Arizona republican., 1919-05-28

WASHINGTON, May IT, Blazing the way of the first air trail from the western to the eastern hemisphere, the United States navy seaplane, NC-4 under Lieutenant Commander Albert Cushing Read, swept into the harbor at Lisbon, Portugal, today, the first air ship of any kind to have crossed the Atlantic ocean under it's own power and through its natural element.
 Taking the air at Ponta del Gada Azores, at $ Is a. m. Washington time, on the last leg of the transoceanic DOT ton of the voyage from Rockaway Beach, Long Island, to Plymouth, Eng land, the NC-4 covered the 800 miles in hours, and 43 minutes, maintaining an average speed Of better than eighty knots an hour. The total elapsed fly ing time from New Foundland to Lis bon, was 2s hours and Al minutes
 At the first opportunity. the big plane will continue to Plymouth. ITS nautical miles to the north. Possibly Comman- der Read can start tomorrow. To the navy department, however, it makes little difference when he completes the journey. The great object of all the effort lavished on the undertaking navigation of seaplane across the At lantic through the air-has been ac- complished. Twentieth century trans portation has reached a new pinnacle and the United States navy has led the way.
 Naval officials emphasized that the long delay at the Azores was due to the weather and to no weakness of the machine or it's daring crew, nor to any failure Of the carefully laid plans of the department to guide the flyers to their destination. The fourteen destroy CTS strung from Ponta del Gada to Lis bon reported with machine-like precis- ion today, the flight continued. The plane was never off it's course and there was no moment when officials in Washington did not know to within a few miles where it was in the air Destroyers Able Allies To maintain adequate communication for this stage of the journey, the de- stroyers stuck to their posts after the flying boat had passed, relaying back to Ponta del Gada reports from ships far ther eastward. The chain was not brok- en until after the plane was safely moored for the night near the cruiser Rochester at Lisbon.
 | For the next few hundred miles of their epoch-making journey, Comman- der Read and his crew will be within sight of the Portuguese or Spanish coasts in the sweep northward. Skirting the coast of Cape Finisterre they will head out across the Bay of Biscay to sight BreSt, the most westerly point of France, thence direct to Plymouth. The destroyers that will guide them across the bay were already in position to- night, provided with the flares and bombs that have made the trip safe thus far. except for the fog that forced the other two machines of the seaplane division, the NC-1 and NC-3, out of the flight after they had safely negotiated virtually the entire distance from New Foundland to the Azores.
 Continues This Morning
 PONTA DEL GADA, May 27.-(Bl
 the Associated Press)-The arrival O
 the NC-4 at Lisbon marks the com pletion of the first transatlantic aii
 flight in history, with the coveted homo going to machine designed, bull
 and manned by Americans.
 F7otilla Commander Wortman, a Ponta del Gada has received a radi,
 message relayed from the plane, saying We are safely on the other side o the pond"
 Later messages reported the crew al well and gave brief details of the ar rival in Portugal. The engines worke,
 splendidly and apparently there wa no untoward incident of any kind. Tn
 plane covered the distance at a spec,
 of more than eighty miles an hour.
 As soon as the news, was Seceive
 here. Admiral Jackson ordered all th war craft in the harbor to blow thei } whistles and sirens. This was kept u } for five minutes, the sailors and of ficers meanwhile cheering the grez American triumph.