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

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