TOUCHDOWN: The Spirit of St.
Louis is engulfed by well-wishers upon its arrival in Paris
May 21, 1927
The First Across Alone
By Howard Chua-Eoan
The
$25,000 prize was beside the point, especially when ice on a wing or
sleep could be fatal.
His
first words were "Well, here we are. I am very happy ..." Some of the
crowd of 25,000 attempted to strip souvenirs from the Spirit of St.
Louis, while the majority escorted Captain Lindbergh, on somebody's
shoulders, to a nearby clubhouse.
—May
30, 1927
Charles Lindbergh had flown the Spirit of St.
Louis from California to New York, so he was used to the air-cooled
Whirlwind engine, a splendid name for something attached to little more
than a flying gasoline can. But the Atlantic was ocean, with no chance
of a soft landing for 4,000 miles. He crossed it in 33 1/2 hours, the
first to do it solo and nonstop.
You'd think he'd brag. But Anne
Morrow, who married him, recalled being captivated by his shyness. It
burnished her image of his landing at Le Bourget airfield, "the picture
of that mad crowd, that whole nation surging around his plane in Paris,"
she wrote. "I can see how they all worship him. ... His glance [was]
keener, clearer and brighter than anyone else's, lit with a more intense
fire." He was, she said, one of the "great bulldozers" of the century.
TIME Cover
Collection: Click
here to see covers from 1927
Previous: 
