Question 1

True or false: The flight took just under 16 hours to complete.

Accepted Answer

True. They departed on June 14, 1919, at 4:13 PM and landed on June 15 at 8:40 AM, a flight time of about 16 hours and 27 minutes.

Question 2

True or false: Alcock and Brown won a £10,000 prize from the Daily Mail for their flight.

Accepted Answer

True. The Daily Mail offered £10,000 to the first aviators to fly nonstop across the Atlantic. Alcock and Brown claimed it in 1919.

Question 3

True or false: Alcock and Brown flew from New York to London on their transatlantic flight.

Accepted Answer

False. They flew from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Ireland—not New York to London. The US to UK route came later.

Question 4

True or false: Alcock and Brown landed safely on their first attempt without any damage to the plane.

Accepted Answer

False. Their landing in an Irish bog flipped the plane nose-first, but both men walked away unharmed. It was a crash landing.

Question 5

True or false: Alcock was knighted for the flight, but Brown was not.

Accepted Answer

False. Both men were knighted by King George V shortly after their successful flight, becoming Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur Brown.

Question 6

True or false: Their plane, a Vickers Vimy, was originally designed as a World War I bomber.

Accepted Answer

True. The Vickers Vimy was a heavy bomber built for WWI, but the war ended before it saw combat. It was repurposed for the flight.

Question 7

True or false: During the flight, Brown had to climb onto the wing midair to clear ice from the engines.

Accepted Answer

True. Ice clogged the engine intakes. Brown crawled onto the wing with a pocketknife to chip it off while Alcock flew the plane.

Question 8

True or false: Alcock and Brown were the first people to ever fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Accepted Answer

False. The USS NC-4, a US Navy flying boat, made the first transatlantic crossing in May 1919, weeks before Alcock and Brown's nonstop flight.

The First Transatlantic Flight (Alcock and Brown) Trivia Questions