Prizes in support of technologically feasible but financially uncertain goals had previously been able to push advances. The Orteig Prize intended to do so for intercontinental flight. This $25,000 prize was first made available in 1919 - less than 16 years after Wilbur and Orville's Wright's first flight - and would be paid for the first successful nonstop flight between New York and Paris.
(While crossings of the Atlantic had been completed by a number of aircraft, they had covered shorter distances or required intermediate stops.)
Originally, the prize had a five year time limit, but the limit was extended for another five years in 1925. Between then and May 1927, six were killed in attempts to win the prize - two when their overloaded plane caught fire, two more on a crash on takeoff during a test flight, while another plane attempting a Paris to New York flight disappeared somewhere past the coast of Ireland.
This last flight had departed Paris less than two weeks before Charles Lindbergh's attempt began. He had learned to fly starting in 1922, barnstorming over the next few years to gain flight time. In 1925, he completed a year of flight school with the Army Air Corps, becoming a reserve officer. Over the next two years, he would be a U.S. Air Mail pilot until he started to consider the possibility of winning the Orteig Prize.
While not as well financed as other prize contenders, Lindbergh had particular ideas about how he might be able to win. One of his initial design decisions was that the flight would be solo: One person (the pilot, himself) meant less weight, so more range for the same amount of fuel. The plane would be single-engined: Where others saw multiple engines as increasing survivability through redundancy, he saw increased chances of failure through complexity. (Three engines would mean "three times the chance of engine failure.") Additional fuel tanks were included to increase range. To reduce weight further, anything that could be was removed from the aircraft - extra maps, radio, parachutes - and the aircraft's seat was a wicker chair.
He departed New York from field at 7:52 AM on May 20, 1927. The flight would take 33.5 hours, arriving 10:22 PM Paris time. This include time flying past the Paris airfield, which was so jammed with automobile lights from spectators that he had originally thought it was an industrial zone. When he landed, he was spontaneously pulled from his aircraft by the mob and carried aloft for half an hour. Lindbergh became one of the most famous people in the world, which had become much smaller that day, as aviation would soon allow rapid transportation almost anywhere.
(While crossings of the Atlantic had been completed by a number of aircraft, they had covered shorter distances or required intermediate stops.)
Originally, the prize had a five year time limit, but the limit was extended for another five years in 1925. Between then and May 1927, six were killed in attempts to win the prize - two when their overloaded plane caught fire, two more on a crash on takeoff during a test flight, while another plane attempting a Paris to New York flight disappeared somewhere past the coast of Ireland.
This last flight had departed Paris less than two weeks before Charles Lindbergh's attempt began. He had learned to fly starting in 1922, barnstorming over the next few years to gain flight time. In 1925, he completed a year of flight school with the Army Air Corps, becoming a reserve officer. Over the next two years, he would be a U.S. Air Mail pilot until he started to consider the possibility of winning the Orteig Prize.
While not as well financed as other prize contenders, Lindbergh had particular ideas about how he might be able to win. One of his initial design decisions was that the flight would be solo: One person (the pilot, himself) meant less weight, so more range for the same amount of fuel. The plane would be single-engined: Where others saw multiple engines as increasing survivability through redundancy, he saw increased chances of failure through complexity. (Three engines would mean "three times the chance of engine failure.") Additional fuel tanks were included to increase range. To reduce weight further, anything that could be was removed from the aircraft - extra maps, radio, parachutes - and the aircraft's seat was a wicker chair.
He departed New York from field at 7:52 AM on May 20, 1927. The flight would take 33.5 hours, arriving 10:22 PM Paris time. This include time flying past the Paris airfield, which was so jammed with automobile lights from spectators that he had originally thought it was an industrial zone. When he landed, he was spontaneously pulled from his aircraft by the mob and carried aloft for half an hour. Lindbergh became one of the most famous people in the world, which had become much smaller that day, as aviation would soon allow rapid transportation almost anywhere.
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