While British aviators Alcock and Brown are credited as being the first men to fly across the Atlantic, this is the story of the first-ever multi-leg transatlantic flight. The idea of flying across the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe has been thought about ever since the invention of hot air balloons. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe constructed a massive balloon to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in 1860. Still, he abandoned the attempt following the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861.