Lindbergh in 1927

The French loved him too

Charles Lindbergh was Time’s “man of the year” for 1927; he was Time’s first man of the year – ever.  He accomplished the theretofore unthinkable – a solo flight across the Atlantic in a single engine airplane.  One of the differences between Lindbergh and others who accomplished aviation “stunts” in those early years was that Lindbergh’s flight was not a stunt.  He carefully planned the flight, he carefully planned the aircraft.  He studied the problems he thought he would encounter and he got it all correct.  

His judgments were proven in the success of his accomplishment. His flight turned the endeavor from something unheard of, to something on the way to normal. The Spirit of St Louis was brand new when he made his flight to Paris. He supervised it's building, to his specifications, at the factory (Ryan Aircraft) that made it in San Diego. He tested it but little - and then left for the flight to New York. That flight was epic in itself.  On arrival in New York, he tarried only long enough for the right weather conditions before departing for Paris.  If you look carefully at the photos of his airplane, you might notice that it does not have a windshield.  Lindbergh didn't feel he needed one, since there wasn't anyone else where he was going (if I remember right, he also mounted a fuel tank there, which precluded the windscreen). Gas was more important than the view, although he did acquiesce to a small periscope.

First flight of the Spirit of St Louis - in San Diego

He wasn’t new to aviation – he was already an expert and experienced aviator – he was an Army Air Corps captain by that time, having completed their extremely rigorous flight training program. Over 90% of those who were accepted to that training “washed out" and never finished it.  Lindbergh graduated with a reserve commission. He was afterwards a contract mail pilot on the run between St Louis and Chicago.  He had saved his own life four times by parachuting out of malfunctioning airplanes (or because of bad weather making it unable for him to get down) – more than any other man we know of (in his time).  He was known by others for his level-headed good judgment.

At Le Bourget AIrport, 05/21/1927

When Lindbergh landed in Paris, he was welcomed by about 200,000; same in Belgium, same in England.  Through it all, most who saw him said he never got his head “turned” by the tumultuous receptions and the adulation of millions.  He remained humble and graciously shared his moment of glory with the many who he said assisted him in the planning and the flight.  So much so that his book commemorating the experience was entitled “We.”  He received the same kind of “welcome home” when the US Navy brought him and the “Spirit of St Louis” back to the USA, by millions this time, first in Washington, then New York City, then all across the nation. He endured dozens of “talking head” speeches with grace and humility. He was given the Medal of Honor by the president. 

Through all of that, he apparently refused to capitalize (financially) on his moment; his focus was on the advancement and promotion of aviation and its advantages for the nation. All of that hysteria did have an affect on him later – while there was more to the story, one of the results was a life-long aversion to publicity and crowds.  He did continue to work and promote aviation – he blazed ("surveyed") long distance air routes across this country and around the world.  He founded and helped place airports.  He helped organize the bomber-producing factory at Willow Run (for WWII).  He assisted our military pilots with learning and practicing long-distance over-water navigation (and flew combat missions himself in the South Pacific. He got into trouble with his pronouncements about the preparation (and readiness) he saw in Nazi Germany before the war.  Others misunderstood his frank assessment of their strength as Nazi sympathy and promotion; I believe he was somewhat misunderstood on that issue – but he was blowing the whistle on our own unpreparedness.  And he was right.  He had wanted the US to stay out of that war - but when we were attacked, he contributed as much as anyone and more than most.

The Loening that took Lindbergh to meet the Mayor

On June 13, 1927, after his reception in Washington D.C. and a breakfast at the Mayflower Hotel, he flew on to New York for the welcoming crowds there – more speeches, a ticker-tape parade, etc.   The motor in his Ryan monoplane was hiccuping somehow, so the Army loaned him a “Pursuit” (a fighter) for the flight – and hundreds of planes accompanied him on the short flight. The cities they all passed over along the way turned out to cheer him on as he passed overhead – with whistles, sirens, etc.  The Mayor of New York was to greet him near the waterfront on the Mayor's yacht, so as he arrived in New York, he landed and transferred to an amphibian, so he could arrive “by air.”  That amphib was also a famous, record-setting aircraft, just returned from its own famous flights to South America.  See the photo.  It is also part of the collection at the Smithsonian now, along with the “Spirit of St Louis.”  Lindbergh was already accomplished in aviation, and he went on from that moment to accomplish much more. 

He lived a complicated life over the following almost 50 years.  He and his wife (Anne Morrow) lost a son, murdered during a kidnapping. He made significant contributions in the medical field (inventing an artificial heart). He became an environmentalist and struggled with conflict because of those beliefs - and the part he had played in bringing our modern environmentally-unfriendly age about.  He may have been an anti-semite, although he denied that. He was (at least) in later life a philanderer with multiple other women and several children as part of a secret life his American wife and family knew nothing about. I don't know what to say about that.  There was so much else to admire about him.  I guess he was fraught with human frailties, just as the rest of us are.

He died in August 1974 and is buried near where he lived at the end of his life - on Maui.