Charles lindbergh biography video about helen

American aviator and activist (1902–1974)

"Lone Eagle" redirects here. For other uses, see Lone Eagle (disambiguation).

Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris, a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 km), flying alone for 33.5 hours. His aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, was built to compete for the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the first flight between the two cities. Although not the first transatlantic flight, it was the longest at the time by nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km), the first solo transatlantic flight, and set a new flight distance world record.^[4] The achievement garnered Lindbergh worldwide fame and stands as one of the most consequential flights in history, signalling a new era of air transportation between parts of the globe.

Lindbergh was raised mostly in Little Falls, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C., the son of U.S. Congressman Charles August Lindbergh. He became a U.S. Army Air Service cadet in 1924. The next year, he was hired as a U.S. Air Mailpilot in the Greater St. Louis area, where he began preparing to cross the Atlantic. For his famed flight, President Calvin Coolidge presented him both the Distinguished Flying Cross and Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. military award. He was promoted to colonel in the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve and also earned the highest French order of merit, the Legion of Honor.^[6] His achievement spurred significant global interest in flight training, commercial aviation and air mail, which revolutionized the aviation industry worldwide (a phenomenon dubbed the "Lindbergh boom"), and he spent much time promoting these industries.

Time magazine named Lindbergh its first Man of the Year for 1927. President Herbert Hoover appointed him to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1929 and he received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1930. In 1931, he and French surgeon Alexis Carrel began work on inventing the first perfusion pump, a device credited with making future heart surgeries and organ transplantation possible.

On March 1, 1932, Lindbergh's first-born infant child, Charles Jr., was kidnapped and murdered in what the American media called the "crime of the century". The case prompted the U.S. to establish kidnapping as a federal crime if a kidnapper crosses state lines with a victim. By late 1935, public hysteria from the case drove the Lindbergh family abroad to Europe, from where they returned in 1939. In the months before the United States entered World War II, Lindbergh's non-interventionist stance and statements about Jews and race led some to believe he was a Nazi sympathizer, although Lindbergh never publicly stated support for the Nazis and condemned them several times in both his public speeches and personal diary. However, he supported the isolationistAmerica First Committee and resigned from the U.S. Army Air Corps in April 1941 after President Franklin Roosevelt publicly rebuked him for his views.^[7] In September 1941, Lindbergh gave a significant address, titled "Speech on Neutrality", outlining his position and arguments against greater American involvement in the war.^[8]

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and German declaration of war against the U.S., Lindbergh avidly supported the American war effort but was rejected for active duty, as Roosevelt refused to restore his colonel's commission. Instead he flew 50 combat missions in the Pacific Theater as a civilian consultant and was unofficially credited with shooting down an enemy aircraft.^[10][11] In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower restored his commission and promoted him to brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.^[12] In his later years, he became a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, international explorer and environmentalist, helping to establish national parks in the U.S. and protect certain endangered species and tribal people in both the Philippines and east Africa.^[13] After retiring in Maui, Lindbergh died of lymphoma in 1974 at the age of 72.

Early life

Early childhood

Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan, on February 4, 1902, and spent most of his childhood in Little Falls, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C. He was the only child of Charles August Lindbergh (birth name Carl Månsson), who had emigrated from Sweden to Melrose, Minnesota, as an infant, and Evangeline Lodge Land Lindbergh of Detroit. Lindbergh had three elder paternal half-sisters: Lillian, Edith, and Eva. The couple separated in 1909 when Lindbergh was seven years old.^[14][15]

His father, a U.S. Congressman from 1907 to 1917, was one of the few congressmen to oppose the entry of the U.S. into World War I (although his congressional term ended one month before the House of Representatives voted to declare war on Germany).^[16] Lindbergh's mother was a chemistry teacher at Cass Technical High School in Detroit and later at Little Falls High School, from which her son graduated on June 5, 1918. Lindbergh attended more than a dozen other schools from Washington, D.C., to California during his childhood and teenage years (none for more than two years), including the Force School and Sidwell Friends School while living in Washington with his father, and Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California, while living there with his mother.^[17] Although he enrolled in the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in late 1920, Lindbergh dropped out in the middle of his sophomore year.^[18]

