Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh was a man of many accomplishments. In his time, everybody loved him.

Charles was well known all over the world. He was a hero, he represented all that could be accomplished in the future. He was a figure for doing what nobody else thought could be done. Lindbergh was one of those people that everyone else wanted to be.

Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born in Detroit on February 4, 1902, to Charles

Lindbergh, Sr., and Evangeline Land Lodge. Yet, he grew up in a small town in Nebraska.

Lindbergh was a whiz with mechanics. By age twelve, he was in charge of driving and fixing the car. In high school, he assembled a tractor from a mail order kit. When he was eighteen he entered the University of Wisconsin to study engineering. He found he was more interested in flying, so after two years of college, he dropped out and became a barnstormer, which was a pilot who performed daredevil stunts at fairs, and airshows.

Lindbergh was a favorite among the crowds. People would travel from all different places, even Europe, to come see his daredevil tricks.

In 1924 Lindbergh enlisted in the U.S. Army so he could be trained to be a pilot.

During this time he was given the nickname “Lucky Lindy'; because he would attempt daredevil stunts with his airplane, and always seem to evade punishment from upper officers. In 1925 he graduated as the top pilot in his class. He soon began working as a mail deliverer between St. Louis and Chicago.

Lindbergh soon heard of an offer given in 1919 by a New York hotel owner named

Raymond Orteig. The offer was this: the first aviator to fly nonstop from New York to

Paris would receive 25,000 dollars. Nobody had succeeded by 1927, and Lindbergh decided he could do it if he had a suitable plane. Remember, in 1919 this was a very scary thing to do! There was no radio on your plane, so if it went down, you could not call for help, and nobody would know where you were. Also, there was no coast guard, no search and rescue teams, so if you crashed, you were dead. He arranged for nine St. Louis businessmen to help him finance his plane. A company in San Diego called Ryan

Aeronautical Company was chosen to construct the plane, which Lindbergh helped design.

The plane was named "The Spirit of St. Louis". A transcontinental record was immediately set in a test run when Lindbergh flew from San Diego to New York City in