Brown was trained as an engineer and became a pilot in the Royal Air Force during World War I. As navigator to Alcock he made the record crossing of the Atlantic in a Vickers-Vimy twin-engined biplane at an average speed of approximately 118 miles (193 kilometres) per hour. Taking off from St. John's, Nfd., at 4:13 PM GMT on June 14, 1919, they landed 16 hours 12 minutes later in a bog near Clifden, County Galway, Ireland. For this feat Alcock and Brown shared the £10,000 prize offered by the London Daily Mail, and both were given knighthoods. Brown later returned to engineering and was general manager of the Metropolitan Vickers Company in Swansea.