June 21, 2024 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Charles Lindbergh got his start performing in aerial circuses—and as a glorified mailman. He also made the daring decision to fly solo across the Atlantic, despite everyone else choosing to have a wingman. Kirk Higgins of the Bill of Rights Institute tells the story.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Up Next,
the story of a man who had over two hundred
songs written about him and was the first to fly
(00:31):
across the Atlantic. We're talking about Charles Limberg. Here to
tell the story is Kirk Higgins, the senior director of
Content at the Bill of Rights Institute. You can check
out their great curriculum on American history at mybri dot org.
That's Mybri dot org. Let's get into the story. Take
(00:53):
it away, Kirk.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It was the evening of May nineteenth, nineteen twenty seven,
in twenty five year old aviator Charles Limberg was being
hounded by the New York press as he made his
way to a Broadway play. Limberg hoped that the play
would relieve him of some stress, but there's a little
chance of that. He was preparing a historic attempt to
be the first person to fly NonStop from New York
(01:16):
to Paris, but the stormy weather across the Northern Atlantic
hadn't been cooperating lately, Limberg never made it to his
Broadway play. Before it had even begun, he received one
of the most significant meteorological reports of the century. A
high pressure system was going to clear out the storms.
(01:38):
The moment he'd been waiting for had come. It was
time for Charles Limberg to head back to his hotel
and prepare for one of the most courageous, dangerous in
historic flights ever. Born in Detroit in nineteen oh two
(02:01):
and raised in the sleepy town of Little Falls, Minnesota,
on the banks of the Mississippi River, Charles Limberg was
the son of a congressman and a science teacher, and
from his earliest years anything mechanical struck his fancy. He'd
tinker with the family car and motorbike in his spare time.
It was there in Little Falls that he saw his
first airplane. Limberg would recall one day, I was playing
(02:28):
upstairs in our house on the river bank. The sound
of a distant engine drifted in through an open window.
Suddenly I sat up straight and listened. No automobile engine
made that noise. It was approaching too fast. It was
on the wrong side of the house. I ran to
the window and climbed out onto the terry roof. It
was an airplane flying up river below higher branches of trees.
(02:49):
A biplane was less than two hundred yards away, a frail,
complicated structure, with the pilot sitting out in front between
struts and wires. I watched it fly quickly site. As
more Americans took to the skies, Limberg's fascination with aviation
will grow. He spent hours at his family farm, lying
on his back, looking at the clouds and dreaming of flying,
(03:12):
and soon he'd.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Be able to touch those clouds. He enrolled in the College.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin Madison, but dropped
out by his sophomore year to enroll in flying school
out in Nebraska. On April ninth, nineteen twenty two, he'd
take to disguise for the first time, not piloting, but
along for the ride. Later he'd state about that first flight,
trees became bushes, barns, toys, cows turn into rabbits. As
(03:37):
we climb, I lose all conscious connection with the past.
I live only in the moment, in this strange, unmortal space,
crowded with beauty, pierced with dandren needless to say, he
was hooked. Flying had become an obsession in his purpose
in life. That obsession soon drew Charles Limberg to his
(03:59):
marriage because exhilarating and dangerous barnstorming circuit. It wasn't through
peace but war that the first Americans were trained up
on how to fly planes, almost every single one of
them in the Curtis JN nine Jenny, and after World
War One, almost all of them were sold for a
small fraction of their original cost. For two hundred dollars,
(04:23):
you could buy your very own airplane. That's only a
cost of about thirty seven hundred dollars today. So by
them they did for mail carrying, smuggling, and barnstorming, sometimes
all three. Barnstorming otherwise known as aerial circuses, was very
popular in the nineteen twenties. People from all over the
country would pay nickels and dives to see pilots perform
(04:44):
astonishing and thrilling acrobatic feats, wing walking, skydiving, even playing
tennis between planes. It was a dangerous business, unregulated and
open to all men and women, white and black, and
many great pilots, including Charles Limber, would earn their wings
this way, making little to no money in the process.
(05:06):
He'd joined up with a crew as a wingwalker and parachutist,
despite never having done either. On his first jump out
of a plane, everything went smoothly up until the second
the parachute was supposed to open. Thankfully, it eventually did.
