U.S. adventurers recreate historic transatlantic flight

Navigator Mark Rebholz sits in the cockpit of the Vickers Vimy biplane replica, as technicians test an engine at the airport in St. John's Nfld. on Saturday, June 25. (CP/Andrew Vaughan)

Canadian Press


July 4, 2005


ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. (CP) - After three weeks of weather delays and technical glitches, two Americans finally lifted off from Newfoundland on Saturday, beginning their 3,000-kilometre re-enactment of the first transatlantic flight.

Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz left St. John's for Clifden, Ireland, under cloudy skies and in high wind at around 7:20 p.m., said Dean Williams, a spokesman for the pilots, who watched from a hangar near the runway.

Fossett and Rebholz's flight was expected take up to 22 hours as they crossed the Atlantic, recreating the 1919 flight by British pilots John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown.

Doesn't that look like fun? Here is a picture from this story in the Washington Post.



In this photo released by Oceansport, millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett and his co-pilot are about to land in Clifden, in western Ireland, Sunday July 3 2005, after re-enacting the first trans-Atlantic flight made more than 80 years ago. Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz left Newfoundland on Saturday night in a replica of the Vickers Vimy aircraft used by British pilots John Alcock and Arthur Brown to cross the Atlantic in 1919. The wooden biplane touched down in Clifden, County Galway, in mid-afternoon. Adhering to the spirit of the original flight, the pair flew without satellite or lights and navigated by the stars and the moon.

(AP Photo / David Branagan / Oceansport, HO) (David Branagan / Oceansport Via Ap - AP)

Here's another shot from this story at MSNBC.


David Branagan / Oceansport via AP

Adventurer Steve Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz are about to land Sunday in Clifden, in western Ireland, after re-enacting the first trans-Atlantic flight made 86 years ago. Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz left Newfoundland on Saturday night.