Charles Lindbergh | Across the Atlantic Solo
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born on February 4th, 1902, in Detroit, Michigan, to Evangeline Lodge Land Lindbergh and Charles August Lindbergh (born Carl Månsson). Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Little Falls, Minnesota, just 80 miles northwest of Minneapolis. His father served as a US Congressman, serving as a Republican representing Minnesota’s 6th district from 1907 to 1917, and was one of the few congressmen to oppose the United States’ entry into World War 1.
Lindbergh’s mother was a chemistry teacher at Little Falls High School, where Lindbergh graduated from in June of 1918. In 1920, Lindbergh joined the University of Wisconsin - Madison, with an interest in engineering. However, he dropped out in 1922 and moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, to pursue flight school.
Lindbergh had long been fascinated by mechanics and planes, but had not flown before until he joined flight school. Shortly after soloing, Lindbergh began to tour the country as “Daredevil Lindbergh,” as a wingwalker and parachutist. His first aircraft was a First World War surplus Curtiss JN “Jenny.” While barnstorming across the US, he stopped in Wisconsin when he heard about a river flood. He is credited with saving lives after the flood by shuttling a physician back and forth across the flooded waterway to patients on both sides. When flying his father around for fun in 1923, Lindbergh made an emergency landing in a ditch in Glencoe, Minnesota, which destroyed the aircraft. He purchased a Curtiss JN-4C “Canuck,” and shortly thereafter joined the military.
Lindbergh reported to Brooks Field on March 19, 1924 to begin a year of military flight training with the United States Army Air Service there (and later at nearby Kelly Field), in San Antonio, Texas. He became a First Lieutenant with the Missouri National Guard’s 110th Bomber Squadron in December of 1925. In October 1925, Lindbergh was hired by the Robertson Aircraft Corporation (RAC) at the Lambert-St. Louis Flying Field in Anglum, Missouri, (where he had been working as a flight instructor) to first lay out and then serve as chief pilot for the newly created 278-mile Contract Air Mail Route #2 to provide service between St. Louis and Chicago, with two intermediate stops in Springfield and Peoria, Illinois.
In 1919, Raymond Orteig, a New York hotel owner, offered a $25,000 (worth almost $455,000 in today’s money) prize to the first aviator to fly nonstop between New York and Paris, aiming to spur advancements in aviation. This was an extremely dangerous endeavor. A number of people died who were competing to win the prize. Six people died in three separate crashes, and another three were injured in a fourth crash.
When Charles Lindbergh heard about the challenge, he was eager to try his hand at it. Financing the operation of the historic flight was a challenge, but two St. Louis businessmen eventually obtained a $15,000 bank loan. Lindbergh contributed $2,000 of his own money from his salary as an air mail pilot, almost half of his yearly earnings.
Initially, Lindbergh planned to purchase a standard aircraft off the assembly line. After over a year of searching, however, he couldn’t find one that fit the bill. On February 25, 1927, Ryan Aircraft Company of San Diego, California, agreed to design and build a custom monoplane for the price of $10,800. Named the “Spirit of St. Louis”, the fabric-covered, single-seat, single-engine “Ryan NYP” (for “New York-Paris”) high-wing monoplane (registration: N-X-211) was designed jointly by Lindbergh and Ryan’s chief engineer Donald A. Hall, as per the San Diego Tribune. The Spirit flew for the first time just two months later, and after a series of test flights Lindbergh took off from San Diego on May 10. He went first to St. Louis, then on to Roosevelt Field on New York’s Long Island.
He took off at 7:52 AM, and flew up the East Coast at an altitude of 500 feet and an average speed of 107 miles. By the time he hit Boston, he already felt the tiredness set in, and decided to fly low over the water to keep himself awake. The sun set over Nova Scotia as he buzzed his way through the night. The sea became totally obscured by fog, and he climbed to an altitude of 700 feet. About halfway through the arduous journey, 18 hours in, he was able to climb to 10,000 feet, where the air was smoother. At around 9:52 AM New York time, or twenty-seven hours after he left Roosevelt Field, Lindbergh saw “porpoises and fishing boats,” a sign he had reached the other side of the Atlantic, according to his journal. He ate his sole meal of the flight (a single tuna sandwich) to celebrate. He packed 5 sandwiches, but was apparently not hungry due to his nerves (I don’t blame him). The first bit of European land he flew over was Dingle Bay, in County Kerry, in the southern part of Ireland. Flying over Dingle Bay, the Spirit was "2.5 hours ahead of schedule and less than 3 miles off course.had navigated “almost precisely to the coastal point he had marked on his chart.” A few hours later, a report came in from Plymouth, on the English Chanel that his plane was spotted crossing into French territory. This was met with great relief back home in the United States. The most dangerous part of his journey was over.