What Limberg would quit that if I could fly for
ten years before I was killed in the crash, it
would be a worthwhile trade for an ordinary lifetime. Deciding
(05:27):
skydiving wasn't for him, and feeling as if he had
watched people pilot planes enough to know how to do
so himself, as he hadn't flown solo up until this point,
he'd borrow money from his dad to buy his first
airplane at Southern Field in Georgia. He'd later write about
the experience quote everybody at Southern Field took for granted
that I was an experienced pilot.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
When I arrived to buy a plane.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
They didn't ask to see my license because you didn't
have to have a license to fly an airplane.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Kid nineteen twenty three, flying.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
The new plane back to Minnesota be his first time
in the cockpit solo. He barnstormed all the way back
to get enough money to complete the trip. Limberg would
soon take on a more serious career the Army Air Service,
mostly because he wanted to fly newer, faster plans. He
later wrote, air Service pilot swings like a silver passport
(06:18):
to the realm of light. With them went the right
to fly all military airplanes. Out of the one hundred
and three people in his class, only nineteen would graduate.
Lindberg would be at the top. Afterwards, he'd took a
job flying airmail on the Saint.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Louis to Chicago route.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
The man who became America's most famous airman was a
former mailman, just with plenty of extra risk. Flying the
mail was dangerous work. He'd be forced to jump from
his plane twice, his parachute luckily breaking his fall each time.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And you've been listening to the story of a name
and man you know but probably don't know like this,
I certainly am learning some things about Lindberg myself, and
it's essentially and especially the part about the role the
Army Air Service played in training up well all kinds
of American pilots, and also the role that these aerial
(07:11):
circuses called barnstorming played in the development of our pilots
and our talent in the country. When we come back
more of the story of Charles Lindbergh here on Our
American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of our American Stories.
(07:34):
Every day on this show we tell stories of history, faith, business, love, loss,
and your stories. Send us your story small or large
to out email oas at Ouramerican Stories dot com. That's
oas at Ouramerican Stories dot com. We'd love to hear
them and put them on the air. Our audience loves
(07:54):
them too. And we returned to our American Stories and
the final portion of our story on Charles Lindbergh. Telling
(08:15):
the story is Kirk Higgins, the senior director of Content.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
At the Bill of Rights Institute.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
You can check out their phenomenal curriculum on American history
at MBRI dot org. When we last left off, Lindberg
had gotten his wings being an aerial circus performer. Soon
he was about to do and be a lot more
than that. Let's return to the story.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
The events that led to Charles Lindberg's historic flight nineteen
twenty seven began with an open letter by a New
York hotelier to the Aero Club of America in nineteen nineteen.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Gentlemen, as a stimulus to the courageous aviators, I desire
to offer, through the auspices and regulars of the Aero
Club of America, a prize of twenty five thousand dollars
to the first aviator of any Allied country crossing the
Atlantic in one flight from Paris to New York or
(09:13):
New York to Paris. All other details in your care yours,
very sincerely, Raymond Orte.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
For years the price sat unclaimed, not because people flocked
to meet the challenge it failed, but because nobody thought
it possible. By nineteen twenty six, though attempts were being made.
A French Fighter Races attempt failed on the runway, crashing
into a ball of flames two overloaded. Famed Arctic explorer
(09:45):
Richard E Byrd also crashed again too heavy. Then there
was Clarence Chamberlain, another pioneer of aviation arguments drove his
team apart.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Legal disputes followed.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Then Stanton Wooster and his partner Noel Davis, a crash during.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
A test flight would take their lives.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Limberg was a late challenger and different from everyone else,
decided to go solo in a single engine aircraft a
very risky decision. The prize did not demand a sell
of flight. Nobody had tried it this way. To many,
it seemed just as doom to fail as.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Those who had gone before him. But to Limberg the
challenge seemed possible.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
He'd discussed his idea with a couple of businessmen and
went to work getting himself an airplane he felt would
be suited for the job. Limberg's priorities for the plane
were simple. First, it had to be efficient. Second, it
had to be safe. In third, it had to be comfortable,
but that would come last among everything. He'd leave a
(10:46):
parachute and radio behind too heavy. The gas tank would
be in front, even though it blocked his sight. He
wouldn't need it for most of the trip anyway, but
he and his builders installed a periscope just to be
the clear for takeoff and landing. By twenty fifth, nineteen
twenty seven, the Metallic Bird, dubbed the Spirit of Saint Louis,
was ready to roll. By the time he landed in
(11:11):
Saint Louis from California a few days later, he was
already breaking records at home. Then, on his flight to
New York, another record the fastest flight across America less
than a day twenty two hours. The time had now come.
