Model Aircrafts and Ships

“If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea. — CAL”

February 04 1902 – Charles Lindbergh, American pilot (d. 1974).

Charles Lindbergh: the Lone Eagle

Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born on the 4^th of February 1902 in Detroit to Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Sr. and Evangeline Lodge Land. During his early age, he already showed his exceptional mechanical ability. At the age of 18, he entered the University of Wisconsin and study engineering but he later left school and became barnstormer as he was more interested in the exciting, young field of aviation than school.

1924 – He enlisted in the US Army so he can be trained as an Army Air Service Reserve pilot.

1925 – He graduated from the Army’s flight training school and he was awarded as the best pilot in his class.

After Army Training – He was hired by the Robertson Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis and he flies the mail between St. Louis and Chicago. He gained reputation as a cautious and capable pilot.

In 1919, Raymond Orteig, owner of New York City Hotel offered $25,000 to the first aviator to fly nonstop from New York to Paris and it cost the lives of the pilots who joined the competition and some got injured. And until 1927 no one won the said competition.

Charles Lindbergh believed that he could win it only if he had the right airplane and so he persuaded St. Louis businessmen to help him in finance and he chose Ryan Aeronautical Company to manufacture the special plane which he also helped to design. He named it the Spirit of St. Louis. He tested the plane by flying from San Diego to New York City with overnight nonstop in St. Louis on the 10^th and 11^th of May 1927. It took 20 hours and 21 minutes which is a transcontinental record.

On the 20^th of May 1927, he took off the Spirit of St. Louis from Roosevelt Field near New York City and he landed at Le Bourget Field near Paris on the 21^st of May. The nonstop New York to Paris flight in the Spirit of St. Louis made him the first man to fly the Atlantic solo. Thousands of people gathered to meet him and he became an international hero and the most famous man in the world during that time.

Spirit of St. Louis

On the 27^th of May 1929, he married Anne Morrow Lindbergh, daughter of the diplomat Dwight Morrow. He thought her how to fly and they went on many expeditions together. Anne became famous for her poetry and other writings. The couple had six children: Charles Augustus Lindbergh III (1930-1932); Jon (16^th August 1932); Land (1937), studied anthropology; Anne (1940-1993); Scott (1942); and Reeve (1945), writer.

Lindbergh had an affair with Brigitte Hesshaimer, a German hat maker and they had three children: Dryk (1958); Astrid (1960); and David (1967). They managed to keep the affair secret even with their children but Astrid later read a magazine and found out the truth. She did not disclose the affair until both Brigitte and Anne Morrow Lindbergh had died.

Charles Augustus Lindbergh died on the 26^th of August 1974 of lymphoma on the Hawaiian island of Maui. He was buried on the grounds of Palapala Ho’omau Church in Kipahulu, Maui.

Charles Lindbergh’s grave