Aviation History – July 30, 1914. Very early on, seas and oceans were the playgrounds of aviators seeking to test their endurance as well as that of their airplane above the waves. Indeed, crossing a large body of water is the holy grail for many air pioneers. On this Thursday, July 30, 1914, a new attempt is made to cross a sea, this time it will be the North Sea and the contender for this trip: Tryggve Gran, who will successfully take up the challenge he has set himself.
Piloting a Blériot XI-2 aeroplane, namely a monoplane-type device called “It floats”, he will thus take off on July 30, 1914 from Scotland, leaving the city of Aberdeen, to reach Norway, landing at Stavanger after four hours and ten minutes of flight. He thus signs an air raid of 482 kilometers!
The aviator of Norwegian nationality Tryggve Gran has therefore made himself master of the North Sea. A few years earlier, it was the Frenchman Louis Blériot who did the same for the English Channel flying from Calais to Dover, at the controls of a Blériot XI monoplane, on July 25, 1909, a flight of 37 minutes. On May 21, 1927, the American Charles Lindbergh will do even more by offering himself the Atlantic Ocean with his Ryan airplane called “Spirit of Saint Louis”, evolving from New York to Paris.
