• 30/11/2022
  • By binternet
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May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh's heroic crossing of the North Atlantic<

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BACKGROUND

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“10:15 p.m.!… A huge scream, followed by a huge silence! We hear, falling from very high, an engine noise. And we listen, anxious… The spiral is wide, the descent is slow. - It's him ! they shout from all sides. In the light of the searchlight one can now read on the fuselage: Spirit-of-Saint-Louis”.

By triumphing over the ocean on May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh made the first non-stop solo crossing of the Atlantic by airplane, connecting New York to Paris in 33 hours and 30 minutes. He also broke the world non-stop distance record held by airmen Costes and Rignot, with 5,393 kilometers on the Paris-Djask route.

At Le Bourget, the ground was immediately invaded by a delirious crowd rushing towards the place where the aircraft had landed. "The police and troops can do nothing against the burst of enthusiasm of these thousands and thousands of unleashed spectators and the iron barriers are overthrown under an irresistible pressure", reported the Cross in its edition of May 24, 1927. dozens of arms took hold of me, my legs, my arms, my body (…), it was as if I was going to drown in a human tide,” the pilot would later write.

And yet, few people believed in the chances of this 25-year-old young man from Michigan. Aviation was in its infancy and Saint-Louis businessmen had thought for several months before financing the crazy project of the young airmail carrier.

The plane, called “Spirit of Saint Louis”, was built in two months by Ryan Airlines of San Diego. It was a question of going quickly because the price of 25,000 dollars, proposed by a wealthy hotelier, attracted candidates for the feat. Moreover, 12 days before the departure of Lindbergh, two French airmen, Charles Nungesser and François Coli, had disappeared while attempting the crossing...

“I just walked into my death row cell. If I arrive in Paris, it means that I will have been pardoned, ”said Charles Lindbergh on May 20, just before taking to the air at Roosevelt Field airfield in New York.

Excerpt from the program “Archival mysteries: 1927, Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic”

On several occasions, the “lone eagle” had thought of turning around due to terrible weather conditions. – La Croix will also give a detailed account of this difficult crossing the day after his exploit. – But in addition to his tenacity, it is thanks to his mastery of the new instrument navigation that the aviator owed his achievement. On his flight board were one of the first flight controllers and a terrestrial induction compass that gave him an undeniable superiority over his unfortunate predecessors.

The pioneer of modern aviation, who died of cancer on August 26, 1974, nevertheless always took a critical look at this development. He even went so far as to oppose, in 1971, the project to build the supersonic plane Concorde, which he considered too noisy and polluting.

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ARCHIVES

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From New York to Le Bourget. Lindbergh achieved this marvelous feat in thirty-three hours

(The Cross of May 24, 1927)

The landing at Le Bourget

At the end of Saturday afternoon, many onlookers, anticipating the arrival of Lindbergh, went to the airport, while, at the central window of the management building, American and French flags fluttered to the West wind: the wind needed by the brave aviator, who left alone thirty hours ago for a flight of 6,000 kilometres.

Brigades of agents arrive in coaches and form reinforced teams to organize a security service which, however tight it may be, will not fail to be completely insufficient later on.

What a barrier to oppose to tens of thousands of people, whose enthusiasm increases as the hour approaches, the hour when we will see in the Parisian sky the silver wings of the Spirit-of-Saint -Louis.

Enthusiasm? Yes, of course! But it is tempered, even weighed down by distressing memories. Because that's where the White Bird left. And more than one finger points in the clear sky of the lovely twilight to the point in space where, the other Sunday, Nungesser and Coli disappeared, never to return perhaps...

9 hours! There are more than 50,000 people stationed at the airfield. On this crowd, impatient and constantly growing, the protector of Le Bourget shines a pale ray still, but that the falling night will darken little by little.

Taxis, coaches, private cars bring new curious people to the deafening noise of horns and horns. Great eddies agitate the crowd and the rumor spreads, amplifies: It was reported above Cherbourg… We saw it pass in Louviers. In a few minutes he will be here...

May 21, 1927, the heroic crossing of the North Atlantic by Charles Lindbergh

In the meantime, French airmen multiply the acrobatics above the interested crowd.

Headlights now search the sky, where every two minutes the red plume of a rocket will bloom into the stars.

10:15 p.m.!… A huge cry, followed by a huge silence! We hear, falling from very high, an engine noise. And we listen, anxious.

The Le Bourget lighthouse searches through the air and suddenly its light beam slows down to now accompany the plane it has taken into its lighting zone.

The spiral is wide, the descent is slow. - It's him ! they shout from all sides.

A few more seconds and, masterfully, facing the wind, the plane which has just zoomed across Newfoundland, the Atlantic, Ireland and England, lands impeccably on both the wheels and the crutch.

The dangers of enthusiasm

It is indeed him, because in the light of the searchlight one can now read on the fuselage: Spirit-of-Saint-Louis.

The ground is immediately invaded by a delirious crowd which rushes towards the place where the aircraft has landed. The police and the troop can do nothing against the surge of enthusiasm of these thousands and thousands of unleashed spectators and the iron barriers are overthrown under an irresistible push.

At the sight of this human wave breaking in front of him, unaware of the danger he was running, the aviator only had time to cut the gas.

But already, cries of enthusiasm are mixed with cries of pain. People were knocked down and trampled in this mad rush. Ambulances will soon carry a dozen wounded to Parisian hospitals.

Men and women cling to the wings of the plane which has just stopped, and Lindbergh, worried by so much enthusiasm, hesitates to get out of his cabin.

Fortunately, Commander Weiss of the 34th Regiment is renewing the classic substitution move. To spare Lindbergh the fatigue, and even the real danger of an ovation that was too poorly restrained, he abruptly designated an anonymous mechanic to the cheers of the crowd. :