409: The modified Vickers Vimy, powered by two Rolls-Royce Eagle 360 hp engines which were supported by an on-site Rolls-Royce team led by engineer Eric Platford . The pair brought toy cat mascots with them for the flight – Alcock had 'Lucky Jim' while Brown had 'Twinkletoes'. It was not an easy flight. The heavily loaded aircraft had difficulty taking off from the rough field and only just cleared
3072-595: The open cockpit. Then, at 3:00 a.m., they flew into a large snowstorm. They were drenched by rain, their instruments iced up, and the aircraft was in danger of icing and becoming unflyable. The carburettors also iced up; it has been said that Brown had to climb out onto the wings to clear the engines, although he made no mention of that. They made landfall in County Galway and landed at 8:40 a.m. on 15 June 1919, not far from their intended landing place, after less than sixteen hours' flying time. The aircraft
3136-422: The pilot's ability to control this large aircraft. At some point the engines were replaced with more powerful Eagle VIIIs . With the intense competition in early 1919 to achieve the first transatlantic flight , it was planned to join other teams in the race by shipping the Fury to Cape Broyle , Newfoundland . The intention being a non-stop flight, however the aircraft's size presented a problem as no vessel with
3200-488: The provision of the fuel needed. Alcock's enthusiasm impressed the Vickers' team and he was appointed as their pilot. Work began on converting the Vimy for the long flight, replacing the bomb racks with extra petrol tanks. Shortly afterwards, Brown, who was unemployed, approached Vickers seeking a post and his knowledge of long-distance navigation persuaded them to take him on as Alcock's navigator. Several teams had entered
3264-428: The registration number Z9978 had been allocated to a Bristol Blenheim , and it was decided to restart the sequence with a two-letter prefix, starting at AA100. This sequence is still in use today. Until the 1990s, this two-letter, three-numeral registration number sequence, had numbers in the range 100 to 999. An exception to this rule was a Douglas Skyraider AEW1 which received the UK serial WT097, which incorporated
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#17328516350113328-608: The sequence reached the prefix K, it was decided to start at K1000 for all subsequent letters instead of K1. Although the N and S series had earlier been used by RNAS aircraft, the sequence N1000 to N9999 was again used by the Air Ministry for both RAF and RN aircraft. The 'Naval' S sequence had reached only S1865, a Fairey IIIF , but when R9999 was reached in 1939 , the next serial allocations did not run on from that point, but instead commenced at T1000. From 1937 , not all aircraft registration numbers were allocated, in order to hide
3392-463: The tail-boom or rear fuselage. Alcock and Brown John Alcock and Arthur Brown were British aviators who, in 1919, made the first non-stop transatlantic flight . They flew a modified First World War Vickers Vimy bomber from St. John's , Newfoundland , to Clifden , County Galway , Ireland. The Secretary of State for Air , Winston Churchill , presented them with the Daily Mail prize of £10,000 (equivalent to £580,500 in 2023) for
3456-459: The third was unveiled by Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador Joey Smallwood on Blackmarsh Road. A memorial statue by sculptor William McMillan was erected at London Heathrow Airport in 1954 to celebrate their flight. The statue was taken to Ireland as part of the centenary celebrations in 2019 before being relocated at Brooklands Museum , where it was formally unveiled in February 2020. There
3520-412: The tops of the trees. At 17:20 the wind-driven electrical generator failed, depriving them of radio contact, their intercom and heating. An exhaust pipe burst shortly afterwards, causing a frightening noise which made conversation impossible with a failed intercom. At 5:00 p.m. they encountered thick fog, preventing Brown from being able to navigate using his sextant . Blind flying in fog or cloud
3584-534: The true number of aircraft in production and service. Gaps in the serial number sequence were sometimes referred to as 'blackout blocks'. The first example of this practice was an early 1937 order for two-hundred Avro Manchester bombers; which were allotted the registration numbers L7276-7325, L7373-7402, L7415-7434, L7453-7497, L7515-7549, and L7565-7584, covering a range of 309 possible serial registration numbers, and thus making it difficult for an enemy to estimate true British military aircraft strength. By 1940 ,
3648-422: Was a great inconvenience to have to dismantle the aircraft to move them to Joyce Green so production was moved to Weybridge. The thirteenth Vimy assembled was the one used for the trans-Atlantic crossing. Alcock said 13 was his lucky number. Sir Henry Norman was involved in the detailed planning for a proposed transatlantic flight using the Vimy. This planning included the route to be flown, hangar facilities and
3712-506: Was damaged upon arrival because they landed on what appeared from the air to be a suitable green field, but which turned out to be Derrigimlagh Bog, near Clifden in County Galway in Ireland. This caused the aircraft to nose-over, although neither of the airmen was hurt. Brown said that if the weather had been good, they could have pressed on to London. Their altitude varied between sea level and 12,000 ft (3,700 m). They took off with 865 imperial gallons (3,900 L) of fuel. They crossed
3776-583: Was designed by aviation artist Wilfred Hardy . As well as marking the anniversary of the crossing, the scheme also made reference to the usage of Rolls-Royce engines in both aircraft: the Rolls-Royce Eagle in the Vimy and the Rolls-Royce Spey in the Phantom FGR.2, and on top of this it also marked the 30th anniversary of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It was decided that XV424 would make
3840-583: Was donated by the BAA (via its former chairman, Sir Peter Masefield ) to Brooklands Museum, where it is now displayed as part of a full-size Vimy wall mural in the Vickers Building. A small amount of mail, 196 letters and a parcel, was carried on Alcock and Brown's flight, the first time mail was carried by air across the ocean. The government of the Dominion of Newfoundland overprinted stamps for this carriage with
3904-501: Was paid to the aircraft's civilian capabilities. The Fury's unstaggered wings comprised the 3-bay lower wings, mounted near the top of the hull, and a pair of 4-bay upper wings of larger span. All were supported by pairs of vertical struts and diagonal cross-bracing. The original design specified three 600 hp (450 kW) Rolls-Royce Condor engines, but these were not available and five 334 hp (249 kW) Rolls-Royce Eagle VII engines were fitted instead. These were mounted on
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#17328516350113968-460: Was recovered after the rescue and the wreck was eventually towed ashore. The crash was a surprise as the Fury was subject to exhaustive tests in the 12 weeks prior to the flight, surpassing the crews expectations who had every confidence in the aircraft. Flight tests were in accordance with RAF safety margins, however Chief of the Air Staff , Air Vice Marshal Hugh Trenchard regarded the journey as
4032-454: Was used in the attempt. A month after Alcock and Brown's achievement, British airship R34 made the first double crossing of the Atlantic. Leaving England on 2 July, it arrived on 4 July carrying 31 people (one a stowaway) and a cat. For the return flight, 29 of this crew, plus two flight engineers and a different American observer, returned to Europe. On 2–3 July 2005, American adventurer Steve Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz recreated
4096-772: Was valued at £1,000–£1,200, read as follows: My Dear Elsie Just a hurried line before I start. This letter will travel with me in the official mail bag, the first mail to be carried over the Atlantic. Love to all, Your loving Brother Jack Two weeks before Alcock and Brown's flight,
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