Aviation Pioneers | Charles Lindbergh | The Lone Eagle And The Spirit Of St. Louis

The biography of aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh.
The Lone Eagle and The Spirit Of St. Louis, a flight that changed history forever.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator and military officer. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 km), flying alone for 33.5 hours. Lindbergh's aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, was designed and built by the Ryan Airline Company specifically to compete for the Orteig Prize for the first flight between the two cities. Although not the first transatlantic flight, it was the first solo transatlantic flight and the longest at the time by nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km).

Lindbergh was raised mostly in Little Falls, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C., the son of prominent U.S. Congressman Charles August Lindbergh. He became a U.S. Army Air Service cadet in 1924, earning the rank of second lieutenant in 1925. Later that year, he was hired as a U.S. Air Mail pilot in the Greater St. Louis area, where he started to prepare for his historic 1927 transatlantic flight. For his flight, President Calvin Coolidge presented Lindbergh with both the Distinguished Flying Cross and Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. military award. He also earned the highest French order of merit, the Legion of Honor.In July 1927, he was promoted to the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve. His achievement spurred significant global interest in both commercial aviation and air mail, which revolutionized the aviation industry worldwide (a phenomenon dubbed the "Lindbergh boom"), and he spent much time promoting these industries.

Time magazine honored Lindbergh as its first Man of the Year in 1928, President Herbert Hoover appointed him to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1929, and he received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1930. In 1931, he and French surgeon Alexis Carrel began work on inventing the first perfusion pump, a device credited with making future heart surgeries and organ transplantation possible.

On March 1, 1932, Lindbergh's first-born infant child, Charles Jr., was kidnapped and murdered in what the American media called the "Crime of the Century". The case prompted the United States Congress to establish kidnapping as a federal crime if a kidnapper crosses state lines with a victim. By late 1935, the press and hysteria surrounding the case had driven the Lindbergh family into exile in Europe, from where they returned in 1939.

In the months before the United States entered World War II, Lindbergh's non-interventionist stance and statements about Jews and race led some to believe he was a Nazi sympathizer, although Lindbergh never publicly stated support for the Nazis and condemned them several times in both his public speeches and personal diary. However, like many Americans before the attack on Pearl Harbor, he opposed not only the military intervention of the U.S. but also the provision of military supplies to the British.
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the German declaration of war against the U.S., Lindbergh avidly supported the American war effort but was rejected for active duty, as Roosevelt refused to restore his Air Corps colonel's commission. Instead, he flew 50 combat missions in the Pacific Theater as a civilian consultant and was unofficially credited with shooting down an enemy aircraft. In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower restored his commission and promoted him to brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. In his later years, he became a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, international explorer, and environmentalist, helping to establish national parks in the U.S. and protect certain endangered species and tribal people in both the Philippines and East Africa. In 1974, Lindbergh died of lymphoma at age 72.

Ryan NYP
General characteristics

Crew: 1
Length: 27 ft 7 in (8.41 m)
Wingspan: 46 ft (14 m)
Height: 9 ft 10 in (3.00 m)
Wing area: 320 sq ft (30 m2)
Airfoil: Clark Y[47]
Empty weight: 2,150 lb (975 kg)
Gross weight: 2,888 lb (1,310 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 5,135 lb (2,329 kg)
Fuel capacity: 450 US gal (375 imp gal; 1,703 L)
Powerplant: 1 × Wright J-5C Whirlwind 9-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine, 223 hp (166 kW)
Propellers: 2-bladed Standard Steel fixed pitch metal propeller
Performance

Maximum speed: 133 mph (214 km/h, 116 kn)
Cruise speed: 100–110 mph (160–180 km/h, 87–96 kn)
Range: 4,100 mi (6,600 km, 3,600 nmi)
Service ceiling: 16,400 ft (5,000 m) [46]
Wing loading: 16 lb/sq ft (78 kg/m2)
Power/mass: 0.0435 hp/lb (0.0715 kW/kg)

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