Vickers Vimy replica lifts off for Ireland
Last Updated Sat, 02 Jul 2005 21:06:44
Two American adventurers have left Newfoundland in a Vickers Vimy biplane replica, on a long-delayed attempt to recreate the first transatlantic flight.
U.S. adventurer Steve Fossett poses in front of his Vickers Vimy biplane replica. (CP File Photo)
Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, 60, and co-pilot Mark Rebholz, 52, battled high winds as they lifted off from St. John's International Airport shortly after 7 p.m. NDT on Saturday.
They flew over the capital before heading east on the 3,154-kilometre journey to Clifden, Ireland, where they hoped to land about 20 hours later.
They're trying to recreate the historic crossing of the Atlantic in 1919 by John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown, whose feat preceded Charles Lindbergh's solo transatlantic flight by eight years.
Fossett – who grabbed the world's attention in March by making the first solo, nonstop flight around the world – initially hoped to leave St. John's on the anniversary of that flight, June 14. He and Rebholz found themselves delayed by bad weather and technical glitches.
Before departing on Saturday, Fossett said they would have a strong wind at their backs that could shave as much as five hours off the flight time.
"The wind is very good for crossing the Atlantic," he said.
However, the same weather made take-offs trickier, he said.
"It's a pretty primitive aircraft. In 1919, they used basically square fields and they would take off in whichever way the wind was going. We don't have that choice. We have three runways and none of them line up exactly with the wind direction."
Fossett is piloting a copy of Alcock and Brown's original plane, which now hangs in a London aviation museum.
Fossett expected the transatlantic flight to be more difficult than his solo trip. He said the early design is hard to fly and requires both pilots' attention, especially on take-off and landing.
For much of the journey to Ireland, the men will be flying only about 300 metres above the ocean's surface. As they near the coast and the plane gets lighter because it's used up much of the fuel, it may be able to climb to 3,000 metres.
While Fossett steers the aircraft, Rebholz will be using a compass and sextant to navigate.
The two men have already logged more than 850 hours on the airplane, which has a 21-metre wingspan.
The original Vickers Vimy biplanes were bombers flown during the First World War. They were named after one of the greatest victories in Canadian military history – the 1917 battle of Vimy Ridge.
The replica biplane is built of wood, metal and fabric, just like the original. But instead of two Rolls Royce Eagle V-12 engines, it uses a pair of 8.4-litre Canadian-built Orenda V-8s.
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if they can navigate their way to clifden i'll be extremely impressed, i'll be happy if they get out of this in one piece.
wonder is there any air corps welcoming party?
