Across the Atlantic with string and wood

SteveAstro writes "Steve Fossett together with Mark Rebholz and a recreation of the Vickers Vimy aircraft have just completed a re-enactment of the first transatlantic crossing by a piston engined aircraft by Alcock and Brown in June 1919. The team, with National Geographic Magazine. Fossett and his team are aiming to recreate the Triple Crown achieved by the Vimy, across the Atlantic, London-Cape Town and London - Australia"

Comments

Elmer's Glue

[poopdeville]

It's a little known fact that the plane this was modelled after was the world's first use of Elmer's white glue. It was used to glue wooden dowel and tenon joints together.

Re:Elmer's Glue

[Anonymous Coward]

can you cite this?

Newfoundland: Vickers, Matthew, Marconi, Oh my!

[munner]

The Vickers Vimy just left here (Newfoundland) a few days ago. Awfully strange to see an old biplane flying where jets normally go.

This isn't the first reproduction of a voyage that passed through here. In 1497, John Cabot landed in St. John's or Bonavista. In 1997, a reproduction of his boat, The Matthew, left Bristol, England and sailed here for the 500th anniversary of the voyage. See http://www.matthew.co.uk/voyages/index.html.

Other interesting bits from Newfoundland:

• The first transatlantic wireless signal was sent in 1901 from Signal Hill (St. John's) by Marconi to England. (Wikipedia, Nobel Prize Bio)
• The oldest known establishment in North America was a viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows around 1000 AD. It is now a UNESCO world heritage site.
• Canada Day, July 1st is also Memorial Day locally, as it was the day with the heaviest losses among the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. This was at Beaumont Hamel, during the Battle of the Somme. Every Newfoundlander who advanced was either wounded or killed.
• We are home to the most Easterly point of North America, Cape Spear. That is, if you don't count Greenland.

Anyone interested in Newfoundland or St. John's should read:

• The Oldest City, by Paul O'Neill
• A History of Newfoundland, by P.W. Prowse

Not accurate

[JustOK]

They didn't recreate the crash landing. Pretty wimpy.

Yawn

[fixer007]

I'm guessing by the lack of posts in here that this is getting a big yawn from the crowd.

Is anyone fascinated by recreating events that happened a long time ago?

Should we be impressed by people that do things like this? It's been done folks, and there are alot better ways to do it now.

Is there any event that you would like to see recreated? I suppose someone trying to recreate Magellan's voyage around the world(almost) would be pretty impressive.

Re:Yawn

[hcdejong]

The problem might be that the Alcock & Brown flight is much less well-known than Lindbergh's later solo flight. A pity; Alcock & Brown deserve more recognition.

The replica itself is fairly interesting as well: they experimented with several engine sets before settling on the Orendas. It originally used two Chevrolet V-8s, it has also flown with BMW V-12s (M73), both car engines originally.

This replica is not the first, by the way.

home page of the project

This isn't the first flight the replica has made: it's already completed the first two legs of the "Vimy Triple Crown", i.e. the 15,000 mile route from England to Australia in 1994, and the 9,000 mile journey from London to Cape Town in 1999.

Personally...

[jd]

I am very impressed. This kind of journey - flying blind (no satellite hookups, no lights, nothing but a sextant and clear skies) over 4,000 miles is a hell of a journey.

There have been attempts at re-enacting epic voyages - Kon Tiki II was a good example - but many of those "improved" on the original with extra equiptment, so it is hard to call them true re-enactments.

Probably the most fantastic re-enactment I've heard about was the one re-creating Brenden's voyage from Ireland to Newfoundland in a leather coracle. That is NOT a journey I would want to undertake.

Of the aviation re-enactments, this is probably the most impressive I've heard of. I wonder if they want to undertake Amelia Earhart's Last Flight, in an attempt to complete the journey she was never able to finish. It would be one of the most dangerous re-enactments, given that she was no rank novice, but might generate a LITTLE more enthusiasm from both Slashdotters and the media.

There are probably other epic adventures that could be re-enacted - Cook's voyages, for example. Someone's already done Hannibal's trek over the Alps (though I doubt in period costume). Although many have re-enacted the Battle of Hastings, the journey from York to Hastings - one of the most gruelling forced marches ever attempted - has not.

They were not the first

[marcus]

Just the first in less than 72 hours.

See: United States Navy NC4