Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh (born February 4, 1902, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.—died August 26, 1974, Maui, Hawaii) was an American aviator, one of the best-known figures in aeronautical history, remembered for the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York City to Paris, on May 20–21, 1927.

Early life and transatlantic flight

Lindbergh’s early years were spent chiefly in Little Falls, Minnesota, and in Washington, D.C. His father, Charles August Lindbergh, represented the 6th district of Minnesota in Congress (1907–17), where he was a staunch supporter of neutrality and a vocal antiwar advocate. The younger Lindbergh’s formal education ended during his second year at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, when his growing interest in aviation led to enrollment in a flying school in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the purchase of a World War I-era Curtiss JN-4 (“Jenny”), with which he made stunt-flying tours through Southern and Midwestern states. After a year at the army flying schools in Texas (1924–25), he became an airmail pilot (1926), flying the route from St. Louis, Missouri, to Chicago. During that period he obtained financial backing from a group of St. Louis businessmen to compete for the $25,000 Orteig Prize, which had been offered for the first nonstop flight between New York and Paris.

For the feat, Lindbergh in early 1927 had a single-engine monoplane built to his specifications in San Diego. Notably, it was outfitted with extra fuel tanks, including one in front of the cabin, which required him to use a periscope to see forward. On May 10–12 Lindbergh flew what became dubbed the Spirit of St. Louis from San Diego to New York (with a stopover in St. Louis) in preparation for the transatlantic attempt. Only a few days earlier, on May 8, World War I French flying ace Charles Nungesser and his navigator François Coli disappeared after beginning their effort to collect the Orteig Prize by flying from Paris to New York. They were last sighted over Ireland several hours after takeoff. The loss of Nungesser, one of France’s most charismatic and decorated pilots, highlighted the peril inherent in such an undertaking, which Lindbergh proposed to attempt alone.

Lindbergh was delayed several days by bad weather, but at 7:52 am on the morning of May 20 he took off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island (just east of New York City) and headed east. Shortly before nightfall, Lindbergh passed over St. John’s, Newfoundland, on the way to the open sea. After flying some 3,600 miles (5,800 km) in 33.5 hours, he landed at Le Bourget field near Paris at 10:24 pm on the night of May 21. There the somewhat bewildered flier was mobbed by a large crowd that had come to greet him. Overnight Lindbergh became a folk hero on both sides of the Atlantic and a well-known figure in most of the world. U.S. Pres. Calvin Coolidge presented him with the Distinguished Flying Cross and made him a colonel in the Air Corps Reserve. There followed a series of goodwill flights in Europe and America.

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Technical work and the Lindbergh baby kidnapping

While he was in Mexico, Lindbergh met Anne Morrow, daughter of Dwight Morrow, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico at the time. They were married in May 1929. She served as copilot and navigator for him on many flights, and together they flew to countries throughout the world. During that period, Lindbergh acted as technical adviser to two airlines, Transcontinental Air Transport and Pan American World Airways, personally pioneering many of their routes. When he was not flying, Lindbergh worked with Nobel Prize-winning surgeon Alexis Carrel on the development of the perfusion pump, a device that allowed organs to be kept alive outside the body. While the perfusion pump did not see widespread use, it demonstrated the feasibility of preserving organs through artificial means and acted as a precursor for the heart-lung machine.

In March 1932 the Lindberghs’ two-year-old son, Charles Augustus, Jr., was kidnapped from their home near Hopewell, New Jersey, and a short time later was found murdered. Partly because of Lindbergh’s worldwide popularity, this became the most famous crime of the 1930s, and it was a major subject of newspaper attention. In January 1935 Lindbergh himself testified against Bruno Hauptmann, a German American carpenter who was accused of having carried out the kidnapping and murder. Hauptmann was found guilty and sentenced to death, but the sensation of the trial and credible threats against the life of their son Jon forced the Lindberghs to take refuge in Europe in December 1935. In April 1936, having exhausted his appeals, Hauptmann was executed.