Lindbergh Flies Solo Across Atlantic May 18, 2011 by Chip Wood
All pilots know this is an incredibly important week in aviation
history. Leading the list was Charles A. Lindbergh’s solo flight
across the Atlantic. It was a rainy morning on May 20, 1927,
when Lindbergh took off from Long Island’s Roosevelt Field. He
landed 33.5 hours later at Le Bourget field in Paris, France.
Lindbergh’s plane The Spirit of St. Louis carried so much fuel
that it barely cleared the trees at the end of the runway when
he took off for Paris at 7:52 a.m. But clear the trees he did
and he remained airborne for 3,610 miles, averaging a mere 108
miles per hour. The flight made Lindberg an international hero.
Here’s an interesting footnote to that historic flight: My
mother was a teenager working in New York City when she helped
throw confetti from her office window several days later, as
“Lucky Lindy” starred in a tickertape parade down Broadway.
Fewer than 40 years later, Mom watched on live TV as an American
astronaut walked on th