Early aviation career

From an early age, Lindbergh had exhibited an interest in the mechanics of motorized transportation, including his family's Saxon Six automobile, and later his Excelsior motorbike. By the time that he started college as a mechanical engineering student, he had also become fascinated with flying, though he "had never been close enough to a plane to touch it".^[19] After quitting college in February 1922, Lindbergh enrolled at the Nebraska Aircraft Corporation's flying school in Lincoln and flew for the first time on April 9 as a passenger in a two-seat Lincoln Standard "Tourabout" biplane trainer piloted by Otto Timm.^[20]

A few days later, Lindbergh took his first formal flying lesson in that same aircraft, though he was never permitted to solo because he could not afford to post the requisite damage bond.^[21] To gain flight experience and earn money for further instruction, Lindbergh left Lincoln in June to spend the next few months barnstorming across Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana as a wing walker and parachutist. He also briefly worked as an airplane mechanic at the Billings, Montana, municipal airport.^[22][23]

Lindbergh left flying with the onset of winter and returned to his father's home in Minnesota.^[24] His return to the air and his first solo flight did not come until half a year later in May 1923 at Souther Field in Americus, Georgia, a former Army flight-training field, where he bought a World War I surplus Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" biplane for $500. Though Lindbergh had not touched an airplane in more than six months, he had already secretly decided that he was ready to take to the air by himself. After a half-hour of dual time with a pilot who was visiting the field, Lindbergh flew solo for the first time in the Jenny.^[25][26] After spending another week or so at the field to "practice" (thereby acquiring five hours of "pilot in command" time), Lindbergh took off from Americus for Montgomery, Alabama, some 140 miles (230 km) to the west, for his first solo cross-country flight.^[27] He went on to spend much of the remainder of 1923 engaged in almost nonstop barnstorming under the name "Daredevil Lindbergh", this time flying in his "own ship" as the pilot.^[28][29] A few weeks after leaving Americus, he made his first night flight near Lake Village, Arkansas.^[30]

While Lindbergh was barnstorming in Lone Rock, Wisconsin, on two occasions he flew a local physician across the Wisconsin River to emergency calls that were otherwise unreachable because of flooding.^[31] He broke his propeller several times while landing, and on June 3, 1923 he was grounded for a week when he ran into a ditch in Glencoe, Minnesota, while flying his father—then running for the U.S. Senate—to a campaign stop. In October, Lindbergh flew his Jenny to Iowa, where he sold it to a flying student. He returned to Lincoln by train, where he joined Leon Klink and continued to barnstorm through the South for the next few months in Klink's Curtiss JN-4C "Canuck" (the Canadian version of the Jenny). Lindbergh also "cracked up" this aircraft once when his engine failed shortly after takeoff in Pensacola, Florida, but again he managed to repair the damage himself.^[32]

Following a few months of barnstorming through the South, the two pilots parted company in San Antonio, Texas, where Lindbergh reported to Brooks Field on March 19, 1924 to begin a year of military flight training with the United States Army Air Service there (and later at nearby Kelly Field).^[33] Lindbergh had his most serious flying accident on March 5, 1925, eight days before graduation, when a mid-air collision with another Army S.E.5 during aerial combat maneuvers forced him to bail out.^[34] Only 18 of the 104 cadets who started flight training a year earlier remained when Lindbergh graduated first overall in his class in March 1925, thereby earning his Army pilot's wings and a commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Service Reserve Corps.^{[35][N 2]}

Lindbergh later said that this year was critical to his development as both a focused, goal-oriented individual and as an aviator.^{[N 3]} The Army did not need additional active-duty pilots, however, so following graduation, Lindbergh returned to civilian aviation as a barnstormer and flight instructor, although as a reserve officer he also continued to do some part-time military flying by joining the 110th Observation Squadron, 35th Division, Missouri National Guard, in St. Louis. He was promoted to first lieutenant on December 7, 1925, and to captain in July 1926.^[38]

Air mail pilot

In October 1925, Lindbergh was hired by the Robertson Aircraft Corporation (RAC) at the Lambert-St. Louis Flying Field in Anglum, Missouri, (where he had been working as a flight instructor) to lay out and then serve as chief pilot for the newly designated 278-mile (447 km) Contract Air Mail Route #2 (CAM-2) to provide service between St. Louis and Chicago (Maywood Field) with intermediate stops in Springfield and Peoria, Illinois.^[39] Lindbergh and three other RAC pilots flew the mail over CAM-2 in a fleet of four modified war-surplus de Havilland DH-4s.

