Charles Lindbergh's Lucky Lindy

Charles Lindbergh, the man that is responsible for the first flight from New York to Paris, has a very interesting career behind his belt. After his first year in college, he dropped out to become an engineer. Over time, while becoming more and more interested in flight, he was eventually brought in by a stuntman named Erol Baugh who taught him how to fly. After a length of time being a stuntman and flying the plane, he attended the U.S. Army Flying Corp in 1924, where he was top of his class. Within his training, 104 attended at the start of the year yet only 19 passed. During his time in the Flying Corp, he crashed into another plane, had to eject, and survived a near-death landing. This and several other events earned him the name “Lucky Lindy”. After a year, Lindbergh left the Corp and went to the St. Louis Postal Service to deliver mail as a pilot. In the first five years of the flight mail, over 70% of the pilots died. During his time there, he was informed of a challenge- Fly from New York to Paris, crossing over the Atlantic Ocean in the process. The reward for the challenge was $25,000 and it had been in effect for 7 years before Lindbergh had even known about it. During this time, several pilots had tried, however they all either died or did an emergency landing. Due to Lindbergh’s prowess with engineering, he deduced that …show more content…
At one point during his flight, he had his wings iced by the freezing air above. His plane was rumbling the entire time, and his body went numb. The ever-longing fear of crashing into the ocean by falling asleep for just a few seconds was the only thing keeping him awake. Still, his plane arrived in Ireland 2 hours earlier than he had expected and just 2 miles off course. His second wind was brought to him, and after several more hours of flight, landed in Paris on May 21. His competitor, Richard Byrd, had stated that he