First Across The Pond By Jet

 

On this date in 1958, the first regularly scheduled transatlantic passenger service with jet-powered aircraft began. Two British Overseas Airways Corporation de Havilland DH.106 Comet 4 airliners left nearly simultaneously from London Heathrow Airport to Idlewild Airport New York, and from New York to London. The westbound flight took 10 hours, 20 minutes, including a 1 hour, 10-minute fuel stop at Gander Airport, Newfoundland. Benefiting from favorable winds, the eastbound flight, commanded by Captain Thomas Butler Stoney, D.F.C., took 6 hours, 12 minutes, and averaged 565 miles per hour. Both airliners were delivered to BOAC on 30 September 1958 and configured to carry forty-eight passengers.

Fastest Across The Atlantic

 

The SS United States is a retired ocean liner built in 1950–51 for the United States Lines. The ship is the largest ocean liner constructed entirely in the United States and the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction. In New York, her owners were awarded the Hales Trophy, the tangible expression of the Blue Riband competition, for the highest average speed since her maiden voyage in 1952. It maintained an uninterrupted schedule of transatlantic passenger service until 1969. The ship has been sold several times since the 1970s, with each new owner trying unsuccessfully to make the liner profitable. The SS United States Conservancy assumed ownership of the liner in 2011. By 2018, the conservancy announced an agreement with the commercial real estate firm RXR Realty in New York City to explore options for restoring and repurpose the ocean liner as a permanently moored hospitality and cultural space. The liner is currently docked in Philadelphia.

Logging Her First Atlantic Crossing

 

On this day in 1928, American aviator Amelia Earhart became the 1st woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by aircraft. After Charles Lindbergh's May 20 solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, Amy Guest (1873–1959) expressed interest in being the first woman to fly (or be flown) across the Atlantic Ocean. She deemed it too perilous so the project coordinators sought out Earhart, who had no training for instrument flying, so she accompanied co-pilots, Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon on the flight. Her duty was to log the entire flight. She became an overnight celebrity, partially due to her slim physique and facial resemblance to Lindbergh. On May 20, 1932, Earhart did fly solo across the Atlantic using a considerably shorter route than Lindbergh's 3,600 miles plus, landing after approximately 2,000 miles near Londonderry, Northern Ireland.