AERONAUTICA - THE TRANS-ATLANTIC AIR RACE 1919

Luncheon menu signed by Alcock and Brown, Savoy Hotel, 20 June 1919

Footnotes

'FOG SO OBSCURED VISION AT TIMES THAT THE MACHINE WAS DISCOVERED TO BE FLYING UPSIDE DOWN': SIGNED MENU CELEBRATING THE FIRST DIRECT FLIGHT ACROSS THE ATLANTIC BY AEROPLANE IN UNDER 72 HOURS.

Captain John Alcock, pilot, and his navigator Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown flew a modified World War I Vickers Vimy bomber from St. John's, Newfoundland, battling terrible weather conditions including fog and ice over the Atlantic, and arriving at Clifden, County Galway on 15 June 1919. On landing, the Secretary of State for Air, Winston Churchill, presented them with the Daily Mail prize of £10,000 for the crossing. The flight is also notable for carrying some 200 letters, the first transatlantic airmail. Alcock and Brown enjoyed instant celebrity and were feted by large crowds on their return journey through Ireland and arrival in London, and were knighted a week later by George V at Windsor Castle. The last page of our commemorative menu, which shows the guests dining on Oeufs Pochés Alcock and Suprême de Sole à la Brown, lists some £40,180 in prize money given by the Daily Mail thus far 'in pursuance of its policy of hastening the conquest of the air'. The initiative of proprietor Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, the cash prizes are credited with encouraging the swift advancement of aviation during its early years. Other recipients included Louis Bleriot for the first cross-channel flight in 1909 (£1,000), André Beaumont for the Flight Round Britain in 1911 (£10,000) and Thomas Sopwith for the Aerial Derby cup of 1913 (£105).