The Big Hop of 1919

About this episode

The episode discusses the challenges and significance of the first attempts to fly across the Atlantic in 1919.

It is astonishing to me that we went from the first powered flight of a few hundred feet in 1903 to attempting to fly the Atlantic in 1919. The Daily Mail had offered a prize of £10,000 to cross the Atlantic. The pilots called it the Big Hop. Nowadays we think nothing of it but back then they had open cockpits, primitive navigation tools, unreliable weather forecasting and many other problems. This was right on the edge of what was possible at the time. And not always on the right edge!...

People in this episode

Host: Russell Hogg

Topics covered

• aviation history
• transatlantic flight
• early 20th century
• exploration
• innovation

Keywords

• aviation
• Atlantic crossing
• 1919
• Daily Mail
• prize
• open cockpits
• navigation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Daily Mail

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