YOU HAVE HEARD of the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean solo. We all have. The whole world has. Lindbergh went east. But do you know who first flew the vast expanse westbound? Three European pilots, Giinther von Hiinefeld, James Fitzmaurice, and Hermann Kohl, made the trip west in a custom Junkers roughly 11 months after Lindbergh headed in the other direction (John Alcock and Arthur Brown flew together nonstop eastbound in June 1919). Thought to be impossible at the time, the trio departed Ireland for Long Island, New York, on April 12, 1928. The next day, lost and low on fuel, they landed on what they assumed was an iceberg. It turned out to be Greenly Island, a small outpost two miles off mainland Quebec.
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