Brendan Lynch

“Yesterday We Were In America”

“Yesterday we were in America!” said John Alcock on landing in Ireland. He was the first person to make that statement in Europe.

This book is about one of the most significant aviation feats of all time –  the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic from St John’s, Newfoundland to Connemara, Ireland on June 15-16, 1919.

Alcock and Brown, and their Vimy aircraft, survived almost continuous cloud, snow and ice, and a near-fatal stall during their 16-hour epic of 1880 miles, the longest distance ever flown by man.

With no modern aids and depending solely on Dead Reckoning, they landed in Connemara, Galway only 20 miles north of their target destination.

Their flight was a triumph of navigation, flying skill and rare courage which gained both men OBEs and international acclaim.

It also established Ireland’s vital role in transatlantic flying and enshrined Alcock and Brown as near-mythological heroes. Two God-like men who had emerged from the ocean mists in the best Celtic traditions.

Brendan Lynch researched this book on both sides of the Atlantic and interviewed the last surviving witness to the Vimy’s arrival and the late Steve Fossett, who replicated the flight in 2005.

Author Len Deighton said; “The story of this historical flight has been shamefully neglected. It marked a moment when British aviation might have led the world. Alcock and Brown showed the way but the lesson was not learned.”

John Alcock’s nephew, Group Captain A J H Alcock, MBE, described Yesterday We Were In America as: “A comprehensive and exciting account of one of the greatest feats of early aviation completed by two determined and courageous British pioneers.”

Len Deighton said: “Brendan Lynch, in this excellent book, tells their story with the skill of a dedicated researcher and the talent of a popular novelist. Yesterday We Were in America is a very fine book; I only wish I had written it.”

Hardback: 256 pages
Publisher: J H Haynes & Co Ltd (26 Feb, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1844256812