"GRIPPING. ... AN HOUR-BY-HOUR ACCOUNT." -- WALL STREET
JOURNAL - From one of the most decorated pilots in Air Force
history comes a masterful account of Lindbergh's death-defying nonstop
transatlantic flight in Spirit of St. Louis
On the rainy morning of May 20, 1927, a little-known American pilot
named Charles A. Lindbergh climbed into his single-engine monoplane,
Spirit of St. Louis, and prepared to take off from a small airfield on
Long Island, New York. Despite his inexperience--the
twenty-five-year-old Lindbergh had never before flown over open
water--he was determined to win the $25,000 Orteig Prize promised since
1919 to the first pilot to fly nonstop between New York and Paris, a
terrifying adventure that had already claimed six men's lives. Ahead of
him lay a 3,600-mile solo journey across the vast north Atlantic and
into the unknown; his survival rested on his skill, courage, and an
unassuming little aircraft with no front window.
Only 500 people showed up to see him off. Thirty-three and a half hours
later, a crowd of more than 100,000 mobbed Spirit as the audacious
young American touched down in Paris, having acheived the seemingly
impossible. Overnight, as he navigated by the stars through storms
across the featureless ocean, news of his attempt had circled the globe,
making him an international celebrity by the time he reached Europe. He
returned to the United States a national hero, feted with ticker-tape
parades that drew millions, bestowed every possible award from the Medal
of Honor to Time's "Man of the Year" (the first to be so named),
commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp within months, and celebrated as
the embodiment of the twentieth century and America's place in it.
Acclaimed aviation historian Dan Hampton's The Flight is a
long-overdue, flyer's-eye narrative of Lindbergh's legendary journey. A
decorated fighter pilot who flew more than 150 combat missions in an
F-16 and made numerous transatlantic crossings, Hampton draws on his
unique perspective to bring alive the danger, uncertainty, and heroic
accomplishment of Lindbergh's crossing. Hampton's deeply researched
telling also incorporates a trove of primary sources, including
Lindbergh's own personal diary and writings, as well as family letters
and untapped aviation archives that fill out this legendary story as
never before.
