Charles Lindbergh: The Lone Eagle

In 1927, an unknown air mail pilot

from rural Minnesota

enters a race against

the best aviators in the world.

He will fly from New York to Paris,

alone across the empty sea.

Charles Lindbergh is a dark horse

in a deadly competition.

He risks his life

on the longest flight ever flown

and he lands as

the most famous man on earth.

The story is an American legend:

Lindbergh's dream to prove

aviation's future.

A Lone Eagle, who inspires the world

to look to the skies.

Early in the 20th century,

the airplane is a deadly innovation.

Few people dare to fly, and those

who do often pay with their lives.

The heavens beckon, and then destroy.

The most lethal challenge is

to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

A feat so hazardous that, in 1919,

a New York millionaire

offers 25,000 dollars

to the first plane to fly non-stop

between New York and Paris.

No one dares. Planes are too slow,

too primitive and the ocean, too wide.

Three years pass.

Then, at a remote airfield

in Nebraska,

a twenty-year old from rural Minnesota

begins his apprenticeship

in the uncertain world of flight.

Charles Lindbergh

has dropped out of college

after just one year

to pursue his dream.

Lindbergh wants to be a pilot.

When a daredevil named Erold Bahl

brings his aerial act to town,

the young Lindbergh sees a way

to finally get off the ground.

Bahl admires

the newcomer's enthusiasm,

and decides to take him

on as a protg.

Lindbergh is self-reliant,

calm, and driven.

He is shy and modest, but determined.

Lindbergh knows aviation is his future.

He is electrified by the perils

and the freedom of flight.

"Trees become bushes; barns, toys;

cows turn into rabbits as we climb.

I lose all conscious connection

with the past.

I live only in the moment

in this strange space,

crowded with beauty,

pierced with danger."

In the air, Lindbergh shows no fear,

perfecting the most perilous

barnstorming stunts.

Wingwalking...

Then skydiving,

with a primitive silk parachute.

He makes hundreds of jumps.

With each leap, he risks his life,

and enriches his spirit.

"Of course there's danger;

but a certain amount of danger

is essential to the quality of life.

I don't believe in

taking foolish chances;

but nothing can be accomplished

without taking any chance at all.

What civilization was not founded

on adventure,

and how long could one

exist without it?

What justifies the risk of life?"

Lindbergh masters the single-engine

bi-planes of the day.

Over the next year,

he hops from town to town,

performing stunts

across the rural mid-West.

Then, Charles Lindbergh decides

to make a serious commitment

to his flying infatuation.

In 1924, he enlists in the US Army

flying school in San Antonio, Texas.

Lindbergh wants to hone his skills

as a pilot,

and the Air Corps owns some of

the fastest planes in the world.

Flying in formation

teaches him precision

and about the dangers of carelessness.

On a routine flight, Lindbergh

collides with another plane.

Both pilots narrowly escape

with their lives.

Lindbergh is back in the air

within the hour.

Nothing can keep him out of the skies.

Of the hundred and four men

who join the Air Corps with Lindbergh,

only nineteen pass.

Lindbergh, once a first-year

college failure,

now graduates at the top of his class.

When his one-year army tour is over,

Lieutenant Lindbergh goes to

one of the capitals

of the burgeoning aviation industry,

Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri.

St. Louis has ambitions

to be an aviation hub.

Lindbergh's experience

earns him the best,

but most dangerous job on the field:

chief pilot of the Air Mail

run to Chicago.

Air mail pilots live short lives.

Thirty one of forty are killed

in crashes

in the first five years of service.

The planes are World War One surplus.

Pilots call them "flaming coffins."

But Lindbergh ignores the terrifying

record of the air mail service.

He believes the skies must be tamed.

What a future aviation has;

yet how few people realize it!

Somehow they must be made to

understand the possibilities of flight.

It is 1926.

Seven years have passed

since the 25,000 dollar prize was

offered for a New York-Paris flight.

Not one aviator has stepped forward.

But Charles Lindbergh

has not yet heard of the challenge.

Throughout the year,

Lindbergh carries the mail through

the Midwest's worst weather.

With little more than a compass and

courage, he gets the letters through.

Twice, in the dead of the night,

he is forced to parachute

from his crippled aircraft.

He dutifully runs his fuel tanks dry

to prevent letters

from being consumed by flames.

He breaks the nation's record for

death-defying leaps,

and earns a new nickname from

his fellow air mail pilots: "Lucky."

The crashes shake the public's opinion

of air mail's safety.

Charles Lindbergh makes it

his mission to change their minds.

"Whether the mail compartment

contains ten letters or ten thousand

is beside the point.

We have faith in the future.

Some day we know the sacks will fill."

Lindbergh can only dream of

aviation's future,

while another pilot flies to fame.

On May 9, 1926, US Navy

Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd

flies his three-engined Fokker

over the North Pole.

The achievement sums up Byrd himself:

part science, part adventure,

part self-promotion.

Richard Byrd is acclaimed

as America's king of the skies.

With the Arctic defeated, Byrd now

sets his sights on the Atlantic,

and the seven-year-old challenge

to reach Paris.

Byrd plans a mission for a crew of

four in one of the largest,

most expensive planes ever built.

But another pilot beats him

to the airfield.

On September 15, 1926,

French war ace Renee Fonck sets off

from New York for Paris.

But Fonck's huge, overloaded plane

does not even lift off the ground.

Two crewmen are killed in the wreck.

Fonck survives, his dream in ruins.

But Charles Lindbergh takes inspiration

from the tragic headlines.

It is the first time he has heard of

the New York-Paris prize.

Lindbergh decides to enter the race.

But his plan is different.

He will fly with just one engine.

And, he will do it alone.

It would be a thirty-six hour,

sleepless ordeal.

But first, he needs a decent plane.

Lindbergh approaches eight of

the wealthiest men in St. Louis.

Inspired by the young man's boldness,

they stake Lindbergh

with 15,000 dollars,

gambling that the publicity

will make St. Louis

the aviation hub of the Midwest.

Lindbergh offers his own life savings,

In February, 1927,

he makes his way toward

the only manufacturer that will build

a plane on his meager budget.

His destination is

San Diego, California,

and a company he has never heard of

Ryan Aircraft.

But no one has ever heard of

Charles Lindbergh, either.

On February 25th, 1927, Lindbergh

arrives at Ryan Aircraft in San Diego.

First impressions are discouraging:

a dilapidated hangar, with no runway,

and a staff of just a dozen.

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