On March 20 1920, Pierre van Ryneveld and Quintin Brand touched down at Youngsfield, Wynberg in a De Havilland DH9 — the first trans-Africa flight from London to Cape Town. Several other British teams had set out to pioneer this new air route, but each had crashed and abandoned their effort. Van Ryneveld and Brand crashed two planes en route — one in a forced landing in southern Egypt, the other during take-off in Zimbabwe. Prime Minister Jan Smuts was determined that the South Africans should succeed and each time ordered replacement aircraft to be sent to them. The pilots, who were knighted for their achievement, spent 109 hours and 30 minutes in the air, though the journey took 45 days.