Scottish fact of the day: Transatlantic flights

Published on 04/09/2012 13:58

Towards the end of the First World War, the Glasgow-based Beardmore Engineering Company had been developing airships for the Royal Navy.

A model named the ‘R34’ had been completed and plans were made to fly the airship to the East coast of America, to encourage the development of commercial use of airships. On July 2nd 1919, the ‘R34’ left the East Fortune airfield in East Lothian, bound for New York, eventually arriving at Mineola Airfield, Long Island, south of New York City on July 6th 1919. This was the first east-west crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, and a world’s endurance record at the time, of 108 hours. A memorial to the ‘R34’ stands in the Clyde View Park, in Renfrew.