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THE FLIGHT OF THE CENTURY pivotal moments in american history Series Editors David Hackett Fischer James M. McPherson David Greenberg James T. Patterson Colin G. Calloway Brown v. Board of Education: Th e Scratch of a Pen: 1763 A Civil Rights Milestone and the Transformation and Its Troubled Legacy of North America Maury Klein Richard Labunski Rainbow’s End: James Madison and the Th e Crash of 1929 Struggle for the Bill of Rights James McPherson Sally McMillen Crossroads of Freedom: Seneca Falls and the Origins Th e Battle of Antietam of the Women’s Rights Movement Glenn C. Altschuler Howard Jones All Shook Up: Th e Bay of Pigs How Rock ’n’ Roll Changed America Elliott West David Hackett Fischer Th e Last Indian War: Washington’s Crossing Th e Nez Perce Story John Ferling Lynn Hudson Parsons Adams vs. Jeff erson: Th e Birth of Modern Politics: Th e Tumultuous Election of 1800 Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828 Joel H. Silbey Storm over Texas: Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Blumin Th e Annexation Controversy Th e GI Bill: A New Deal for Veterans and the Road to Civil War Richard Archer Raymond Arsenault As If an Enemy’s Country: Freedom Riders: 1961 and Th e British Occupation of Boston the Struggle for Racial Justice and the Origins of Revolution THE FLIGHT OF THE CENTURY CHARLES LINDBERGH & THE RISE OF AMERICAN AVIATION THOMAS KESSNER 2010 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Th ailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2010 by Th omas Kessner Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kessner, Th omas. Th e fl ight of the century : Charles Lindbergh and the rise of American aviation / Th omas Kessner. p. cm. — (Pivotal moments in American history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-532019-0 1. Lindbergh, Charles A. (Charles Augustus), 1902–1974. 2. Air pilots—United States—Biography. 3. Aeronautics—United States—History—20th century. I. Title. TL540.L5K385 2010 629.130092—dc22 [B] 2010006082 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper B‘EZRAS HASHEM FOR RACHEL This page intentionally left blank “Colonel Lindbergh has displaced everything . He fi lls all our thought. He has displaced politics . [H]e has lift ed us into the upper air that is his home . We are all better men and women because of this exhibition in this fl ight of our young friend. Our boys and girls have before them a stirring, inspiring vision of real manhood. What a wonderful thing it is to live in a time when science and character join hands to lift up humanity with a vision of its own dignity.” Charles Evans Hughes, New York Times, June 15, 1927 This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Lindbergh’s Map , x E d i t o r ’ s N o t e , xii I n t r o d u c t i o n , x v 1 You’re Your Own Boss, 1 2 Acolyte of the Air , 20 3 Aviation Takes Flight , 44 4 Intricate Perfection , 59 5 Flight of the Century , 84 6 Vive Lindbergh! Vive l’Américain! 98 7 It Touched Off Aviation , 122 8 Airship Diplomacy , 145 9 Th e Lindbergh Era , 164 10 “We” Now a Trio , 180 11 As One Gains Fame One Loses Life , 201 Epilogue: Th e End of Heroes , 224 Acknowledgments , 241 Notes , 243 Selected Bibliography , 289 Index , 293 Lindbergh’s handwritten annotation reads “Used in laying out great circle course for New York to Paris fl ight. San Diego Calif., 1927 C.A.L.” From the American Geographical Society Library, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries. EDITOR’S NOTE certain days are indelibly etched in our memories. Most readers of these words will recall with wrenching clarity where they were and what they were doing when they learned of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Th ose who are old enough will remember with similar sharp-edged horror the assassi- nation of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Dwindling numbers will recall the wild celebrations that broke out on V-J Day, August 15, 1945, or the shocking news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on “the date that will live in infamy,” December 7, 1941. Few are left , however, who can remember May 21, 1927. At 10:22 p.m. that evening, a clean-cut, boyish, twenty-fi ve-year-old midwesterner landed his single-engine monoplane, Th e Spirit of St. Louis, at Le Bourget Aerodrome near Paris aft er a thirty-three-hour nonstop fl ight alone across