Royal Air Force
Although airlines ran newspaper advertisements after World War I, the biggest aviation headlines belonged to fliers in relatively primitive piston-engine aircraft that challenged the Atlantic and transcontinental distances. In May 1919 a U.S. Navy Curtiss NC-4 (successor to the Curtiss Model E flying boat) made it from Newfoundland to Portugal by way of the Azores Islands before flying on to Great Britain, compiling 54 hours 31 minutes in the air over its 23-day trip. The following month, former British Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots John Alcock and Arthur Brown made the first nonstop crossing of the Atlantic, requiring 16 hours 28 minutes for the journey from Newfoundland to Ireland in a Vickers Vimy bomber.