# Transatlantic flight **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 25, 2003, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transatlantic-flight/164151 "2003-03-25T22:55:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Emmet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Emmet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emmet)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transatlantic-flight/164151/1 "2003-03-25T22:55:35Z")
The straight dope lists Alcock and Brown as flying across the atlantic in 1919. I believe I read in the Encyclopaedia Britannica that it was Alcott and Brown. I would hate to be on final Jeopardy and get the answer wrong. Is it Alcock or Alcott? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transatlantic-flight/164151/2 "2003-03-26T02:25:05Z")
The Staff Report being questioned is [Did others fly the Atlantic before Lindbergh?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mtransatlantic.html) Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, **Emmet** , glad to have you with us. It’s helpful to others, when you start a thread, to provide a link to the column or staff report… helps keep everyone on the same page. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transatlantic-flight/164151/3 "2003-03-26T04:19:37Z")
I have only seen Alcock, never Alcott. Sir John William Alcock was born in 1892 in Manchester and died in a plane crash in 1919 in France just a few months after his historic flight. Sir Arthur Whitten Brown (or Whitten-Brown with a hyphen) was born to American parents in Glasgow in 1886 and died in Wales in 1948. They both flew for the RAF in WWI and were both shot down (in separate incidents) and taken prisoner. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transatlantic-flight/164151/4 "2003-03-29T19:04:40Z")
The OP could quite possibly have seen “Alcott and Brown”, there being some confusion out there. Google lists 9 hits for [“Alcott and Brown”](http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22Alcott+and+Brown%22&spell=1) (Alcock and Brown, the correct spelling of course, gets 1490 hits). That a couple of the pages with the error are to do with model plane hobbyists and so on is a bit of a worry. One even quotes seeing a sign with “Alcott” instead of “Alcock”. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transatlantic-flight/164151/5 "2003-03-31T16:44:53Z")
Let us not forget Charles A. Levine. [http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0698/geduld1.html](http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0698/geduld1.html) ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transatlantic-flight/164151/6 "2003-03-31T23:46:44Z")
I mentioned Levine in the report. > [@](#): > > Within six weeks, two other teams (Chamberlin and Levine in the Columbia and Byrd, Acosta, Noville, and Balchen in the America) crossed the Atlantic from New York and would have won the Orteig Prize if Lindbergh hadn’t. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transatlantic-flight/164151/7 "2003-04-01T01:33:01Z")
I thought some might be interested in more detail of a colorful character. Thank you.