On the morning of May twentieth, nineteen twenty seven. He
climbed into the wicker chair in the cockpit of his airplane.
Limburg was well aware this flight could be his last.
(11:33):
The plane's two tanks were filled with four hundred and
fifty gallons of fuel each, but as Limberg started the
single engine and propeller, they responded somewhat sluggishly because of
the humidity. Limburg wasn't even sure his plane could clear
the telephone wires hanging at the end of Long Island's
Roosevelt Field. Even if it could, he still had to
fly thirty four hundred miles across a broad expanse of ocean.
(11:55):
But shortly before eight am, Limberg turned to his crew
with a boyish grin and asked, what do you.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Say, Let's try it.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
As roughly five hundred spectators held their breath, the wheels
of the Spirit of Saint Louis rolled down the wet
runway and bounced twice before the point lifted Limburg into
the sky. Cheers of joy and relief erupted from the crowd.
But Limberg's journey was just beginning, and he understood the perils.
He would write on giving up the continent and heading
out to sea in the most fragile vehicle ever devised
(12:23):
by man.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Limberg followed the New England.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Coast to the northeast, and after four hours in the air,
was flying over Nova Scotia in Canada. That's when Limberg
was faced with another serious and potentially deadly challenge, deep fatigue.
Limburg had been unable to sleep the night before and
had been awake for more than thirty hours. He wrote,
my whole body agrees Dully that nothing, nothing life can attain,
(12:55):
is quite as desirable as sleep. My mind is losing
resolution and control. After eleven hours in the cockpit, flying
at one hundred miles per hour, Limberg passed over Newfoundland
at dusk. He buzzed a fishing town that contained the
last humans he would see for nearly two thousand miles.
With his fatigue mounting, Limberg had a decision to make.
(13:16):
He could easily have landed and tried again when he
was more fully rested. Limberg knew that falling asleep over
the Atlantic meant certain death, but he resolved to continue
and flew alone eastward into a very dark and stormy
night over the vast expanse of ocean. Limberg flew around
thunderstorms and squalls as he fought off sleep. When he
(13:38):
climbed near ten thousand feet so that the brisk air
would keep him awake, ice built up on the wings
and threatened to down the plane. Finally, the skies cleared
and the moon rose to guide Limburg relentlessly to the east.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
But Limberg didn't know exactly where he was.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
With a little modern instrumentation or markers in the Atlantic,
he used dead reckoning to estimate his position. You can
imagine Limberg's relief when, twenty seven hours after taking off
from New York and flying slow over the Atlantic waves,
he spotted his first sign of life since leaving the
coast of Newfoundland. A porpoise, then seagulls, then the unmistakable
(14:15):
cliffs of Ireland, and boats full of surprised fishermen dotting
the waters. Limberg was ecstatic. He was only three miles
off course, and on top of that, a favorable tailwind
had shaved a few hours off its flight. Things were
going great, and he noted that time was no longer endless,
as it had seemed while he was flying over the
(14:37):
vast ocean where no land was visible in any direction.
Giddy with success, Limberg considered extending his record flight by
flying all the way to Rome, but with good sense
and humility, he reined in these impulsive thoughts. He still
had six hundred miles ahead of him and the sun
was setting yet again. He crossed the comparatively narrow English
Channel and entered France on his way to Paris. Arrived
(15:00):
over the city, Limberg plew around the Eiffel Tower and
searched out l Borge Airfield. That's when he noticed something
amazing and for a time confusing. Thousands of lights guided
him toward the airport in the darkness. These lights were
coming from a massive traffic jam of excited Parisians heading
to the airfield. When Limberg finally landed at ten twenty
(15:22):
four pm local time on May twenty first, as many
as one hundred and fifty thousand onlookers gathered to catch
a glimpse of the historic plane and the heroic pilot
who flew it. The massive crowd gathered around the Spirit
of Saint Louis and began to tear at the plane.
