Editing Albert Cushing Read (section)

==Early life and Atlantic crossing==

[[File:Albert C. Read and Bess Burdine Read.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Grave at Arlington National Cemetery]]
Read was born in [[Lyme, New Hampshire]] on March 29, 1887 into a [[Boston Brahmin]] family.  He attended the [[United States Naval Academy]] at Annapolis, graduating in the class of 1907.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/luckybag1907unse/page/98/mode/2up |title=Lucky Bag |date=1907 |publisher=First Class, United States Naval Academy |others=Nimitz Library U. S. Naval Academy}}</ref> His Academy classmates included [[Patrick N. L. Bellinger]], [[Willis W. Bradley]], [[George McCall Courts|George M. Courts]], [[Henry Kent Hewitt|Henry K. Hewitt]], [[Jonas H. Ingram]], [[Claud Ashton Jones|Claud A. Jones]], and [[Raymond A. Spruance|Raymond Spruance]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/luckybag1907unse/page/98/mode/2up |title=Lucky Bag |date=1907 |publisher=First Class, United States Naval Academy |others=Nimitz Library U. S. Naval Academy}}</ref> In 1915, he was designated naval aviator number 24.

As a Lieutenant Commander in May 1919, Read commanded a crew of five on the ''[[NC-4]]'' Curtiss [[flying boat]], the first aircraft ever to make a [[transatlantic flight]], a couple of weeks before [[Transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown|Alcock and Brown's non-stop flight]], and eight years before [[Charles Lindbergh]]'s solo, non-stop flight. Read's flight started from [[Rockaway Beach, Long Island|Rockaway Beach]], [[Long Island]], took 23 days before arriving in [[Plymouth]], England. The six stops included layovers at [[Trepassey Bay]], [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]], [[the Azores]], and [[Lisbon, Portugal]].

Later in 1919, upon returning to the U.S., Read predicted: "It soon will be possible to drive an airplane around the world at a height of 60,000 feet and 1,000 miles per hour." The next day, ''[[The New York Times]]'' ran an editorial in reaction, stating: "It is one thing to be a qualified aviator, and quite another to be a qualified prophet. Nothing now known supports the Lieutenant Commander’s forecast. An airplane at the height of 60,000 feet would be whirling its propellers in a vacuum, and no aviator could live long in the freezing cold of interstellar space."

On June 3, 1919, he was made a commander of the [[Order of the Tower and Sword]] by the Portuguese government.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ordens.presidencia.pt/?idc=154&list=1|title=Ordens Honoríficas Portuguesas |trans-title=Portuguese Honorary Orders |website=Presidency of the Portuguese Republic |language=pt |accessdate=2018-04-14}}</ref> After returning to the United States, Read was awarded the [[Navy Distinguished Service Medal]], which at the time was a more prestigious award than the [[Navy Cross]] that the other five NC-4 crew members received (the order of award precedence was switched in 1942).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-030/h-030-2.html |title=H-030-2: NC-4's Transatlantic Crossing, May 1919 |first=Samuel J. |last=Cox |date=May 2019 |publisher=Naval History and Heritage Command |accessdate=2020-07-17}}</ref> In 1929, Read and the rest of the flight crew of NC-4 were awarded [[Congressional Gold Medal]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://artandhistory.house.gov/highlights.aspx?action=view&intID=331 |title=A Congressional Gold Medal awarded to the crew of the first transatlantic flight |publisher=artandhistory.house.gov |accessdate=2012-09-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916013528/http://artandhistory.house.gov/highlights.aspx?action=view&intID=331 |archive-date=2012-09-16 |url-status=dead }}</ref>