On April 13, 1926, Lindbergh executed the United States Post Office Department's Oath of Mail Messengers,^[40] and two days later he opened service on the new route. On two occasions, combinations of bad weather, equipment failure, and fuel exhaustion forced him to bail out on night approach to Chicago;^[41][42] both times he reached the ground without serious injury.^[42][43] In mid-February 1927 he left for San Diego, California, to oversee design and construction of the Spirit of St. Louis.^[44]

New York–Paris flight

Orteig Prize

Main article: Orteig Prize

In 1919, British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown won the Daily Mail prize for the first nonstop transatlantic flight. They left St. John's, Newfoundland, on June 14, 1919, and arrived in Clifden, County Galway, Ireland the following day.^[46]

Around the same time, French-born New York hotelier Raymond Orteig was approached by Augustus Post, secretary of the Aero Club of America, to put up a $25,000 (equivalent to $439,000 in 2023) award for the first successful nonstop transatlantic flight specifically between New York City and Paris within five years after its establishment. When that time limit lapsed in 1924 without a serious attempt, Orteig renewed the offer for another five years, this time attracting a number of well-known, highly experienced, and well-financed contenders—none of whom were successful.^[47] On September 21, 1926, World War I French flying aceRené Fonck's Sikorsky S-35 crashed on takeoff from Roosevelt Field in New York, killing crew members Jacob Islamoff and Charles Clavier.^[48] U.S. Naval aviators Noel Davis and Stanton H. Wooster were killed at Langley Field, Virginia, on April 26, 1927, while testing their Keystone Pathfinder. On May 8 French war heroes Charles Nungesser and François Coli departed Paris – Le Bourget Airport in the Levasseur PL 8 seaplane L'Oiseau Blanc; they disappeared somewhere in the Atlantic after last being seen crossing the west coast of Ireland.^[49]

The specific event that inspired Lindbergh to attempt the flight was René Fonck's September 1926 failure. Reading of Fonck's crash, Lindbergh characteristically decided that "a nonstop flight between New York and Paris would be less hazardous than flying mail for a single winter."^[50] He soon "discussed his idea with St. Louis businessmen and aviation supporters" and began to gather resources, making "several inquiries" with airplane manufacturers.^[51]

Spirit of St. Louis

Main article: Spirit of St. Louis

Financing the historic flight was a challenge due to Lindbergh's obscurity, but two St. Louis businessmen eventually obtained a $15,000 bank loan. Lindbergh contributed $2,000 (equivalent to $35,000 in 2023)^[52] of his own money from his salary as an air mail pilot and another $1,000 was donated by RAC. The total of $18,000 was far less than what was available to Lindbergh's rivals.^[53]

The group tried to buy an "off-the-peg" single or multiengine monoplane from Wright Aeronautical, then Travel Air, and finally the newly formed Columbia Aircraft Corporation, but all insisted on selecting the pilot as a condition of sale.^[54][55][56] Finally the much smaller Ryan Airline Company (later called the Ryan Aeronautical Company) of San Diego agreed to design and build a custom monoplane for $10,580, and on February 25, 1927, a deal was formally closed.^[57] Dubbed the Spirit of St. Louis, the fabric-covered, single-seat, single-engine high-wing monoplane was designed jointly by Lindbergh and Ryan's chief engineer Donald A. Hall.^[58] The Spirit flew for the first time just two months later, and after a series of test flights Lindbergh took off from San Diego on May 10. He went first to St. Louis, then on to Roosevelt Field on New York's Long Island.^[59]

