Charles Augustus Lindbergh

Charles Augustus Lindbergh 1902-74, American aviator who made the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight, b. Detroit; son of Charles A. Lindbergh (1859-1924). He left the Univ. of Wisconsin (1922) to study flying. After service as a flying cadet, he was commissioned (1925) in the air force reserve and later became an airmail pilot. On May 21, 1927, Lindbergh astounded the world by landing in Paris after a solo flight from New York across the Atlantic in The Spirit of St. Louis. Upon his return to the United States he received an unprecedented welcome, was promoted to colonel, and made a nationwide tour to foster popular interest in aviation.

Lindbergh married (1929) Anne Morrow (see below), the daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico Dwight W. Morrow , and with her made several long flights. After the kidnapping and death of their son (see Hauptmann, Bruno Richard ) in 1932, the Lindberghs moved (1935) to England. In 1936, Lindbergh collaborated with Alexis Carrel on the invention of a perfusion pump that could maintain organs outside the body.

After inspecting (1938) European air forces, Lindbergh became convinced of German air superiority; he favored a U.S. policy of isolationism with respect to the struggle threatening in Europe. He returned (1939) to the United States and made antiwar speeches for the America First Committee. When these were branded pro-Nazi, he resigned his reserve commission and quit the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Upon U.S. entry into the war Lindbergh offered his services to the air force; he subsequently flew combat missions in the Pacific. In his later years he emerged as a spokesman on conservation issues.

Bibliography: See his We (1927), Of Flight and Life (1948), The Spirit of St. Louis (1953; Pulitzer Prize), and The Wartime Journals (1970); memoir by his daughter, R. Lindbergh (1998); biographies by W. S. Ross (1968) and A. S. Berg (1998).

His wife, Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh, 1906-2001, b. Englewood, N.J., grad. Smith College, 1927, was a writer and aviator. Her more than two dozen works include North to the Orient (1935) and Listen! the Wind (1938), both accounts of flights she made with her husband; The Wave of the Future (1940), a tract advocating isolationism; Gift from the Sea (1955), a poetic, highly personal, and bestselling study of the problems of women; The Unicorn and Other Poems (1956); a novel, Dearly Beloved (1962); and a volume of essays, Earth Shine (1969).

Bibliography: See her diaries and letters, Bring Me a Unicorn (1972), Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead (1973), Locked Rooms and Open Doors (1974), The Flower and the Nettle (1976), and War Within and Without (1980); biographies by S. Hertog (1999) and K. C. Winters (2007).

Lindbergh, Charles A[ugustus] (1902–74), on May 20–21, 1927, flew his monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis, in a nonstop flight of 3,610 miles from New York to Paris in 331/2 hours. Lindbergh's accounts of this first solo flight across the Atlantic, which made him an international hero, are “We” (1927) and The Spirit of St. Louis (1953, Pulitzer Prize). His Wartime Journals was published in 1970. Autobiography of Values (1978) was edited from a lengthy manuscript.

Lindbergh, Charles (1902–1974), U.S. flier, aviation consultant, author, and conservationist.An army‐trained pilot who also flew the mail, Lindbergh achieved world fame in 1927 for his New York–to–Paris flight, the first solo transatlantic air crossing. The hero was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Medal of Honor, and promoted to colonel in the Air Corps Reserve.

While in Europe in the 1930s, Lindbergh made several visits to Germany and was credited with obtaining valuable air intelligence for the United States. In 1938, the U.S. ambassador in London, Joseph Kennedy, asked Lindbergh to assess the military situation in Europe. Lindbergh argued against fighting Germany because he believed German airpower would be overwhelming.

Upon returning home in 1939, Lindbergh advised the Air Corps on its expansion. When war came in Europe, he spoke out against U.S. involvement and eventually joined the isolationist America First Committee. Denounced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for his stand, he resigned his reserve commission. In a Des Moines speech (1941), he singled out the Roosevelt administration, the British, and the Jews as “war agitators.” The speech caused a furor in which Lindbergh was widely attacked as an anti‐Semite.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt blocked Lindbergh from serving in uniform. Nonetheless, Lindbergh joined the war effort. He became a consultant at the Willow Run bomber plant, and evaluated the F4U Corsair fighter for United Aircraft. Although a civilian, Lindbergh made his way to the Pacific and persuaded local commanders to allow him to fly in combat. He completed fifty missions and was credited with downing one Japanese plane.

Lindbergh traveled to Europe after V‐E Day to study German jets and rockets. As an air force adviser he inspected military units, helped select the Air Force Academy site in Colorado, and served six years on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Department of Defense. In 1960, he retired as a reserve brigadier general, having been appointed to that rank in 1954.
[See also Academies, Service: U.S. Air Force Academy; Isolationism; World War II, U.S. Air Operations in: The Air War Against Japan.]

Bibliography

Charles A. Lindbergh , The Wartime Journals, 1970.
Wayne S. Cole , Charles A. Lindbergh and the Battle Against American Intervention in World War II, 1974.

Raymond H. Fredette