For many, the names Washington Donaldson, Walter Wellman, J. C. Woods, and G. H. Scott do not automatically ring a bell in connection with the history of transatlantic flight. Yet these and scores of other brave men and women successfully challenged the Atlantic in heroic flights before Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, and “Wrong-way” Corrigan. This profusely illustrated volume records the exciting saga of those daring and sometimes reckless adventurers who battled storms, darkness, and high winds in fragile aircraft to pave the way for aviators who would eventually conquer the ocean and fly directly from North America to Europe and beyond.Joshua Stoff, Air and Space Curator of the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, New York, chronicles the dramatic events of the international race to make transatlantic flight a reality. Over 250 rare photographs — many previously unpublished — trace a host of flight attempts, including a number made in lighter-than-air balloons and in huge “flying boats” developed by the Curtiss Company and the U.S. Navy. Also documented here are Alcock and Brown’s difficult crossing from Newfoundland to Ireland in 1919, an around-the-world flight in 1924 by the U.S. Army’s “world cruisers” (which took five months, 22 days, and 72 stops!), Charles Lindbergh’s celebrated solo flight from New York to Paris in 1927, and Amelia Earhart’s ill-fated circumnavigation attempt in 1937.Extensive, well-researched captions accompany the photographs, completing a rich and thrilling pictorial history that promises to delight aviation buffs and readers fascinated by the history of flight.
