Landing

CRANWELL CONNECTIONS

The George Hotel Leadenham

Walter Hinchliffe's peerless reputation made him a natural choice for pilot when Elsie Mackay attempted to achieve her ambition to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. The daughter of P & O chairman James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape had bought a single engined Stinson Detroiter, and had it shipped from the USA to England and delivered to the Brooklands motor racing track, which at the time was also used as an airfield. Named Endeavour, it was a monoplane with gold tipped wings and a black fuselage, powered by a 9 cylinder, 300 h.p. Wright Whirlwind J-6-9 (R-975) engine, with a cruising speed of 84 mph.

At 08:35am on 13 March 1928 Endeavour took off from RAF Cranwell, Lincolnshire, with minimal fuss as Walter had told only two friends and Elsie had registered at the George under the pseudonym of 'Gordon Sinclair'.[ Approximately five hours later, at 13.30pm the Chief lighthouse keeper at Mizen Head on the south west coast of Cork Ireland saw the monoplane over the village of Crookhaven,on the great circle course for Newfoundland. A French steamer later reported seeing them still on course,[ but nothing else is known.

A crowd of 5,000 is reputed to have waited in vain at Mitchel Field, Long Island and in December 1928,some eight months later, a single piece of identifiable undercarriage was washed ashore in North West Ireland.

Captain Walter George Raymond Hinchliffe DFC (10 June 1893 – 13 March 1928), might have been an unlikely candidate to make the record attempt, but he was one of the most celebrated pilots of his era. He was a distinguished Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force flying ace in World War I who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. During the Great War he was shot down. He lost an eye in the resulting crash, and one leg would never be right again, however he was confident in his abilities to fly as well as any man. After the war, it wasn’t easy for him to find work as a commercial pilot, and frankly, that type of work was unfulfilling. He felt that he had one more great endeavor in him,and he wanted to make that flight from East to West across the Atlantic. Success would bring a prize of 10,000 pounds. That money would give him and his wife Millie some security for the future.

Elsie Mackay was a rich girl, not content to just be a socialite. She was an actress, which would be more than enough attention for most other young ladies, but for her, she too wanted to define herself by a bold action. There were few pilots in the 1920s, but there were really only a handful of female pilots. Some might say she was recklessly trying to impress her father, Lord Inchcape. Being the first woman to cross the Atlantic was a prize well worth trying for, despite the danger. For a woman as progressive as Elsie, keeping pace with the boys was not only fun and exciting, but also essential.

In early March 1928 the Daily Express discovered that Captain Hinchliffe and Elsie Mackay were preparing for a transatlantic attempt by carrying out test flights at RAF Cranwell and were staying at The George Hotel in Leadenham. The story was silenced by Elsie's threatened legal action as she intended to depart in secret while her father was in Egypt, having promised her family she would not make the attempt.[