Everything about Nc-4 totally explained
» "For other uses, see NC 4 (disambiguation).
The
NC-4 was a
Curtiss NC flying boat, designed by
Glenn Curtiss and manufactured by
Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. In May 1919 the NC-4 became the first
aircraft to fly across the
Atlantic Ocean, making the crossing over 19 days with multiple stops along the way.
The accomplishment was largely eclipsed in public memory by the first
non-stop trans-Atlantic flight made by British pilots
Alcock and Whitten-Brown two weeks later.
Background
The NC-4's trans-Atlantic mission was the result of planning that began during
World War I, when Allied shipping was threatened by
submarine warfare. Designs were started for a
fixed-wing aircraft capable of flying from the
United States to
Europe on its own power.
The planes were not finished and tested until after the war was over. The US Navy decided to try a demonstration of trans-Atlantic flight nonetheless.
The NC-4 was the fourth of the Navy's initial series of four large
Curtiss NC Flying Boats constructed for the Navy by the
Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. The NC-4 made its first test flight on
30 April,
1919.
The Transatlantic flight
The Navy
Transatlantic flying expedition began on
8 May. The NC-4 was originally in the company of two other NC Flying Boats, the NC-1 and the NC-3. They left
Naval Air Station Rockaway,
New York (now de-commissioned and part of
Gateway National Recreation Area), then stopped in
Newfoundland before leaving on
16 May for the longest leg of their journey, the flight to the
Azores, reached 15 hours later. The NC-1 and the NC-3 were both forced to land at sea due to rough weather; the crew of the NC-1 was rescued by the Greek freighter Ionia; the crew of the NC-3 managed to sail their flying-boat to the Azores.
After delays for repairs, the NC-4 took off again and landed in
Lisbon,
Portugal on
27 May, becoming the first fixed-wing aircraft to cross the ocean under its own power, with 26 hours total flying time.
The NC-4 later flew on to
England, arriving in
Plymouth on
31 May to great fanfare, having taken 15 days for the flight from Newfoundland to
Great Britain.
This feat was eclipsed shortly afterwards by the non-stop Transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown in a
Vickers Vimy when they flew from Newfoundland to
Ireland on
June 14/15
1919, thereby winning the Daily Mail prize of ₤10,000, which had been announced in 1913, for "making a transatlantic flight in seventytwo consecutive hours between any point in the United States of America,
Canada or Newfoundland and any point in Great Britain or
Ireland".
Crew
The crew of the NC-4 was
Albert Cushing Read, commander/navigator;
Walter Hinton and
Elmer F. Stone, pilots,
James L. Breese and
Eugene T "Smokey" Rhoads, flight engineers, and
Herbert C Rodd, radio operator. Initially E.H. Howard was to go as a flight engineer, but Howard lost a hand in a propeller accident at the start of the mission, and was replaced by Rhoads.
After the crossing
After arriving in Plymouth, the crew on the NC-4, by now reunited with the crews of the less successful NC-1 and NC-3 boats, travelled to
London by train and received a tumultuous welcome. While they visited
Paris the NC-4 was dismantled in Plymouth and loaded on the
USS Aroostook for the return journey to the United States, arriving in New York on
2 July 1919.
Following the return of the crew, a goodwill tour of the eastern and southern seaboards was undertaken.
In 1929, to honor the first transatlantic crossing, the United States Navy created a special
military decoration known as the
NC-4 Medal.
The NC-4 aircraft is now preserved in the
Naval Aviation Museum in
Pensacola, Florida.
Specifications
Further Information
Get more info on 'Nc-4'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://nc-4.totallyexplained.com">NC-4 Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
