Podcast: Subject to Change (LS 39 · TOP 2% what is this?)
Episode: The Big Hop of 1919
Pub date: 2026-02-17

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It is astonishing to me that we went from the first powered flight of a few hundred feet in 1903 to attempting to fly the Atlantic in 1919.

The Daily Mail had offered a prize of £10,000 to cross the Atlantic. The pilots called it the Big Hop. Nowadays we think nothing of it but back then they had open cockpits, primitive navigation tools, unreliable weather forecasting and many other problems. This was right on the edge of what was possible at the time. And not always on the right edge!

We talked about:

- the wonderful Hilda Hewlett, a pioneer of British aviation

- how WW1 affected the competition (and the competitors)

- Alcock and Brown and the runners up

- how to keep calm (in your lounge suit) and carry on, even as death is racing to meet you.

It is a wonderful story and David is wonderful storyteller!

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