The 1,690-mile flight of the Vickers “Vimy” Bomber, carrying Alcock and Brown, establishes a new world’s record, breaking the one made by Captain Boehm in a Mercedes-driven Albatross plane, which flew for 25 hours and 1 minute and covered 1,350 miles.
The year 1914, just previous to the war, was the most prolific in long-distance flights. On June 23 the German aviator Basser covered 1,200 miles in a Rumpler biplane in 16 hours and 28 minutes.
The same day Landsmann, another German, drove an Albatross machine 1,100 miles in 17 hours and 17 minutes, and four days later 1,200 miles in 21 hours and 49 minutes.
The nearest approach to Boehm’s record was made on April 25 last, when Lieutenant-Commander H. B. Grow, U. S. N., flew a twin-engine F-5-L flying-boat a total distance of 1,250 miles in 20 hours and 20 minutes.
Lieutenant-Commander A. C. Read, in his hop on the NC-3 from Trepassey Bay to Horta in the Azores, broke no distance records in the 1,200 nautical miles he flew, but shattered the record for speed, making an average of 103.5 miles an hour.
The French pre-war record was on April 27, 1914, by Paulet, who flew 950 miles in 16 hours and 28 minutes. Since the war the French aviators Coli and Roget flew from Villacoublay, near Paris, to Rabat, Morocco, a distance of 1,116 miles without stopping. The engine was a 300 horse-power Renault, and constitutes the longest single-motor non-stop flight on record. Miss Ruth Law holds the record for long-distance flight by a woman. On November 19, 1916, she covered the 590 miles from Chicago to Hornell, N. Y., in 5 hours and 45 minutes.
THE FIRST TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT OF THE R-34
After a flight of 108 hours, the British dirigible which left Scotland at 2 A. M. July 2, arrived at Roosevelt Field, Mineola, Long Island, N. Y., at 9 A. M., Sunday, July 6, after a flight via Newfoundland and Halifax. Owing to the strong head winds and fog which prevailed the most of the journey the huge airship was delayed two days in its flight, and there was for some time grave doubt that she would arrive on her own gasoline, for the supply was running low, and the aid of destroyers was requested by wireless from the R-34.
As soon as the airship arrived over Roosevelt Field, Major John Edward Maddock Pritchard landed upon American soil, after a parachute drop of 2,000 feet.
This completed the longest flight in history, the distance covered being 3,200 miles, not counting the mileage forced upon the flyers by adverse winds. The time consumed was a few minutes more than 108 hours. The big airship brought over thirty-one persons, one of whom was a stowaway, and a tortoise-shell cat.