After 33 and a half hours of flight, Lindbergh circled the Eiffel Tower and landed at 10:22 PM at Le Bourget Aerodrome to massive applause from the nearly 150,000 spectators, who stormed the field before he even turned his engine off. He was mobbed for nearly half an hour before French police could reach him and escort him off the runway. He was immediately given a hero’s welcome to France. He met with the US Ambassador to the country, as well as French President Gaston Doumergue. Lindbergh received a telegram of congratulations from US President Calvin Coolidge, as well as Theodore Roosevelt’s son.
Around midnight, Lindbergh was driven to the ambassador’s residence, stopping for a quick tour of the Arc de Triomphe. Early the following day, Lindbergh’s flight was certified by the National Aeronautic Association of the United States based on the readings from a sealed barograph placed in the Spirit.
Lindbergh shot to fame overnight. In the words of biographer A. Scott Berg, people were “behaving as though Lindbergh had walked on water, not flown over it.” He received thousands of gifts from across the world. According to the Minnesota Historical Society, at least 200 songs were written in tribute to him. (I looked up a good number of them - some are better than others. My favorite is “Lindbergh (The Eagle of the U.S.A.)” by Vernon Dalhart). Lindbergh received a National Order of the Legion of Honour medal from the French president at Élysée Palace, and on a visit to Belgium the following week, was personally welcomed by Belgian President Henri Jaspar. Later that day, King Albert I knighted him under the Order of Leopold.
In June, he finally returned to the United States to a massive ticker tape parade in Lower Manhattan, which 4 million people from across the world traveled to attend. At Central Park, Governor Smith awarded him the New York Medal for Valor. On December 14, 1927, a Special Act of Congress awarded Lindbergh the Medal of Honor, despite the fact that it was almost always awarded for heroism in combat. It was presented to Lindbergh by President Coolidge at the White House on March 21, 1928
Lindbergh was honored as the first Time magazine Man of the Year when he appeared on the magazine’s cover at age 25 on January 2, 1928. Just two months later, Lindbergh published his autobiography, “We.” It sold hundreds of thousands of copies within days of its release.
Lindbergh toured 16 Latin American countries. Dubbed the “Good Will Tour”, it included stops in Mexico (where he also met his future wife, Anne), Guatemala, British Honduras, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba.
His 20 month old son, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., was kidnapped from his room. An unknown figure had climbed a ladder into the second floor window of the nursery, kidnapped Charles Jr., and left a ransom note, demanding $50,000. A massive search involving hundreds of law enforcement officers ensued. The FBI became involved as the search dragged on. Weeks went by with no leads. The Lindberghs payed the ransom in full. Unfortunately, on May 12th, two truck drivers discovered Charle’s Jr.'s body on the side of a New Jersey highway. The investigation continued, and 30 months after the kidnapping, Richard Hauptmann was arrested for the kidnapping and murder of Charle’s Jr.
Because of how public this kidnapping became due to the Lindbergh’s fame, the trial was dubbed the “Trial of the Century.” It was heavily covered by the media, and every hotel room in the city was sold out by journalists from all over the world covering the event. Hauptmann was found guilty and sentenced to death.
After the murder of his son, Charles Lindbergh fell into a deep bout of depression and withdrew from aviation fully. They moved to England and later Germany in the 1930s, just as conflict was heating up in Germany. It was around this time that Lindbergh began developing some extreme American -isolationist views, that some might describe as pro-Nazi. He wrote in a Daily Digest op ed in 1939 that “We can have peace and security only so long as we band together to preserve that most priceless possession, our inheritance of European blood, only so long as we guard ourselves against attack by foreign armies and dilution by foreign races,” and allegedly expressed antisemitic views in private.
Lindbergh’s biographer claimed that he had an “affinity for Germany,” as he was awarded an Order of the German Eagle award by Generalfeldmarschall Hermann Göring, who was a powerful figure in the Nazi Party and later convicted of war crimes.
After World War 2 ended, the Lingberghs moved back to Connecticut, where Charles was a consultant to the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force and Pan American World Airways (PanAm). On April 7, 1954, on the recommendation of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lindbergh was commissioned a brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. In December 1968, he visited the astronauts of Apollo 8 (the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon) the day before their launch, and in July 1969 he and his wife witnessed the launch of Apollo 11 as personal guests of Neil Armstrong.
Although this only came out after his death, Lindbergh had 3 mistresses from his time in Bavaria, from which he fathered 7 children.
In later life Lindbergh was heavily involved in conservation movements, and was deeply concerned about the negative impacts of new technologies on the natural world and native peoples, focusing on regions like Hawaii, Africa, and the Philippines. He campaigned to protect endangered species including the humpback whale, blue whale, Philippine eagle, and the tamaraw (a rare dwarf Philippine buffalo), and was instrumental in establishing protections for the Tasaday and Agta people, and various African tribes such as the Maasai. Alongside Laurance S. Rockefeller, Lindbergh helped establish the Haleakalā National Park in Hawaii. He also worked to protect Arctic wolves in Alaska, and helped establish Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Historical Society.
Lindbergh spent his last years on Maui in his small, rustic seaside home. In 1972, he became sick with cancer and ultimately died of lymphomaon the morning of August 26, 1974, at age 72.
