Sir Arthur Whitten Brown


1886 - 1948

Aviation pioneer. Born in Glasgow. After training as an engineer, Brown entered the Royal Air Force during World War I as a pilot. He was shot down over Germany and was for a time a prisoner-of-war.

Brown gained international fame as the navigator of the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in 1919. The flight, in a Vickers Vimy biplane piloted by John Alcock, began in Newfoundland (Canada) and ended more than 16 hours later in Galway (Ireland). Alcock and Brown shared a £10,000 prize offered by the Daily Mail newspaper and each received knighthoods from King George V for their efforts.

Brown settled in Wales, working as an engineer for the Vickers company. He died in Swansea.


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