Alcock and Brown Centenary: June 11-16th

Festival going on in Clifden this year: https://alcockandbrown100.com/

As part of it, they look to be opening the Cleggan airfield for fly-ins: https://flyinginireland.com/2019/05/cleggan-aerodrome-set-to-open-next-month/

I’ll be there that weekend. Had hoped to be flying back from a visit to St. John’s Newfoundland (commercial!) but not to be. A few interesting events in the offing by the looks of it.

Scoondal

Being familiar with Clifden for 40 years, I have never understood why the first flight from North America to Europe was never commemorated properly or even acknowledged. Just 100 years ago a plane had never crossed from North America to Europe.
There are some great stories of the plane flying low over Clifden on a Sunday morning (open to correction on this) and locals looking up but taking it "in their stride". Another story of a local journalist who managed to wire his "newsflash exclusive" to the world via the Marconi station near where the plane crash-landed.
The entire story of the achievement is fantastic.
Fact will always be stranger than fiction.

0lddog

The Central Bank are minting a coin to commemorate the event

CrabRevolution

Scoondal wrote: »

Being familiar with Clifden for 40 years, I have never understood why the first flight from North America to Europe was never commemorated properly or even acknowledged. Just 100 years ago a plane had never crossed from North America to Europe.
There are some great stories of the plane flying low over Clifden on a Sunday morning (open to correction on this) and locals looking up but taking it "in their stride". Another story of a local journalist who managed to wire his "newsflash exclusive" to the world via the Marconi station near where the plane crash-landed.
The entire story of the achievement is fantastic.
Fact will always be stranger than fiction.

Whatever about in Ireland (there seems to be a modern trend of claiming every participant of every happening in the entirety of Irish history other than the leaders of the 1916 rising have been "shamefully forgotten" or "ignored"), I'm surprised how little fuss is made of it over in the UK. While you'll get the standard Royal Mail, BBC specials etc. I don't think there is that much awareness of it with the general public.

I'd wager that if you ran a survey in the UK asking what was the first flight to cross the entire Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh would be a more popular answer than Alcock & Brown.

In Bill Bryson's book One Summer: America 1927 (A fantastic, well researched book BTW) he spends part of it on Lindbergh's flight to Paris, but mentions the 1919 flight, writing: "Their names were Jack Alcock and Arthur Whitten (Teddy) Brown and they deserve to be a good deal more famous. Their flight was one of the most daring in history, but is sadly forgotten now. It wasn’t particularly well noted at the time either."

civdef

CrabRevolution wrote: »

In Bill Bryson's book One Summer: America 1927 (A fantastic, well researched book BTW)

+1
It's a great aviation book wrapped into a wider context. Until I read it I hadn't appreciated how big a deal Lindbergh was at the time.

plodder

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Whatever about in Ireland (there seems to be a modern trend of claiming every participant of every happening in the entirety of Irish history other than the leaders of the 1916 rising have been "shamefully forgotten" or "ignored"),

Hah, some truth to that. I was down at the Derrigimlagh monument a while back and someone has obviously invested some money in the place.

I'm surprised how little fuss is made of it over in the UK. While you'll get the standard Royal Mail, BBC specials etc. I don't think there is that much awareness of it with the general public.

I'd wager that if you ran a survey in the UK asking what was the first flight to cross the entire Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh would be a more popular answer than Alcock & Brown.

Though that lends credence to the idea that Alcock & Brown have been 'shamefully forgotten' or 'ignored'.

Could be an element of the (european) "mainland" taking precedence over the first crossing which "only" landed in the west of Ireland.

Tenger

Well Lindbergh has the PR advantage of being American, already a celebrity before his flight, and of making it to a large European city.

Davidth88

There used to be a statue of them by the old control tower at LHR

Assume that's gone now ???

plodder

Davidth88 wrote: »

There used to be a statue of them by the old control tower at LHR

Assume that's gone now ???

That might be the statue sitting in the grounds of the Abbey glen hotel in Clifden. It was borrowed for the duration of the commemoration I believe.

http://mediacentre.heathrow.com/pressrelease/details/81/Brand-News-22/11034

Davidth88

Yep that was the statue for sure


Thanks !!

coylemj

CrabRevolution wrote: »

In Bill Bryson's book One Summer: America 1927 (A fantastic, well researched book BTW) he spends part of it on Lindbergh's flight to Paris, but mentions the 1919 flight, writing: "Their names were Jack Alcock and Arthur Whitten (Teddy) Brown and they deserve to be a good deal more famous. Their flight was one of the most daring in history, but is sadly forgotten now. It wasn’t particularly well noted at the time either."

When they eventually arrived in London, they were taken to Windsor Castle where they were knighted by King George V. And Winston Churchill (then Air Minister) was wheeled out to present them with the Daily Mail cheque for £10,000.

Whatever you may say about how they've been treated by history, to claim that the achievement 'wasn’t particularly well noted at the time' is complete rubbish.

Stovepipe

This is Ireland....no opportunity to milk the **** out of an allegedly forgotten event will be allowed pass. The 1916 stuff is a case in point. Alcock and Brown were huge heroes of their time and the event was splashed all over the press, in a time when aviation was hugely popular and record breaking acts like this were the constant talk of the emerging print and radio media. This would have been staple fare in the newsreels in the cinema, which was how a large chunk of the population got their news. Apart from that, Dublin Airport's main restaurant in terminal 1 is named after the men, so thousands of people see their names every day.