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| Charles Lindbergh |
Charles Lindbergh, otherwise known as "Lucky Lindy", did not come under the spotlight until his famous flight in 1927. Although considered as an American hero, he was not recognized until he was successful in crossing the Atlantic.
Lindbergh was born on February 4th, 1902 in Detroit, Michigan. When he was 18, he entered college to study mechanical engineering. However, he realized that he was more interested in the field of aviation, and quit college to become a barnstormer.
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| Example of barnstorming |
In 1924, Lindbergh was enlisted in the U.S. Army to be trained as an Army Air Service Reserve pilot. After years of training, he was hired to fly mail from St. Louis to Chicago where he polished his skills as a pilot.
So what led him to fly across the Atlantic to Paris?
In 1919, a hotel owner named Raymond Orteig was offering a prize of $25,000 (valued at $305,983 in 2017) to anyone who was successful to fly to Paris from New York nonstop. Although several years had passed since it was offered, no one was successful and they ended up injured or dead. Lindbergh was convinced that he would be successful if he had the "right plane". In order to get this plane, he designed and manufactured it with the help of businessmen from St. Louis. He named the plane "Spirit of St. Louis", and was confident that he had the "right plane" after he successfully flew from San Diego to New York City during a test flight.
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| Charles Lindbergh (left) and Raymond Orteig (right) |
On May 20th, 1927, Spirit of St. Louis took off. Lindbergh flew more than 3,600 miles during his 33.5-hour trip and successfully landed in Paris where more than 100,000 people welcomed him. Although new technology like airplanes was feared by people at this time, his success led people to see the possibility of new technology. Eventually, his legacy would change peoples' view on aviation.
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| Lindbergh greeted by observers in Paris |
Sources:
http://www.charleslindbergh.com/history/
http://www.charleslindbergh.com/plane/orteig.asp
https://www.biography.com/people/charles-lindbergh-9382609
http://www.history.com/topics/charles-a-lindbergh
Natsumi, I liked how your post highlighted the main reasons why Lindbergh decided to make his journey as well as explaining the effects of his flight. I was interested by how Lindbergh decided to test his plane by flying it from San Diego to New York City. Why would he make this test, as it seems like a crash or mishap on this test flight would killed him just as easily as a fall into the Atlantic? Wouldn't this just be tempting fate or increasing his chances of failure? The flight across the US must have been extremely long and both physically and mentally exhausting for Lindbergh.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post Natsumi! You helped clarify and go deeper on a character we learned in class, and helped show some background and aftermath of the event. In response to the questions Shawn proposed, I actually read an article that was discussing the experience Lindbergh had in flight. He actually successfully flew from San Diego to New York before his flight across the Atlantic, and was also an experienced pilot for the Army. With this confidence, he knew he was capable of covering such distance, which could have given him the incentive to achieve the feat. To extend this and also offer a new perspective: Do you think that the more selfish values of the time period have to do with people's desire for fame (i.e. flying across the Atlantic)?
ReplyDeletehttps://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/may-21-1927-charles-lindbergh-flies-solo-across-the-atlantic/
Natsumi, I think that this post is very interesting. It is interesting to think about how Lindbergh went from an unknown pilot/student to a national hero and symbol. The flight that he took was unprecedented and clearly very risky, so it would be interesting to examine what in him gave him the courage to do this. From my own research, Lindbergh always had a daring sense of adventure. On his flights as a barnstormer, Lindbergh would face death nearly every single time he went up in the air. Not only that, but Lindbergh survived 4 plane crashes while in the US. Army by jumping out of the plane and parachuting. Only a man that has cheated death this many times would be able to do this.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.history.com/news/history-lists/10-fascinating-facts-about-charles-lindbergh