laststandonzombieisland

Some 55 years ago, from 4-to-11 May 1969, the first “City-Centre to City-Centre” transoceanic jet flight in history was completed by an RAF Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR1, XV741, from No.1(F) Squadron, conducting VTOL take-offs and landings from the water-soaked platforms in London and New York, with Squadron Leader Tom Lecky-Thompson at the controls.

As noted by the RAF:

It recorded the fastest time from [a disused coal yard near St Pancras Station in] London to the top of [a pier on the Hudson River near] the Empire State Building in Manhattan: 6 hours 11 minutes and 57.15 seconds. Refueled by a Victor tanker aircraft, this was completed for the Daily Mail-sponsored London – New York transatlantic air race.

The nonplussed Thompson, a Suez veteran who joined the RAF at 17, carried a sack lunch consisting of “a chicken leg and a bottled drink, possibly ginger beer, which I consumed halfway across.”

Meanwhile, XV741 is preserved at the Brooklands Museum, Surrey.