“We were in no danger but we were stranded and running low on food.”
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Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris, a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 km), flying alone for over 33 hours. His aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, was built to compete for the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the first flight between the two cities. Although not the first transatlantic…
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science · American aviator (1902–1974) · air force officer · inventor · aviation writer · autobiographer · diarist · fighter pilot · peace activist · aircraft pilot · engineer · Flieger · also Charles Lindbergh, Lucky Lindy, The Lone Eagle, Slim, Chas A. Lindbergh, Chas Lindbergh
Born 4 February 1902 · Died 26 August 1974 · Q1618
111 published statements · 0 followers
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First Pictures of Lindbergh as He Reaches Paris In Flight From New York
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Charles Lindbergh flight to Brussels
Charles Lindbergh flight to Brussels
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2026· 19 entries
“that if I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.”
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“a whole civilization is in disintegration”
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“No peace will last that is not based on Christian principles, on justice, on compassion...on a sense of the dignity of man. Without such principles there can be no lasting strength...The Germans found that out.”
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“seemed impossible that men—civilized men—could degenerate to such a level. Yet they had.”
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“we could not let atrocities such as those of the concentration camps go unpunished”
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“demonstrated superior ability in the design, manufacture, and operation of machines”
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“... we can cut the RPM down to 1400 RPMs and use 30 inches of mercury (manifold pressure), and save 50–100 gallons of fuel on a mission.”
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“honor, self-respect, and our own national interests.”
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“retire now and leave Europe to the destructive forces”
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“We must ask who owns and influences the newspaper, the news picture, and the radio station. If our people know the truth, our country is not likely to enter the war.”
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“s violation of the Munich Agreement would be disastrous; he claimed that France was militarily weak and Britain over-reliant on its navy. He urgently recommended that they strengthen their air power to force Hitler to redirect his aggression against”
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“It seems so contrary to their sense of order and intelligence. They have undoubtedly had a difficult”
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“I enjoyed every minute of it. The motor is in fine shape and I could circle Europe without touching it.”
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“I have heard much of the famous soldier-king of the Belgians.”
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Public attention spiked: 13,137 Wikipedia readers in one day, 6.4× the usual 2,041, with 0 article edits.
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Public attention spiked: 6,243 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.1× the usual 2,041, with 0 article edits.
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The American Conservative: Charles Lindbergh Lights the Way
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Yahoo: Charles Lindbergh, who lived in Darien, to be subject of new PBS docuseries
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2024· 1 entry
Fox News: On this day in history, May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh departs for first solo nonstop flight across Atlantic
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2023· 1 entry
Yahoo: The Lindbergh Kidnapping: Who killed Charles Lindbergh’s baby & Where is the killer now?
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2022· 1 entry
Hollywood Life: Charles Lindbergh: 5 Things About Right-Wing Pilot Profiled In The New Rachel Maddow Podcast
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2003· 1 entry
DNA tests confirmed that Lindbergh had fathered Astrid and her two siblings
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1998· 3 entries
Putnam's chose the title without "Lindbergh's knowledge or approval", and Lindbergh would "forever complain about it, that his use of 'we' meant him and his backers, not him and his plane, as the press had people believi
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Lindbergh returned from this two-month European journey "more alarmed about the state of the world than ever", but nonetheless "he knew that the American public no longer gave a hoot for his opinions
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“we may understand the reason for our existence in forms of earthly life.”
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1991· 1 entry
Awarded Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame (1991).
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1975· 1 entry
Awarded Edward Warner Award (1975).
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1974· 7 entries
Died 1974-08-26.
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“Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization.”
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“Man must feel the earth to know himself and recognize his values... God made life simple. It is man who complicates it.”
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“Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance.”
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“Living in dreams of yesterday, we find ourselves still dreaming of impossible future conquest...”
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“What kind of man would live where there is no danger? I don't believe in taking foolish chances. But nothing can be accomplished by not taking a chance at all.”