Flight

In the early morning of Friday, May 20, 1927, Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island.^[60][61] His destination, Le Bourget Aerodrome, was about 7 miles (11 km) outside Paris and 3,610 miles (5,810 km) ^[62] from his starting point. He was "too busy the night before to lie down for more than a couple of hours," and "had been unable [to] sleep."^[63] It rained the morning of his takeoff, but as the plane "was wheeled into position on the runway," the rain ceased and light began to break through the "low-hanging clouds."^[63] A crowd variously described as "nearly a thousand"^[64] or "several thousand" assembled to see Lindbergh off.^[63] For its transatlantic flight, the Spirit was loaded with 450 U.S. gallons (1,700 liters) of fuel that was filtered repeatedly to avoid fuel line blockage. The fuel load was a thousand pounds heavier than any the Spirit had lifted during a test flight, and the fully loaded airplane weighed 5,200 pounds (2,400 kg; 2.6 short tons).^[65][66] With takeoff hampered by a muddy, rain-soaked runway, the plane was "helped by men pushing at the wing struts," with the last man leaving the wings only one hundred yards (90 m) down the runway.^[63] The Spirit gained speed very slowly during its 7:52 AM takeoff, but cleared telephone lines at the far end of the field "by about twenty feet (6.1 m) with a fair reserve of flying speed".^[67]

At 8:52 AM, an hour after takeoff, Lindbergh was flying at an altitude of 500 feet (150 m) over Rhode Island, following an uneventful passage‍—‌aside from some turbulence‍—‌over Long Island Sound and Connecticut.^[68] By 9:52 AM, he had passed Boston and was flying with Cape Cod to his right, with an airspeed of 107 miles per hour (172 km/h) and altitude of 150 feet (46 m); about an hour later he began to feel tired, even though only a few hours had elapsed since takeoff. To keep his mind clear, Lindbergh descended and flew at only 10 feet (3 m) above the water's surface.^[69] By around 11:52 AM, he had climbed to an altitude of 200 feet (60 m), and at this point was 400 miles (640 km) distant from New York.^[69]Nova Scotia appeared ahead and, after flying over the Gulf of Maine, he was only "6 miles (10 km), or 2 degrees, off course."^[68] At 3:52 PM, the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island was below; he struggled to stay awake, even though it was "only the afternoon of the first day."^[68] At 5:52 PM, he was flying along the Newfoundland coast, and passed St. John's at 7:15 PM.^[69][70] On its May 21 front page, The New York Times ran a special cable from the prior evening: "Captain Lindbergh's airplane passed over St. John's at 8:15 o'clock tonight [7:15 New York Daylight Saving Time]...was seen by hundreds and disappeared seaward, heading for Ireland...It was flying quite low between the hills near St. John's."^[71] The Times also observed that Lindbergh was "following the track of Hawker and Greeve and also of Alcock and Brown".^[71]

Stars appeared as night fell around 8:00 PM. The sea became obscured by fog, prompting Lindbergh to climb "from an altitude of 800 feet (240 m) to 7,500 feet (2,300 m) to stay above the quickly-rising cloud."^[69] An hour later, he was flying at 10,000 feet (3,000 m). A towering thunderhead stood in front of him, and he flew into the cloud, but turned back after he noticed ice forming on the plane.^[69] While inside the cloud, Lindbergh "thrust a bare hand through the cockpit window," and felt the "sting of ice particles."^[63] After returning to open sky, he "curved back to his course."^[63] At 11:52 PM, Lindbergh was in warmer air, and no ice remained on the Spirit; he was flying 90 miles per hour (140 km/h) at 10,000 feet (3,000 m), and was 500 miles (800 km) from Newfoundland.^[68] Eighteen hours into the flight, he was halfway to Paris, and while he had planned to celebrate at this point, he instead felt "only dread."^[69] Because Lindbergh flew through several time zones, dawn came earlier, at around 2:52 AM.^[68] He began to hallucinate about two hours later.^[68] At this point in the flight, he "continually" fell asleep, awakening "seconds, possibly minutes, later."^[69] But after "flying for hours in or above the fog," the weather finally began to clear. 7:52 AM marked twenty-four hours in the air for Lindbergh and he did not feel as tired by this point.^[69]

