Believe it or not -- Charles Lindbergh was not the first aviator to cross the Atlantic Ocean -- and the first plane wasn’t the Spirit of St Louis. It was a Navy seaplane named NC-4 piloted by a Coast Guard aviator named Elmer Stone!
It was May 27, 1919 ---eight years before Charles Lindbergh made his historic solo flight across the Atlantic.
In 1919, officers in charge of the U.S. Navy decided to demonstrate the capability of their seaplanes with a first transatlantic flight. Because the planners knew that seaplanes had to stop several times along the way for repairs and refueling - theirs was not to be a continuous journey.
For comparison, Lindbergh made his solo transatlantic trip in less than a day and a half. NC-4 would take almost three weeks to cross the Atlantic. At every stop, from New York to Lisbon Portugal, they had to wait for parts to be delivered or bad weather to clear before they could take off again.
31 мар 2021
