Charles Lindbergh: The Lone Eagle Page #3

across the Atlantic

need to know precisely

how far it is to Paris.

Lindbergh has a primitive solution.

The bit of white grocery

string under my fingers

stretches taut along

the coast of North America,

bends down over a faded blue ocean,

and strikes the land mass of Europe.

It's 3600 statute miles.

It will be twenty-eight hours to

Ireland and thirty-six to Paris.

Lindbergh will use a simple compass to

guide him from New York to Newfoundland,

then across two thousand miles

of open sea,

with no hope of surviving

if anything goes wrong.

As Lindbergh's work gets under way,

the competition heats up.

On March 2, in New York,

Richard Byrd announces that his plan

to reach Paris is almost complete.

Byrd has built a 100,000 dollar,

gigantic aircraft named "America,"

and will be ready by May.

Just two weeks later, in Virginia,

American Navy pilots Noel Davis

and Stanton Wooster

unveil their own contender:

a tri-motor called "American Legion."

But Lindbergh holds to his plan

to build a small aircraft.

He is certain that

the bigger the plane,

the bigger the chance of

a fatal accident.

Then, on March 26, a new challenger

emerges in Paris.

Ace Charles Nungesser and his

one-eyed navigator Francois Coli

are ready for a westbound

crossing in their plane,

the "White Bird."

The Ryan team works around the clock,

a race against the world's

most famous aviators

all for a twenty-five year old with

a dream, and determination.

Then comes a stunning blow.

In mid-April, American pilot

Clarence Chamberlin announces that

he has stayed aloft

for a record-smashing

fifty-one hours in skies

over New York.

His powerful plane Columbia

is now ready for Paris.

Four planes are ready to go,

waiting only for clear skies

over the Atlantic,

while Charles Lindbergh is

on the Pacific coast,

still waiting for his aircraft

to be built.

Suddenly, the odds begin to change.

A test flight of Byrd's America

on April 16 ends in a twisted wreck.

Byrd and two of his crewmen

are seriously injured

and the America needs weeks

of repairs.

Eight days later,

Clarence Chamberlin takes off

from the same New York runway.

He crash lands the Columbia.

Chamberlin walks away,

but his landing gear is destroyed.

Noel Davis and Stanton Wooster

are not as fortunate.

On April 26, both men are killed

when their overloaded plane

stalls and crashes in Virginia.

Lindbergh's prediction has come

tragically true.

Loaded down multi engine giants are

too unreliable for transatlantic flight.

Two Americans and four Frenchmen

have given their lives

in the race to link their nations.

April 28, 1927.

Two months after Charles Lindbergh

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