At around 9:52 AM New York time, or twenty-seven hours after he left Roosevelt Field, Lindbergh saw "porpoises and fishing boats," a sign he had reached the other side of the Atlantic.^[68][73] He circled and flew closely, but no fishermen appeared on the boat decks, although he did see a face watching from a porthole.^[68][63]Dingle Bay, in County Kerry of southwest Ireland, was the first European land that Lindbergh encountered; he veered to get a better look and consulted his charts, identifying it as the southern tip of Ireland.^[74][70][68] The local time in Ireland was 3:00 PM.^[69] Flying over Dingle Bay, the Spirit was "2.5 hours ahead of schedule and less than 3 miles (5 km) off course."^[69] Lindbergh had navigated "almost precisely to the coastal point he had marked on his chart."^[63] He wanted to reach the French coast in daylight, so increased his speed to 110 miles per hour (180 km/h).^[69] The English coast appeared ahead of him, and he was "now wide awake."^[68] A report came from Plymouth, on the English coast, that Lindbergh's plane had started across the English Channel.^[63] News soon spread across both "Europe and the United States that Lindbergh had been spotted over England," and a crowd started to form at Le Bourget Aerodrome as he neared Paris.^[73] At sunset, he flew over Cherbourg, on the French coast 200 miles (320 km) from Paris; it was around 2:52 PM New York time.^[69][68]

Over the 33+1⁄2 hours of the flight, the aircraft fought icing, flew blind through fog for several hours, and Lindbergh navigated only by dead reckoning (he was not proficient at navigating by the sun and stars and he rejected radio navigation gear as heavy and unreliable). He was fortunate that the winds over the Atlantic cancelled each other out, giving him zero wind drift—and thus accurate navigation during the long flight over featureless ocean.^[75][76]

On arriving at Paris, Lindbergh "circled the Eiffel Tower" before flying to the airfield.^[62] He flew over the crowd at Le Bourget Aerodrome at 10:16 and landed at 10:22 PM on Saturday, May 21, on the far side of the field and "nearly half a mile from the crowd," as reported by The New York Times.^[77][78][79] The airfield was not marked on his map and Lindbergh knew only that it was some seven miles northeast of the city; he initially mistook it for some large industrial complex because of the bright lights spreading out in all directions‍—‌in fact the headlights of tens of thousands of spectators' cars caught in "the largest traffic jam in Paris history" in their attempt to be present for Lindbergh's landing.^[80]

A crowd estimated at 150,000 stormed the field, dragged Lindbergh out of the cockpit, and carried him around above their heads for "nearly half an hour."^[81] Some minor damage was done to the Spirit by souvenir hunters before pilot and plane reached the safety of a nearby hangar with the aid of French military fliers, soldiers, and police.^[81] The Times reported that before the police could intervene the "souvenir mad" spectators "stripped the plane of everything which could be taken off," and were cutting off pieces of linen when "a squad of soldiers with fixed bayonets quickly surrounded" the plane, providing guard as it was "wheeled into a shed."^[79] Lindbergh met the U.S. Ambassador to France, Myron T. Herrick, across Le Bourget field in a "little room with a few chairs and an army cot."^[82] The lights in the room were turned off to conceal his presence from the frenzied crowd, which "surged madly" trying to find him. Lindbergh shook hands with Herrick and handed him several letters he had carried across the Atlantic, three of which were from Col.Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of former President Theodore Roosevelt, who had written letters of introduction at Lindbergh's request.^[83][82] Lindbergh left the airfield around midnight and was driven through Paris to the ambassador's residence, stopping to visit the French Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe;^[82] after arriving at the residence, he slept for the first time in about 60 hours.^[79][73][69]

Lindbergh's flight was certified by the National Aeronautic Association of the United States based on the readings from a sealed barograph placed in the Spirit.^[84][85]