the Atlantic Ocean from New York. A hundred thousand Parisians trampled down fences, bowled over security guards, and swarmed onto the tarmac to lift the “Lone Eagle,” Charles A. Lind- bergh, above their heads and pass him along—threatening bodily harm in their joyful eagerness to touch the hero who had done what many had tried but no one before him had accomplished. Th e news of Lindbergh’s fl ight fl ashed around the world via cable, radio, and print media. He became an instant global celebrity whose fame lasted not for fi ft een minutes but for years. No individual and no single event in history so thoroughly captured the imagination of millions. “From this day at this place,” announced France’s air minister, “will date a new era in world history.” Richard Byrd, famous in his own right for his pioneering fl ight to the North Pole and a contender with Lindbergh in the race for a nonstop transat- lantic fl ight, generously praised Lindbergh for having achieved “one of the great- est individual feats in all history.” xii Th e story of Lindbergh and his fl ight of the century has been told by many authors, including Lindbergh himself, but none has told it better than Th omas Kessner in the pages that follow. Th ough we know how the saga of Lindbergh’s thirty-three tense hours in the air comes out, Kessner’s gripping narrative will keep a reader at the edge of his or her seat. But this book is much more than a chronicle of the famous fl ight, more than a biography of Lindbergh, more than a profound meditation on the triumphs and tragedies of Lindbergh’s life, though it is all of these. Above all it is an incisive and highly readable exposition of the theme expressed by the subtitle: the rise of American aviation. Before 1927, aeronautics in the United States lagged behind European na- tions, especially France. Orville and Wilbur Wright had made the fi rst suc- cessful fl ights in 1903, but the demands of war and anticipated future wars caused Europeans to forge ahead in fl ight during the 1910s and 1920s. Although the U.S. Post Offi ce inaugurated airmail service, in which Lindbergh won his initial spurs, plans for commercial air transport were more advanced in Europe than in the United States. Th e excitement generated by Lindbergh’s fl ight changed everything. Almost overnight, scores of American cities built new or improved existing airports; new airlines were incorporated; and inves- tors poured money into all aspects of airplane design, manufacturing, and operations. Lindbergh became an active leader in these ventures. His fame and fl ying skills made him a superb advocate for American aeronautics. He fl ew endless hours over North and South America, Europe, and Africa—with his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh as copilot—mapping fl ight routes and establishing crucial navigation aids. Lindbergh helped launch or develop several airlines, including Pan Am and TWA. American aviation leapfrogged over the European leaders, and though the Great Depression cramped progress for a time, Lindbergh’s pioneering achieve- ments endured as one of the most important factors in the evolution of American aeronautics. Lindbergh also launched—unwittingly and unwillingly—another modern phenomenon: celebrity culture. A loner who cherished privacy, he was unpre- pared for the unparalleled attention he attracted. Journalists dogged his footsteps. Th e kidnapping and murder of his fi rst child, the sensational trial of the alleged kidnapper, the tabloid reporters and paparazzi photographers who continued to threaten the safety of his family all drove him to move abroad from 1935 to 1939. Th e Lone Eagle espoused isolationism and expressed admiration for the order and effi ciency of Nazi Germany. Like other heroes, Lindbergh had a tragic fl aw— a lack of empathy. Kessner deals sensitively but straightforwardly with this facet of the fl yer’s complex character. editor’s note xiii In any event Lindbergh’s contributions were never really in doubt. “He had advanced American commercial aviation to international leadership,” writes Kessner, “changing forever the interplay of time, distance, trade, travel, big busi- ness, diplomacy, and defense.” Although he lived to the age of seventy-two, Lindbergh’s major contribution to America—and the world—came in his twenties, and in particular on that spring evening in Paris in May 1927.

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