Alcock and Brown in flying suits, c 1919.

Two young RAF officers, Captain John Alcock (1892-1919) and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown (1886-1948) made the first non-stop trans-atlantic flight on 14 June 1919, for which they shared a £10,000 prize awarded by the 'Daily Mail' newspaper. The flight, which took place between St John's in Newfoundland and Clifden in County Galway, Ireland, took 16 hours and 27 minutes and culminated in their Vickers Vimy biplane crash-landing on Derrygimla bog in Clifden. Both men were knighted after the flight. Alcock was killed soon afterwards in an aeroplane accident.