Page 143 - KBHA Bulletin 10

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Meanwhile, in December 1919, the British Air Ministry had announced that the Cape –
Cairo surveys had been completed and a string of airfields established. The route was

now open to aviators! The successes of Alcock and Brown in achieving the first non-
stop trans-Atlantic flight in a Vickers-Vimy bi-plane on 14-15 June 1919, and of the

Smith brothers’ in flying from London to Australia, also in a Vickers-Vimy between 12

November – 10 December 1919, excited interest among aviators to be the first to fly
London – Cape Town. In January 1920 the London Times offered a £10,000 prize for

the first person to achieve this - the same reward as had been earned by the two
previously successful great flights. Less than a month later, a Vickers-Vimy set out

from England for Young’s Field, Cape, piloted by Captains S. Cockerell and F. C.
Broome, with Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, Secretary of the Zoological Society, Sgt.-Major

Wyatt (mechanic) and C. Corby (rigger). The Times insisted that it “is no race nor

spectacular performance, but a serious attempt to see if the “Dark Continent” can be
crossed easily and safely under ordinary conditions.” (Cape Times, 6/2/1920).

General Smuts wanted a South African to be the first to achieve this so he authorized
the purchase of a Vickers-Vimy at a cost of £4,500. Lt. Col. Pierre van Ryneveld and

Flight Lieut. Christopher Joseph Quintin-Brand, both highly decorated pilots from the
Great War, left from Brooklands Aerodrome, London, on 4 February 1920 in their

Vimy named the “Silver Queen”. (Fig. 3.40). They had to do some night flying as the
Vimy sponsored by the Times had by this time already reached Cairo. They

encountered bad weather over the Mediterranean and the crossing took approximately

11 hours. Then their aircraft was written off in a forced night-landing at Wadi Halfa in
the Sudan, due to a leaking radiator.

A second Vimy F8615 was loaned from the Royal Air Force at Heliopolis, in Egypt,

and they continued their journey 11 days later, leaving from Cairo on 22 February. On
27 February the competing aircraft crashed at Tabora in Tanganyika, without injury. On

6 March the “Silver Queen II” crashed in Bulawayo due to being overloaded. The hot

and high altitude conditions over Africa were taking their toll.