BROWN, SIR ARTHUR WHITTEN

born July 23, 1886, Glasgow died Oct. 4, 1948, Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales British aviator who, with Captain John W. Alcock, made the first nonstop airplane crossing of the Atlantic. Brown was trained as an engineer and became a pilot in the Royal Air Force during World War I. As navigator to Alcock he made the record crossing of the Atlantic in a Vickers-Vimy twin-engined biplane at an average speed of approximately 118 miles (193 kilometres) per hour. Taking off from St. John's, Nfd., at 4:13 PM GMT on June 14, 1919, they landed 16 hours 12 minutes later in a bog near Clifden, County Galway, Ireland. For this feat Alcock and Brown shared the 10,000 prize offered by the London Daily Mail, and both were given knighthoods. Brown later returned to engineering and was general manager of the Metropolitan Vickers Company in Swansea. Additional reading Graham Wallace, The Flight of Alcock & Brown, 1415 June, 1919 (1955).