With its long range and cargo carrying capacity it was well suited as an anti-submarine patrol craft but was not completed till after the war. Four planes were built.
After the war, the US navy decided to utilize these planes to make the first Transatlantic air crossing. In May of 1919 three NC-4s, NC-2 having been cannibalized for parts, supported by a flotilla of support ships stretching across the Atlantic, set off from New York to Lisbon via Newfoundland and the Azores. Number 1 and 3 were damaged near the Azores and could not continue, NC-4 made it through the storms and continued on to Portugal making the trip in 25 hours flying time. A month later Alcock and Brown did the first non stop flight.
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| John W D Taylor, Flight, A Pictorial History from the Wright Brothers to Supersonic. Peebles Press 1974 |
Taking off from Newfoundland May 16, 1919
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