Desperate for a souvenir, they carried him on their shoulders
before he was whisked away by police to the American
Embassy for a steak dinner and a well earned night
(15:44):
of sleep. After thirty three and a half hour's airport,
he'd been awake for sixty six hours. Limburg had done
something seemingly impossible, what so many others had tried and
failed to do, and he'd made a name for himself
to boot. He was, at that moment in time, the
(16:04):
most famous man, not just in America but the world.
Marriage proposals were sent, thousands of gifts poured in, and
over two hundred songs were written about him after his flight.
For his remarkable courage, he was honored in America with
a ticker tape parade in appearance before Congress in Washington,
where two hundred and fifty thousand people greeted him and
(16:26):
awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross and a Congressional Medal of Honor,
the highest award in the land. On top of this,
he became Colonel Limberg, having been promoted by President Calvin
Coolidge himself. Coolidge remarked that Limberg's success was the same
story of valor and victory by a son of the
people that shines through every page of American history. The
(16:46):
world was Limberg's oyster.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
At this moment. He could have had any job he wanted.
His choice was.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
To continue his course, much as he had done over
the Atlantic. He'd go on to state that whatever does
not mean help to aviation will not interest at all.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monte Montgomery. And a special thanks to
Kirk Higgins, the senior director of Content at the Bill
of Rights Institute. You can check out their great curriculum
on American history at Mybri dot org. That's Mybri dot org.
What a story. Born in Detroit, raised in small town Minnesota,
(17:26):
alongside the Mississippi River, sees a biplane flying up the river,
knows what he wants to do with the rest of
his life, and my goodness, choosing to fly solo. This
becomes the difference maker. And in the end, what a
crazy proposition. But no one had put it forth before
the story of Charles Lindbergh. Here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Up Next,
the story of a man who had over two hundred
songs written about him and was the first to fly
(00:31):
across the Atlantic. We're talking about Charles Limberg. Here to
tell the story is Kirk Higgins, the senior director of
Content at the Bill of Rights Institute. You can check
out their great curriculum on American history at mybri dot org.
That's Mybri dot org. Let's get into the story. Take
(00:53):
it away, Kirk.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It was the evening of May nineteenth, nineteen twenty seven,
in twenty five year old aviator Charles Limberg was being
hounded by the New York press as he made his
way to a Broadway play. Limberg hoped that the play
would relieve him of some stress, but there's a little
chance of that. He was preparing a historic attempt to
be the first person to fly NonStop from New York
(01:16):
to Paris, but the stormy weather across the Northern Atlantic
hadn't been cooperating lately, Limberg never made it to his
Broadway play. Before it had even begun, he received one
of the most significant meteorological reports of the century. A
high pressure system was going to clear out the storms.
(01:38):
The moment he'd been waiting for had come. It was
time for Charles Limberg to head back to his hotel
and prepare for one of the most courageous, dangerous in
historic flights ever. Born in Detroit in nineteen oh two
(02:01):
and raised in the sleepy town of Little Falls, Minnesota,
on the banks of the Mississippi River, Charles Limberg was
the son of a congressman and a science teacher, and
from his earliest years anything mechanical struck his fancy. He'd
tinker with the family car and motorbike in his spare time.
It was there in Little Falls that he saw his
first airplane. Limberg would recall one day, I was playing
(02:28):
upstairs in our house on the river bank. The sound
of a distant engine drifted in through an open window.
Suddenly I sat up straight and listened. No automobile engine
made that noise. It was approaching too fast. It was
on the wrong side of the house. I ran to
the window and climbed out onto the terry roof. It
was an airplane flying up river below higher branches of trees.
