s a story of careful, painstaking,
organized effort on the part of the American navy. With the flight of
Lieut.-Commander Albert C. Read from Rockaway Naval Air Station to
Plymouth, England, nearly four thousand five hundred land miles, the
navy brought to fulfilment plans which had been maturing for two
years. Since 1917 there have been naval flying-officers anxious to
cross the ocean by air, and their plans have been cast and recast from
time to time. At first there were many reasons why it was impossible
to attempt such a thing while the United States was at war.
Destroyers, busily hunting German submarines, could not be spared for
a feat more spectacular than useful at the time. Pilots and mechanics
could not be spared from the business at hand--training hundreds of
seaplane pilots for service overseas.

American efforts to cross the Atlantic by air date back to the spring
of 1914 when the flying-boat _America_ was built to the order of
Rodman Wanamaker. She was a large seaplane, a new departure in her
time, and represented the combined effort of a number of the best
seaplane designers in the world. Lieut. John C. Porte, of the Royal
Navy, came over from England to be pilot of the boat, and after her
tests in August she was to have made her flight. But Porte was
recalled by his government at the outbreak of war and the project
given up.

In the latter half of 1918 the naval seaplane NC-1 was delivered to
the Rockaway Naval Air Station--the largest seaplane ever built on
this side of the water. She was originally planned, with three sister
ships, as an aerial submarine-chaser. One hundred and twenty-six feet
from wing-tip to wing-tip, she was equipped with three big Liberty
motors--a monster seaplane, ideally suited to the purpose for which
she was designed.

The signing of the armistice interfered with her use as a submarine
scout, and naval plans for crossing the ocean in the air were brought
from their pigeonholes. The NC-1 and her sister ships under
construction appeared to have been built for just such a flight. When
the war ended, the navy as a whole, and the naval air service in
particular, concentrated attention on the possibilities of using the
NC planes for the flight. One of the first decisions made was to
increase the engine power by adding a fourth engine, and to enlarge
the gasolene-tanks for a long flight.

Early in March of this year it became apparent that the spring or
early summer would see s