Before World War 1 the Daily Mail had put up a prize of £10,000 to be awarded to the first airman to fly an aeroplane across the Atlantic nonstop, with anywhere in the British Isles as the destination achieved. Although some preparations had been made by various pilots (notably Fred Raynham) the war intervened, so that after the Armistice the prize remained unwon. Then in May 1919 the American Curtiss NC-4 was flown from New York to Plymouth (with intermediate landings at the Azores and Lisbon) by Lieutenant Commander A. C. Read of the US Navy. At about the same time an attempt to make the flight nonstop failed when Harry Hawker and Lieutenant Commander K. F. Mackenzie-Grieve were forced down in a Sopwith biplane in mid-ocean (and were miraculously rescued).

Meanwhile in the UK, Captain John Alcock DSC, RNAS and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten-Brown RFC had been testing a specially prepared and company owned Vimy. All its military equipment had been removed and extra fuel tankage installed, increasing its capacity to 865 Imp gal. Standard Eagle VIII engines were retained. After a few trial flights the Vimy was dismantled and shipped to Newfoundland where it was erected at Quidi Vidi airfield near St John's. This airfield was found to be unsuitable for take-off by the heavily laden aircraft, which was moved to Lester's Field. At 16.13 (GMT) on 14th June 1919 Alcock and Brown took off, crossing out over the Newfoundland coast 15 minutes later. Most of the 1,890 mile flight was made during the hours of darkness, and at 08.40 on the following morning, the Vimy landed in Derrygimla Bog, Clifden, Co. Galway in Ireland. The two naval officers were given a tumultuous welcome in London, and received the Daily Mail prize of £10,000. The Vimy, which had nosed over in the soft ground on landing, was repaired and subsequently presented to the Science Museum, South Kensington.

Although overshadowed by this 'Blue Riband' achievement, the flight by the Australian brothers, Captain Ross Smith and Lieutenant Keith Smith, with Sergeants W. H. Shiers and J. M. Bennett (all of the Australian Air Force), from the UK to Australia must rank as one of the greatest of all feats in long distance flying. Their aircraft, a Weybridge built Vimy (F8630) was registered G-EAOU (and dubbed 'God 'elp all of us') and prepared for the flight which was undertaken in response to an offer by the Australian government of £A10,000 for the first flight by Australians from the UK to Australia within 30 days before the end of 1919. Pre-flight planning demanded the provision of fuel and stores at the various landing points, for, beyond Calcutta, the route was virtually unproved.

Taking off from Hounslow, Middlesex, at 08.00 on 12th November, the Vimy eventually reached Darwin at 16.00 on 10th December, having successfully battled its way through tropical storms and undergone running repairs skilfully performed by the two flight mechanics en route. The 11,130 mile flight had been completed in just under 28 days, in 135 hours 55 minutes elapsed flying time. G-EAOU was presented to the Australian government by Vickers and was preserved in a special memorial hail at Adelaide airport.

Third of the great flights was that undertaken by Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Van Ryneveld and Major Christopher Quintin (later Air Vice-Marshal Sir Quintin) Brand from England to Cape Town, including a flight from Cairo to the Cape for a Daily Mail prize of £10,000. In a Vimy (G-UABA) named Silver Queen, Van Ryneveld and Brand left Brooklands on 4th February 1920 and landed safely at Heliopolis, setting off again after dark on 10th February. On the following day, when still 80 miles short of Wadi Halfa, the aircraft was wrecked in a forced landing following engine over-heating. A second Vimy was loaned by the RAF at Heliopolis (and named Silver Queen II), and this aircraft reached Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, before being badly damaged when it failed to get airborne in a 'hot-and-high' take-off. The two pilots eventually reached Cape Town in a borrowed de Havilland D.H.9, and were subsequently awarded £5,000 each by the South African government.

In recognition of these three great pioneering flights, Alcock, Brown, the Smith brothers, Van Ryneveld and Brand all received knighthoods from HM King George V. The flights themselves were the first of a number of outstanding achievements which, with those of Handley Page O/400s and V/1500s, opened up the whole vista of air travel to the Far East as well as South Africa, even if regular commercial transatlantic services were still over 15 years away.