Duo Reenacts 1919 Transatlantic Flight

American adventurer Steve Fossett and his co-pilot flew a biplane across the Atlantic, commemorating the first such flight 86 years ago by British pilots John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown.

Fossett and antique-airplane enthusiast Mark Rebholz operated a custom-built replica Vickers Vimy, the type of aircraft the British pilots flew in 1919. Both crews flew from Newfoundland to Clifden in western Ireland using compasses and sextants for navigation. Alcock and Whitten Brown managed the feat in 16 hours, 20 minutes; Fossett and Rebholz took 45 minutes longer. The Britons crash-landed in a bog; their successors landed smoothly on a golf course.