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“Is he alone who has courage on his right hand and faith on his left hand?”
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1968· 1 entry
And the two corresponded until the latter's death in 1974
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1967· 1 entry
Awarded National Aviation Hall of Fame (1967).
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1965· 1 entry
Awarded International Air & Space Hall of Fame (1965).
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1959· 1 entry
And 1961, with Valeska, who was his private secretary in Europe and lived in Baden-Baden
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1957· 1 entry
Lindbergh engaged in lengthy sexual relationships with three women, while remaining married to Anne Morrow
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1954· 3 entries
Awarded Pulitzer Prize for Biography (1954).
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On the recommendation of President Dwight D
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President Dwight Eisenhower restored his commission and promoted him to brigadier general in the U
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1953· 1 entry
Won Daniel Guggenheim Medal (1953).
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1949· 2 entries
Won Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy (1949).
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Received the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy and declared in his acceptance speech: "If we are to be finally successful, we must measure scientific accomplishments by their effect on man himself
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1948· 1 entry
His Of Flight and Life was published, a book that has been described as an "impassioned warning against the dangers of scientific materialism and the powers of technology
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1944· 4 entries
During a P-38 bomber escort mission with the 433rd Fighter Squadron in the Ceram area, Lindbergh shot down a Mitsubishi Ki-51 "Sonia" observation plane, piloted by Captain Saburo Shimada, commanding officer of the 73rd I
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Lindbergh flew his first combat mission: a strafing run with VMF-222 near the Japanese garrison of Rabaul
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Lindbergh persuaded United Aircraft to send him as a technical representative to the Pacific Theater to study aircraft performance under combat conditions
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Lindbergh took part in fighter bomber raids on Japanese positions, flying 50 combat missions (again as a civilian)
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1943· 1 entry
As an engineering consultant, devoting most of his time to its Chance-Vought Division
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1942· 1 entry
Was heavily involved in troubleshooting early problems at the Willow Run Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber production line
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1941· 5 entries
Lindbergh delivered a speech for an America First rally at the Des Moines Coliseum that accused three groups of "pressing this country toward war; the British, the Jewish, and the Roosevelt Administration"
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Writing that he saw "no honorable alternative" given that Roosevelt had publicly questioned his loyalty; the next day, The New York Times ran an above the fold, front-page article about his resignation
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Wrote to Secretary of War Henry Stimson: "When I read Lindbergh's speech I felt that it could not have been better put if it had been written by Goebbels himself
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“the British government has one last desperate plan ... to persuade us to send another American Expeditionary Force to Europe and to share with England militarily, as well as financially, the fiasco of this war.”
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“no person with a sense of the dignity of mankind can condone the persecution of the Jewish race in Germany.”
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1940· 1 entry
“Our civilization depends on peace among Western nations ... and therefore on united strength, for Peace is a virgin who dare not show her face without Strength, her father, for protection”
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1939· 4 entries
'I believe she [Germany] has pursued the only consistent policy in Europe in recent years
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“I believe she [Germany] has pursued the only consistent policy in Europe in recent years. I cannot support her broken promises, but she has only moved a little faster than other nations ... in breaking promises. The question of right and wrong is one thing by law and another thing by history.”
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“Our bond with Europe is a bond of race and not of political ideology. We had to fight a European army to establish democracy in this country. It is the European race we must preserve; political progress will follow. Racial strength is vital; politics, a luxury. If the white race is ever seriously threatened, it may then be time for us to take our part in its protection, to fight side by side with the English, French, and Germans, but not with one against the other for our mutual destruction.”
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"When the new flying fleet of the United States begins to take air, among those who will have been responsible for its size, its modernness, and its efficiency is Colonel Charles A
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1938· 4 entries
Awarded Order of the German Eagle presented by Nazi Germany (1938).