Global fame

Lindbergh received unprecedented acclaim after his historic flight. In the words of biographer A. Scott Berg, people were "behaving as though Lindbergh had walked on water, not flown over it".^[87]: 17The New York Times printed an above the fold, page-wide headline: "Lindbergh Does It!"^[79] and his mother's house in Detroit was surrounded by a crowd reported at nearly a thousand.^[88] He became "an international celebrity, with invitations pouring in for him to visit European countries," and he "received marriage proposals, invitations to visit cities across the nation, and thousands of gifts, letters, and endorsement requests."^[89] At least "200 songs were written" in tribute to him and his flight.^[89] "Lucky Lindy!", written and composed by L. Wolfe Gilbert and Abel Baer, was finished on May 21 itself, and was "performed to great acclaim in several Manhattan clubs" that night.^[90] After landing, Lindbergh was eager to embark on a tour of Europe. As he noted in a speech a few weeks afterward, his flight marked the first time he "had ever been abroad," and he "landed with the expectancy, and the hope, of being able to see Europe."^[89]

The morning after landing, Lindbergh appeared in the balcony of the U.S. embassy, responding "briefly and modestly" to the calls of the crowd.^[91] The French Foreign Office flew the American flag, the first time it had saluted someone who was not a head of state.^[92] At the Élysée Palace, French PresidentGaston Doumergue bestowed the Légion d'honneur on Lindbergh, pinning the award on his lapel, with Ambassador Herrick present for the occasion.^[94][95] Lindbergh also made flights to Belgium and Britain in the Spirit before returning to the United States. On May 28, Lindbergh flew to Evere Aerodrome in Brussels, Belgium, circling the field three times for the cheering crowd and taxiing to a halt just after 3:00 PM, as a thousand children waved American flags.^[96] On his way to Evere, Lindbergh had met an escort of ten planes from the airport, who found him on course near Mons but had trouble keeping up as the Spirit was averaging "about 100 miles an hour."^[96] After landing, Lindbergh was welcomed by military officers and prominent officials, including Belgian Prime MinisterHenri Jaspar, who led the procession of Lindbergh's plane to a "platform where it was raised to the view of cheering thousands."^[96] "It was a splendid flight," Lindbergh declared, stating: "I enjoyed every minute of it. The motor is in fine shape and I could circle Europe without touching it."^[96] Belgian troops with fixed bayonets protected the Spirit to avoid a repeat of the damage at Le Bourget.^[96] From Evere, Lindbergh motored to the U.S. embassy, and then went to place a wreath on the Belgian tomb of the unknown soldier.^[96] He then visited the Belgian royal palace at the invitation of King Albert I, where the king made Lindbergh a Knight of the Order of Leopold; as Lindbergh shook the king's hand, he said: "I have heard much of the famous soldier-king of the Belgians."^[96][97] The United Press reported that "One million persons are in Brussels today to greet Lindbergh," constituting "the greatest welcome ever accorded a private citizen in Belgium."^[96]

After Belgium, Lindbergh traveled to the United Kingdom. He departed Brussels and arrived at Croydon Air Field in the Spirit on May 29, where a crowd of 100,000 "mobbed" him.^{[99][100][101]} Before reaching the airfield he overflew London where crowds, some on roofs, "gazed at the flyer" and observers with "field glasses in the West End business district" watched him.^[102] About 50 minutes before he landed, the "roads leading toward Croydon airport were jammed."^[102] Flying into the airfield, Lindbergh "appeared on the horizon" at 5:50 PM accompanied by six British military planes, but the massive crowd "swept over the guard lines" and forced him to circle the airfield "while police battled the crowd," and "not until 10 minutes later had they cleared a space large enough" for him to land.^[102] Police reserves were sent to the airfield in "large numbers," but it was not enough to contain the multitude. As the plane came to a stop, the crowd "waved American flags, smashed fences and knocked down police," while Lindbergh himself was described as "grinning and serene" amid the "seething" crowd.^[102] The United Press reported that a "man's leg was broken in the crush," and another man fell from atop a hangar and suffered internal injuries.^[102] English officials were reportedly "surprised" by the enthusiasm of the welcome.^[102] A limousine pulled near the Spirit, escorting Lindbergh to a tower on the field where he responded to the cheering crowd. "All I can say is that this is worse than what happened at Le Bourget Field," he told them. "But all the same, I'm glad to be here."^[102] When he reached the reception room where British Secretary of State for Air Sir Samuel Hoare, U.S. Ambassador Alanson B. Houghton, and others waited, his first words were: "Save my plane!"^[102] Mechanics moved the Spirit to a hangar where it was placed "under a military guard."^[102] Also present at Croydon were former Secretary of State for AirLord Thomson, Director of Civil Aviation Sir Sefton Brancker, and Brig. Gen.P. R. C. Groves.^[102]

