Blazing the Trail

Extract

At the end of the First World War, from a design point of view, aviation seemed to slow down compared with the tempo of progress during the war years. From the practical flying angle, there were brave efforts by a few to create flying records, such as the first crossing of the North Atlantic by air. Hawker and Grieve took off from Newfoundland and accomplished a remarkable feat of landing in mid-Atlantic and being picked up by a steamer. Alcock and Brown, in a war-time Vickers Vimy made a successful crossing, but unfortunately ended up in a bog in Northern Ireland.