Charles Lindbergh
Aviation pioneer
Died when: 72 years 203 days (870 months)Star Sign: Aquarius
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist.On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 km), flying alone for 33.5 hours.
His aircraft, the Spirit of St.Louis, was designed and built by the Ryan Airline Company specifically to compete for the Orteig Prize for the first flight between the two cities.
Although not the first transatlantic flight, it was the first solo transatlantic flight, the first nonstop transatlantic flight between two major city hubs, and the longest by over 1,900 miles (3,000 km).
It is known as one of the most consequential flights in history and ushered in a new era of air transportation between parts of the globe.
Lindbergh was raised mostly in Little Falls, Minnesota and Washington, D.C., the son of prominent U.S.Congressman from Minnesota, Charles August Lindbergh.
He became a U.S.Army Air Service cadet in 1924, earning the rank of second lieutenant in 1925.Later that year, he was hired as a U.S.
Air Mail pilot in the Greater St.Louis area, where he started to prepare for his historic 1927 transatlantic flight.Lindbergh received the highest U.S. military decoration from President Calvin Coolidge, the Medal of Honor, as well as the Distinguished Flying Cross for his transatlantic flight.
In July 1927, he was promoted to the rank of colonel in the U.S.Army Air Corps Reserve.The flight also earned him the highest French order of merit, civil or military, the Legion of Honor.
His achievement spurred significant global interest in both commercial aviation and air mail, which revolutionized the aviation industry worldwide (a phenomenon dubbed the "Lindbergh boom"), and he devoted much time and effort to promoting such activity.
He was honored as Time's first Man of the Year in 1928, was appointed to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1929 by President Herbert Hoover, and was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in 1930.
In 1931, he and French surgeon Alexis Carrel began work on inventing the first perfusion pump, which is credited with making future heart surgeries and organ transplantation possible.
On March 1, 1932, Lindbergh's first-born infant child, Charles Jr., was kidnapped and murdered in what the American media called the "Crime of the Century".
The case prompted the United States Congress to establish kidnapping as a federal crime if a kidnapper crosses state lines with a victim.
By late 1935, the press and hysteria surrounding the case had driven the Lindbergh family into exile in Europe, from where they returned in 1939.
In the months before the United States entered World War II, Lindbergh's non-interventionist stance and statements about Jews and race led some to believe he was a Nazi sympathizer, although Lindbergh never publicly stated support for the Nazis and condemned them several times in both his public speeches and personal diary.
However, like many Americans before the attack on Pearl Harbor, he opposed not only the military intervention of the U.S. but also the provision of military supplies to the British.
He supported the isolationist America First Committee and resigned from the U.S.Army Air Corps in April 1941 after President Franklin Roosevelt publicly rebuked him for his views.
In September 1941, Lindbergh gave a significant address, titled "Speech on Neutrality", outlining his position and arguments against greater American involvement in the war.
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and German declaration of war against the U.S., Lindbergh avidly supported the American war effort but was rejected for active duty, as Roosevelt refused to restore his Air Corps colonel's commission.
Instead he flew 50 combat missions in the Pacific Theater as a civilian consultant and was unofficially credited with shooting down an enemy aircraft.
In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower restored his commission and promoted him to brigadier general in the U.S.Air Force Reserve.
In his later years, he became a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, international explorer and environmentalist, helping to establish national parks in the U.S. and protect certain endangered species and tribal people in the Philippines and east Africa.
In 1974, Lindbergh died of lymphoma at age 72.