(02:49):
A biplane was less than two hundred yards away, a frail,
complicated structure, with the pilot sitting out in front between
struts and wires. I watched it fly quickly site. As
more Americans took to the skies, Limberg's fascination with aviation
will grow. He spent hours at his family farm, lying
on his back, looking at the clouds and dreaming of flying,
(03:12):
and soon he'd.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Be able to touch those clouds. He enrolled in the College.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin Madison, but dropped
out by his sophomore year to enroll in flying school
out in Nebraska. On April ninth, nineteen twenty two, he'd
take to disguise for the first time, not piloting, but
along for the ride. Later he'd state about that first flight,
trees became bushes, barns, toys, cows turn into rabbits. As
(03:37):
we climb, I lose all conscious connection with the past.
I live only in the moment, in this strange, unmortal space,
crowded with beauty, pierced with dandren needless to say, he
was hooked. Flying had become an obsession in his purpose
in life. That obsession soon drew Charles Limberg to his
(03:59):
marriage because exhilarating and dangerous barnstorming circuit. It wasn't through
peace but war that the first Americans were trained up
on how to fly planes, almost every single one of
them in the Curtis JN nine Jenny, and after World
War One, almost all of them were sold for a
small fraction of their original cost. For two hundred dollars,
(04:23):
you could buy your very own airplane. That's only a
cost of about thirty seven hundred dollars today. So by
them they did for mail carrying, smuggling, and barnstorming, sometimes
all three. Barnstorming otherwise known as aerial circuses, was very
popular in the nineteen twenties. People from all over the
country would pay nickels and dives to see pilots perform
(04:44):
astonishing and thrilling acrobatic feats, wing walking, skydiving, even playing
tennis between planes. It was a dangerous business, unregulated and
open to all men and women, white and black, and
many great pilots, including Charles Limber, would earn their wings
this way, making little to no money in the process.
(05:06):
He'd joined up with a crew as a wingwalker and parachutist,
despite never having done either. On his first jump out
of a plane, everything went smoothly up until the second
the parachute was supposed to open. Thankfully, it eventually did.
What Limberg would quit that if I could fly for
ten years before I was killed in the crash, it
would be a worthwhile trade for an ordinary lifetime. Deciding
(05:27):
skydiving wasn't for him, and feeling as if he had
watched people pilot planes enough to know how to do
so himself, as he hadn't flown solo up until this point,
he'd borrow money from his dad to buy his first
airplane at Southern Field in Georgia. He'd later write about
the experience quote everybody at Southern Field took for granted
that I was an experienced pilot.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
When I arrived to buy a plane.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
They didn't ask to see my license because you didn't
have to have a license to fly an airplane.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Kid nineteen twenty three, flying.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
The new plane back to Minnesota be his first time
in the cockpit solo. He barnstormed all the way back
to get enough money to complete the trip. Limberg would
soon take on a more serious career the Army Air Service,
mostly because he wanted to fly newer, faster plans. He
later wrote, air Service pilot swings like a silver passport
(06:18):
to the realm of light. With them went the right
to fly all military airplanes. Out of the one hundred
and three people in his class, only nineteen would graduate.
Lindberg would be at the top. Afterwards, he'd took a
job flying airmail on the Saint.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Louis to Chicago route.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
The man who became America's most famous airman was a
former mailman, just with plenty of extra risk. Flying the
mail was dangerous work. He'd be forced to jump from
his plane twice, his parachute luckily breaking his fall each time.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And you've been listening to the story of a name
and man you know but probably don't know like this,
I certainly am learning some things about Lindberg myself, and
it's essentially and especially the part about the role the
Army Air Service played in training up well all kinds
of American pilots, and also the role that these aerial
(07:11):
circuses called barnstorming played in the development of our pilots
and our talent in the country. When we come back
more of the story of Charles Lindbergh here on Our
American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of our American Stories.
