BROOKLYN to BROOKLYN Historic Flight
The vision for the historic flight
To fly a Grumman Goose or Albatross Flying Boat from the USA to Cape Town, South Africa via 24 Countries, over 3 continents, 5 islands, land in and take off from 5 major rivers, 3 major lakes and finally arrive at Airfield Brooklyn (Ysterplaat) Cape Town, for a proposed international air show.
In 2001 an idea was born for a historic flight of a Grumman Goose Flying Boat from Brooklyn, New York to the former Brooklyn Airfield (Ysterplaat Airbase was known as Brooklyn during WWII) in Cape Town. The reason this area was selected was obvious due to the original flying boats being built and manufactured in Long Island, but also importantly it is within a small radius from the site of the Twin Towers.
After consulting with the SA Air force Museum in Ysterplaat it was found that the aircraft Peter wants to use has never been in Africa, let alone South Africa, and that it would be a historic event and a huge feat to successfully navigate such a flight, about 39 000km to Cape Town. It is our intention to land only on water throughout the flight.
We would like to claim this to be the first aircraft of it's kind to fly across three continents, northern to southern hemisphere, land on water in twenty four countries, six major rivers, three islands, three major lakes and then to finally land in Cape Town - arriving at a major international air-show - all in one journey. To our knowledge this kind of flight has never been attempted. We have therefore applied to the Guinness Book of World Records to record this flight and are still awaiting their response.
Originally the Short Sunderland flying boats used to fly from Cairo to the Cape following the Nile through Africa. A set of original navigation maps that were used in 1944 -1946 were donated to Peter by the museum once they heard his story, to be used to re-trace this original route. The museum's staff and curator have also been very excited by the idea and have offered to place their services, hanger space and technical staff at our disposal for the event. We already have the pilots and technical engineer available for the flight.
The aircraft itself would generate huge interest since the Goose is considered the first monoplane aircraft type built by Grumman in the US. Since the aircraft was originally built to transport wealthy businessmen to and from Manhattan, and used later by the US Navy, we feel that there is a huge amount of nostalgia attached to this beautiful aircraft, which could help to obtain and retain interest by old and new enthusiasts all over the world.
The planned flight will take approximately 2-3 months, although the aircraft can maintain a cruise speed of about 300km/hr and we could cover the distance in a shorter period of time. However, the idea is to land and to take advantage of full media attention at every stop, for at least 24hrs or longer depending on the demand and weather permitting. This will be generated through a dedicated international PR campaign. In addition we are also planning a TV documentary.
2004 marked the celebration of The Centenary of Aviation and we thought that this would also be an ideal time to perhaps launch such a project. Our intention is to start the adventure in July/August 2009.
This would be an ideal platform for any international company or brand to raise awareness through using the Goose or Albatross as a powerful advertising medium.
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