IO540
I don't think it was hard navigation 70 years ago, if he more or less went down the east coast
Henshaw 'more or less' went down the West coast.
His route was Gravesend – Oran – Gao – Libreville – Mossamedes - Cape Town.
'More or less' included crossing the Sahara so I suppose it depends in part upon whether you regard 1300+ miles across the Sahara with only a compass as "hard navigation."
And upon whether navigating through severe equatorial storms over the Congo, and cloud virtually down to the deck at Mossamedes, counts as hard navigation?
And trying to find tiny air strips in the middle of nowhere in order to refuel?
Much of the above was at night.
And all with no navigation aids except a compass and a stopwatch, no radio - and no weather forecasts (thus no wind information) other than those given to him at Gravesend on departure and at Cape Town for the return flight.
I always found the 1:60 rule quite difficult in the air, even with lots of terrain features which (in theory) were easily identifiable. That wasn't an option over much of Henshaw's route: virgin territory with identifiable features few and far between, and very hostile terrain below.
A friend and I flew the Atlantic in the days before GPS, but at least we had some navigational aids and, on some legs, airliners passing above us so we knew we were on track - they relayed our position reports, and also obtained weather en route and at our destination.
Lots of people have done it.
Lots of people may have flown s/e London - Cape Town, but no-one has broken the record.
BTW, did they fly East or West coast?
West is more challenging/risky - as it was in Henshaw's day - but it's about 400 miles shorter which is why he chose it.
C172 Hawk XP
Henshaw took off from what was then Gravesend airfield. I think Biggin Hill is probably the nearest current airfield.
He landed at Wingfield aerodrome, Cape Town which no longer exists.
The nearest airfield now is SA AFB Ysterplaat, which is very nearby.
I'm sure the SAAF would allow a record attempt flight to land at Ysterplaat but, even if not, then Stellenbosch is only a few minutes flying time away, in a beautiful location in the Winelands.
Stellenbosch 2005
FL