(07:34):
Every day on this show we tell stories of history, faith, business, love, loss,
and your stories. Send us your story small or large
to out email oas at Ouramerican Stories dot com. That's
oas at Ouramerican Stories dot com. We'd love to hear
them and put them on the air. Our audience loves
(07:54):
them too. And we returned to our American Stories and
the final portion of our story on Charles Lindbergh. Telling
(08:15):
the story is Kirk Higgins, the senior director of Content.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
At the Bill of Rights Institute.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
You can check out their phenomenal curriculum on American history
at MBRI dot org. When we last left off, Lindberg
had gotten his wings being an aerial circus performer. Soon
he was about to do and be a lot more
than that. Let's return to the story.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
The events that led to Charles Lindberg's historic flight nineteen
twenty seven began with an open letter by a New
York hotelier to the Aero Club of America in nineteen nineteen.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Gentlemen, as a stimulus to the courageous aviators, I desire
to offer, through the auspices and regulars of the Aero
Club of America, a prize of twenty five thousand dollars
to the first aviator of any Allied country crossing the
Atlantic in one flight from Paris to New York or
(09:13):
New York to Paris. All other details in your care yours,
very sincerely, Raymond Orte.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
For years the price sat unclaimed, not because people flocked
to meet the challenge it failed, but because nobody thought
it possible. By nineteen twenty six, though attempts were being made.
A French Fighter Races attempt failed on the runway, crashing
into a ball of flames two overloaded. Famed Arctic explorer
(09:45):
Richard E Byrd also crashed again too heavy. Then there
was Clarence Chamberlain, another pioneer of aviation arguments drove his
team apart.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Legal disputes followed.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Then Stanton Wooster and his partner Noel Davis, a crash during.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
A test flight would take their lives.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Limberg was a late challenger and different from everyone else,
decided to go solo in a single engine aircraft a
very risky decision. The prize did not demand a sell
of flight. Nobody had tried it this way. To many,
it seemed just as doom to fail as.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Those who had gone before him. But to Limberg the
challenge seemed possible.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
He'd discussed his idea with a couple of businessmen and
went to work getting himself an airplane he felt would
be suited for the job. Limberg's priorities for the plane
were simple. First, it had to be efficient. Second, it
had to be safe. In third, it had to be comfortable,
but that would come last among everything. He'd leave a
(10:46):
parachute and radio behind too heavy. The gas tank would
be in front, even though it blocked his sight. He
wouldn't need it for most of the trip anyway, but
he and his builders installed a periscope just to be
the clear for takeoff and landing. By twenty fifth, nineteen
twenty seven, the Metallic Bird, dubbed the Spirit of Saint Louis,
was ready to roll. By the time he landed in
(11:11):
Saint Louis from California a few days later, he was
already breaking records at home. Then, on his flight to
New York, another record the fastest flight across America less
than a day twenty two hours. The time had now come.
On the morning of May twentieth, nineteen twenty seven. He
climbed into the wicker chair in the cockpit of his airplane.
Limburg was well aware this flight could be his last.
(11:33):
The plane's two tanks were filled with four hundred and
fifty gallons of fuel each, but as Limberg started the
single engine and propeller, they responded somewhat sluggishly because of
the humidity. Limburg wasn't even sure his plane could clear
the telephone wires hanging at the end of Long Island's
Roosevelt Field. Even if it could, he still had to
fly thirty four hundred miles across a broad expanse of ocean.
(11:55):
But shortly before eight am, Limberg turned to his crew
with a boyish grin and asked, what do you.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Say, Let's try it.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
As roughly five hundred spectators held their breath, the wheels
of the Spirit of Saint Louis rolled down the wet
runway and bounced twice before the point lifted Limburg into
the sky. Cheers of joy and relief erupted from the crowd.
But Limberg's journey was just beginning, and he understood the perils.
He would write on giving up the continent and heading
out to sea in the most fragile vehicle ever devised
(12:23):
by man.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Limberg followed the New England.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Coast to the northeast, and after four hours in the air,
was flying over Nova Scotia in Canada. That's when Limberg
was faced with another serious and potentially deadly challenge, deep fatigue.
Limburg had been unable to sleep the night before and
had been awake for more than thirty hours. He wrote,
my whole body agrees Dully that nothing, nothing life can attain,
(12:55):
is quite as desirable as sleep. My mind is losing
resolution and control. After eleven hours in the cockpit, flying
at one hundred miles per hour, Limberg passed over Newfoundland
at dusk. He buzzed a fishing town that contained the
last humans he would see for nearly two thousand miles.