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Lindbergh and Carrel described an artificial heart in the book in which they summarized their work, The Culture of Organs, but it was decades before one was built
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Hugh Wilson, the American ambassador to Germany, hosted a dinner for Lindbergh with Germany's air chief, Generalfeldmarschall Hermann Göring, and three central figures in German aviation: Ernst Heinkel, Adolf Baeumker, a
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The family (including a third son, Land, born May 1937 in London) moved to Île Illiec, a small four-acre (1
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1937· 1 entry
And he was the first American to examine Germany's newest bomber, the Junkers Ju 88, and Germany's front-line fighter aircraft, the Messerschmitt Bf 109, which he was allowed to pilot
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1935· 2 entries
In a circus-like atmosphere in Flemington, New Jersey
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“There is no escaping the fact that men were definitely not created equal...”
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1934· 1 entry
After paying for gasoline with one of the ransom bills
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1932· 1 entry
Lindbergh's first-born infant child, Charles Jr
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1931· 3 entries
Awarded Commander of the Legion of Honour (1931).
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Called it the "Lindbergh Hour Angle watch", and it remains in production today
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And French surgeon Alexis Carrel began work on inventing the first perfusion pump, a device credited with making future heart surgeries and organ transplantation possible
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1930· 3 entries
His wife became the first woman to receive a U
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Lindbergh allowed Goddard to expand his research and development
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Lindbergh's sister-in-law developed a fatal heart condition
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1929· 4 entries
At the Morrow estate in Englewood, New Jersey, where they resided after their marriage before moving to the western part of the state
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Lindbergh flew an inaugural flight from Brownsville, Texas, to Mexico City via Tampico, in a Ford Trimotor airplane, carrying a load of U
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And he received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1930
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Lindbergh became interested in the work of rocket pioneer Robert H
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1928· 2 entries
Won Congressional Gold Medal (1928).
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Earned Silver Buffalo Award presented by Scouting America (1928).
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1927· 16 entries
A Special Act of Congress awarded Lindbergh the Medal of Honor, despite the fact that it was almost always awarded for heroism in combat
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Lindbergh was promoted to the rank of colonel in the Air Corps of the Officers Reserve Corps of the U
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Won Langley Gold Medal (1927).
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Awarded Grande Médaille d'Or des Explorations (1927).
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Won FAI Gold Air Medal presented by World Air Sports Federation (1927).
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Awarded Air Force Cross (1927).
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Won Medalla Plus Ultra (1927).
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Awarded Time Person of the Year (1927).
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Awarded Knight of the Order of Leopold (1927).
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Awarded Honorary Scout presented by Scouting America (1927).
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Won Hubbard Medal (1927).
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Won Harmon Trophy (1927).
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Awarded Orteig Prize (1927).
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Awarded Distinguished Flying Cross (1927).
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Won Medal of Honor (1927).
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A fleet of warships and multiple flights of military aircraft escorted him up the Potomac River to the Washington Navy Yard, where President Calvin Coolidge awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross
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1926· 2 entries
World War I French flying ace René Fonck's Sikorsky S-35 crashed on takeoff from Roosevelt Field in New York, killing crew members Jacob Islamoff and Charles Clavier
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Lindbergh executed the United States Post Office Department's Oath of Mail Messengers, and two days later, he opened service on the new route
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1925· 1 entry
Eight days before graduation, when a mid-air collision with another Army S
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1924· 2 entries
To begin a year of military flight training with the United States Army Air Service there (and later at nearby Kelly Field)
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Without a serious attempt, Orteig renewed the offer for another five years, this time attracting a number of well-known, highly experienced, and well-financed contenders—none of whom were successful
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1923· 1 entry
Was grounded for a week when he ran into a ditch in Glencoe, Minnesota, while flying his father—then running for the U
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1919· 2 entries
And arrived in Clifden, County Galway, Ireland the following day
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British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown won the Daily Mail prize for the first nonstop transatlantic flight
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1909· 1 entry
When Lindbergh was seven years old
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1902· 2 entries
Born 1902-02-04.
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And spent most of his childhood in Little Falls, Minnesota, and Washington, D
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