Charles Lindbergh: Breaking Barriers in Aviation

Clyde Miller

Senior Division

Historical Paper

2,481 Words

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In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully flew the first powered aircraft in Kitty

Hawk, North Carolina. Ten years later, the concept of air travel was still in its infancy, and most of the aircraft that were in the skies at the time were still very small and could only travel short distances before running out of fuel. That meant that pilots were confined to only being able to fly within the country they lived in. As a result, nonstop and transatlantic flights were essentially unheard of, as they would be too costly and extremely dangerous. That all changed in 1927, twenty-four years after the ’ first powered flight, when an airmail pilot known as

Charles Lindbergh became the first pilot to successfully fly nonstop from New York to Paris by himself. Charles Lindbergh broke barriers through his solo transatlantic flight by proving that such flights were in fact possible, which in turn allowed many small airlines to expand their routes into other countries, turning air travel into a worldwide industry and changing the way people traveled.

Early Life

Charles Lindbergh was born on February 4, 1902 in Detroit, Michigan. For most of his childhood, Lindbergh and his family were constantly moving, and he “seldom spent more than a few months in the same place.”1 This constant moving allowed Lindbergh to gain a newfound appreciation for travel; an appreciation that would later end up determining his career. During his high school years, Lindbergh gained interest in mechanical and scientific subjects, the latter of which would help him break a smaller barrier in the medical field. The former made him

1 Lindbergh, Charles A. "We" (New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 1928), p.20.

2 eventually decide to major in mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin.2 This would later change however, as he started gaining interest in aviation, and two years after enrolling, he left the school to pursue a career in that field.3

Upon leaving the University of Wisconsin, Lindbergh moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he began flight school.4 Up until that time, Lindbergh had “never been near enough to a plane to touch it”5, which meant that his time in Lincoln was truly the first time he was ever able to see all of the instruments and inner workings of an aircraft, which further fueled his interests.

Lindbergh stayed in Nebraska for about two months, and by the end of May had accumulated around eight hours of flying, and it seemed as though he was ready to attempt his first solo flight.6 Unfortunately, due to technical issues, that flight never happened, and it would not be until a few months after that incident that he would have completed his first solo. After finishing his training, Lindbergh met E.G. Bahl, a pilot that was planning on barnstorming through

Nebraska, which involved flying through cities while performing stunts, and Bahl agreed to let

Lindbergh join him on his trip.7 During his time with E.G. Bahl, Lindbergh began performing stunts that mainly included walking onto the wings of the aircraft while it was in midair. He continued to perform these stunts on barnstorming trips across the northern until

October of 1922, when he reached Montana and decided to head back to Lincoln. In 1923,

Lindbergh ended up buying his first plane, and in 1924 he became a part of the United States

Army Air Corps, where he was able to get even more flight training.8

2 Contemporary Heroes and Heroines, vol. 1. 3 "Charles A. Lindbergh." In Explorers & Discoverers of the World. Detroit, MI: Gale, 1993. 4 Explorers & Discoverers of the World, 1993. 5 Lindbergh. 23. 6 Ibid. 27. 7 Ibid. 28. 8 Contemporary Heroes and Heroines, vol. 1

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Flying the Mail

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