With his fatigue mounting, Limberg had a decision to make.
(13:16):
He could easily have landed and tried again when he
was more fully rested. Limberg knew that falling asleep over
the Atlantic meant certain death, but he resolved to continue
and flew alone eastward into a very dark and stormy
night over the vast expanse of ocean. Limberg flew around
thunderstorms and squalls as he fought off sleep. When he
(13:38):
climbed near ten thousand feet so that the brisk air
would keep him awake, ice built up on the wings
and threatened to down the plane. Finally, the skies cleared
and the moon rose to guide Limburg relentlessly to the east.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
But Limberg didn't know exactly where he was.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
With a little modern instrumentation or markers in the Atlantic,
he used dead reckoning to estimate his position. You can
imagine Limberg's relief when, twenty seven hours after taking off
from New York and flying slow over the Atlantic waves,
he spotted his first sign of life since leaving the
coast of Newfoundland. A porpoise, then seagulls, then the unmistakable
(14:15):
cliffs of Ireland, and boats full of surprised fishermen dotting
the waters. Limberg was ecstatic. He was only three miles
off course, and on top of that, a favorable tailwind
had shaved a few hours off its flight. Things were
going great, and he noted that time was no longer endless,
as it had seemed while he was flying over the
(14:37):
vast ocean where no land was visible in any direction.
Giddy with success, Limberg considered extending his record flight by
flying all the way to Rome, but with good sense
and humility, he reined in these impulsive thoughts. He still
had six hundred miles ahead of him and the sun
was setting yet again. He crossed the comparatively narrow English
Channel and entered France on his way to Paris. Arrived
(15:00):
over the city, Limberg plew around the Eiffel Tower and
searched out l Borge Airfield. That's when he noticed something
amazing and for a time confusing. Thousands of lights guided
him toward the airport in the darkness. These lights were
coming from a massive traffic jam of excited Parisians heading
to the airfield. When Limberg finally landed at ten twenty
(15:22):
four pm local time on May twenty first, as many
as one hundred and fifty thousand onlookers gathered to catch
a glimpse of the historic plane and the heroic pilot
who flew it. The massive crowd gathered around the Spirit
of Saint Louis and began to tear at the plane.
Desperate for a souvenir, they carried him on their shoulders
before he was whisked away by police to the American
Embassy for a steak dinner and a well earned night
(15:44):
of sleep. After thirty three and a half hour's airport,
he'd been awake for sixty six hours. Limburg had done
something seemingly impossible, what so many others had tried and
failed to do, and he'd made a name for himself
to boot. He was, at that moment in time, the
(16:04):
most famous man, not just in America but the world.
Marriage proposals were sent, thousands of gifts poured in, and
over two hundred songs were written about him after his flight.
For his remarkable courage, he was honored in America with
a ticker tape parade in appearance before Congress in Washington,
where two hundred and fifty thousand people greeted him and
(16:26):
awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross and a Congressional Medal of Honor,
the highest award in the land. On top of this,
he became Colonel Limberg, having been promoted by President Calvin
Coolidge himself. Coolidge remarked that Limberg's success was the same
story of valor and victory by a son of the
people that shines through every page of American history. The
(16:46):
world was Limberg's oyster.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
At this moment. He could have had any job he wanted.
His choice was.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
To continue his course, much as he had done over
the Atlantic. He'd go on to state that whatever does
not mean help to aviation will not interest at all.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monte Montgomery. And a special thanks to
Kirk Higgins, the senior director of Content at the Bill
of Rights Institute. You can check out their great curriculum
on American history at Mybri dot org. That's Mybri dot org.
What a story. Born in Detroit, raised in small town Minnesota,
(17:26):
alongside the Mississippi River, sees a biplane flying up the river,
knows what he wants to do with the rest of
his life, and my goodness, choosing to fly solo. This
becomes the difference maker. And in the end, what a
crazy proposition. But no one had put it forth before
the story of Charles Lindbergh. Here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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