Lindbergh, Charles

Lindbergh, Charles (1902–1974), aviator.Lindbergh burst upon the world stage on 20–21 May 1927 when he piloted his single‐engine Ryan monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis, solo across the Atlantic. Although this was the signature achievement of his life, Lindbergh's impact went well beyond his epic flight. Reared on a farm in Little Falls, Minnesota, the son of a farm‐bloc congressman, Lindbergh in 1920 enrolled as an engineering student at the University of Wisconsin. He dropped out after two years, learned to fly, and spent the summer of 1923 barnstorming through the West. Seeking more experience and training, Lindbergh enlisted as a U.S. Army flying cadet; trained in San Antonio, Texas; and graduated first in his class in 1925. After the military, he found employment as an airmail pilot, the most demanding and dangerous type of flying in this period.

Learning of a $25,000 prize to fly from New York to Paris, Lindbergh saw an unmatched aviator's challenge. But he also sought to further the cause of aviation and to demonstrate the capabilities and reliability of the airplane. His successful 33½ hour, nonstop flight from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, to Le Bourget Field just outside Paris not only vaulted Lindbergh to instant fame but also contributed to renewed enthusiasm and investment in the nascent U.S. aviation industry and commercial air transport. Other crucial building blocks in the 1920s contributed to later American preeminence in aerospace, such as the Air Commerce Act of 1926 and the Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, but Lindbergh's achievement provided an important catalyst.

Lindbergh's impact on aeronautics continued in the 1930s as he made several pioneering transoceanic flights with his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, for Pan American Airways and other emerging airlines. He was an early and ardent supporter of the research of the rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard. During World War II, Lindbergh served as a consultant to several aircraft manufacturers and as a civilian adviser to the U.S. military. In 1944, as a civilian, he flew fifty combat missions in the Pacific theater and shot down one Japanese fighter. After the war he served as a special consultant for research and development to the U.S. Air Force.

The 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindberghs’ infant son, and the ensuing trial and execution of Bruno Hauptmann in 1935, stirred nearly as much public and media attention as Lindbergh's Atlantic crossing. On the eve of World War II, as a leading spokesman for the noninterventionist pressure group the America First Committee, Lindbergh drew widespread criticism for highly publicized statements regarding the superiority of German airpower, for his consistent failure to denounce German atrocities, and for anti–Semitic utterances made in a speech delivered in Des Moines, Iowa, on 11 September 1941. Lindbergh later restored his reputation somewhat as an activist in the environmentalist movement. A talented and prolific writer, he wrote seven books and numerous articles.
See also Airplanes and Air Transport; Anti‐Semitism; Environmentalism; Popular Culture; Twenties, The.

Bibliography

Kenneth S. Davis , The Hero: Charles A. Lindbergh and the American Dream, 1959.
Charles A. Lindbergh , Autobiography of Values, 1976.
Tom D. Crouch, ed., Charles A. Lindbergh: An American Life, 1977.

Peter L. Jakab