On this day, aviators John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown departed St John's, Newfoundland on the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight.
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It was not an easy flight. The overloaded aircraft had difficulty taking off the rough field and only barely missed the tops of the trees.
At 17:20 the wind-driven electrical generator failed, depriving them of radio contact, their intercom and heating.
An exhaust pipe burst shortly afterwards, causing a frightening noise which made conversation impossible without the failed intercom.
At 5.00 p.m., they had to fly through thick fog.This was serious because it prevented Brown from being able to navigate using his sextant.
Blind flying in fog or cloud should only be undertaken with gyroscopic instruments, which they did not have.
Alcock twice lost control of the aircraft and nearly hit the sea after a spiral dive.
He also had to deal with a broken trim control that made the plane become very nose-heavy as fuel was consumed.
At 12:15 a.m., Brown got a glimpse of the stars and could use his sextant, and found that they were on course.
Their electric heating suits had failed, making them very cold in the open cockpit.
Then at 3:00am they flew into a large snowstorm. They were drenched by rain, their instruments iced up, and the plane was in danger of icing and becoming unflyable.
The carburettors also iced up; it has been said that Brown had to climb out onto the wings to clear the engines, although he made no mention of that.
They made landfall in County Galway, crash-landing at 8:40 a.m. on 15 June 1919, not far from their intended landing place, after less than sixteen hours' flying time.
The aircraft was damaged upon arrival because of an attempt to land on what appeared from the air to be a suitable green field, but which turned out to be Derrygilmlagh Bog, near Clifden in County Galway in Ireland, although neither of the airmen was hurt. Brown said that if the weather had been good they could have pressed on to London.
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Despite the privations and difficulties of the flight, it's a fair bet that the in flight catering was of a rather higher standard than you will find today.
They probably even had a decent cup of tea at the half way mark, something I have never managed to achieve.
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