Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974) was an aviation pioneer. In 1927 he became the first to fly solo, non-stop, from New York to Paris. This feat created a sensation and he was welcomed by enormous crowds in France and, on his return, in New York. He was known as "Lucky Lindy" and inspired a dance, the "Lindy Hop."

The flight

Lindbergh was bold in using a single-engine plane and in flying solo. He argued that aircraft engines were now reliable enough to be counted on, and that the loss of a single engine in a multi-engine aircraft would be so serious that having several engines increased, rather than reduced, the risk. Bolder, perhaps, was his decision to fly alone, meaning that he needed to remain awake for 33 hours.

Across the globe people projected on the flight their own emotions, which typically involved two themes. Looking to the past. the achievement was a brief escape from the course of history, an emergence into a new and open world with the self-sufficient individual at its center. Looking to the future the flight represented a new and higher stage in historical evolution and that its fulfillment lay in the development of society. For some Americans, the American ideal was an escape from institutions, from the forms of society, and from limitations put upon the free individual; for others, the American ideal was the elaboration of the complex institutions which made modern society possible, an acceptance of the discipline of the machine, and the achievement of the individual within a context of which he was only a part. The two views were contradictory but both can be seen in the public reaction to Lindbergh's flight.

Kidnapping

In 1929 Lindbergh married Anne Morrow (1906-2001), daughter of a wealthy diplomat; they had six children and she became a famous author in her own right. In 1932 their first son was kidnapped, and killed, by Bruno Richard Hauptmann. The crime and investigation were perhaps the most infamous of the time. The Lindbergh's left the country and settled in France. In his later years, Lindbergh lived in self-induced obscurity in Hana, Hawaii.

World War II

Lindbergh visited Germany in 1938 on a mission for the U.S. Air Corps. he studied and was impressed by the "Luftwaffe", the German air force, warning Americans it had the best equipment in the world. He accepted a medal from Hermann Goering for his services to aviation. He attracted criticism and some regarded him as a Nazi sympathizer, a charge he strongly denied and which historians generally reject. Lindbergh strongly opposed U.S. entry into the Second World War, and suggested that if the U.S. did enter, it should be on the side of Germany.

The Spirit of St. Louis

Lindbergh was an outspoken opponent of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who used the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI to spy on him, and refused to allow him to play any role in the war. Nevertheless Lindbergh worked as a civilian consultant to aviation companies during the war and even flew combat missions. He worked for Pan American Airways (Pan Am), scouting possible routes all over the world that Pan American could fly. In later years, he served on the Board of Directors of the Lockheed Corporation.

Lindbergh wrote two books about his flight: We and The Spirit of St. Louis.

See also

• Alexis Carrel

Further reading

• Berg, A. Scott. Lindbergh (1999), the best biography excerpt and text search
• Mosely, Leonard. Lindbergh: A Biography (2000) excerpt and text search
• Ward, John William. "The Meaning of Lindbergh's Flight," American Quarterly 10, no. 1 (Spring 1958) pp 3-16 online