5 July 2005
American pilot Steve Fossett and co-pilot / navigator Mark Rebholz have successfully re-created the historic, first-ever 1919 TransAtlantic flight of John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown.
They landed their replica Vickers Vimy biplane on hole 8A of the Connemara Golf Links at Clifden, Galway, Ireland on the afternoon of July 3rd .
The re-enactment following the original route exactly, took 18 hours 15 mins.
Fossett and Rebholz took off from St John’s, Newfoundland and flew at low altitude and at approximately 100kts through the night, navigating by sextant, compass and chart and hand-flying the accurate replica of the WWI era bomber. At 6+ tonnes all-up take off weight and almost 70′ wingspan, the Vimy replica is the largest biplane flying today, as well being the largest hand-built aircraft.
The flight caps the career of this remarkable aircraft, conceived by Vimy project visionaries Peter McMillan and Lang Kidby and built in 1991-1994 by John LaNoue in California. The replica Vimy has already completed flights replicating the famous England-Australia (1994) and England-South Africa (1999) multi-stop Vimy pioneering flights of 1919-1920