Accompanied by two Royal Air Force planes, he then flew 90 miles from Croydon to Gosport, where he left the Spirit to be dismantled for shipment back to New York.^[104] On May 31, accompanied by an attache of the U.S. Embassy, Lindbergh visited British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin at 10 Downing Street and then motored to Buckingham Palace, where King George V received him as a guest and awarded him the British Air Force Cross.^[104][105] In anticipation of Lindbergh's visit to the palace, a crowd massed "hoping to get a glimpse" of him.^[104] The crowd became so great that police had to call in reserves from Scotland Yard.^[104] Upon his arrival back in the United States aboard the U.S. Navy cruiserUSS Memphis (CL-13) on June 11, 1927, a fleet of warships and multiple flights of military aircraft escorted him up the Potomac River to the Washington Navy Yard, where President Calvin Coolidge awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross.^[106][107] Lindbergh received the first award of this medal, but it violated the authorizing regulation. Coolidge's own executive order, published in March 1927, required recipients to perform their feats of airmanship "while participating in an aerial flight as part of the duties incident to such membership [in the Organized Reserves]", which Lindbergh failed to satisfy.^[108][109]

Lindbergh flew from Washington, D.C., to New York City on June 13, arriving in Lower Manhattan. He traveled up the Canyon of Heroes to City Hall, where he was received by Mayor Jimmy Walker. A ticker-tape parade^[110] followed to Central Park Mall, where he was awarded the New York Medal for Valor at a ceremony hosted by New York Governor Al Smith and attended by a crowd of 200,000. Some 4,000,000 people saw Lindbergh that day.^{[111][112][113][114]} That evening, Lindbergh was accompanied by his mother and Mayor Walker when he was the guest of honor at a 500-guest banquet and dance held at Clarence MacKay's Long Island estate, Harbor Hill.^[115]

The following night, Lindbergh was honored with a grand banquet at the Hotel Commodore given by the Mayor's Committee on Receptions of the City of New York and attended by some 3,700 people.^[116] He was officially awarded the check for the prize on June 16.^[86]

On July 18, 1927, Lindbergh was promoted to the rank of colonel in the Air Corps of the Officers Reserve Corps of the U.S. Army.^[117]

On December 14, 1927, a Special Act of Congress awarded Lindbergh the Medal of Honor, despite the fact that it was almost always awarded for heroism in combat.^[118] It was presented to Lindbergh by President Coolidge at the White House on March 21, 1928.^[119] The medal contradicted Coolidge's earlier executive order directing that "not more than one of the several decorations authorized by Federal law will be awarded for the same act of heroism or extraordinary achievement" (Lindbergh was recognized for the same act with both the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Flying Cross).^[120] The statute authorizing the award was also criticized for apparently violating procedure; House legislators reportedly neglected to have their votes counted.^[121]

Lindbergh was honored as the first Time magazine Man of the Year (now called "Person of the Year") when he appeared on that magazine's cover at age 25 on January 2, 1928;^[122] he remained the youngest Time Person of the Year until Greta Thunberg in 2019. The winner of the 1930 Best Woman Aviator of the Year Award, Elinor Smith Sullivan, said that before Lindbergh's flight:

People seemed to think we [aviators] were from outer space or something. But after Charles Lindbergh's flight, we could do no wrong. It's hard to describe the impact Lindbergh had on people. Even the first walk on the moon doesn't come close. The twenties was such an innocent time, and people were still so religious—I think they felt like this man was sent by God to do this. And it changed aviation forever because all of a sudden the Wall Streeters were banging on doors looking for airplanes to invest in. We'd been standing on our heads trying to get them to notice us but after Lindbergh, suddenly everyone wanted to fly, and there weren't enough planes to carry them.^[123]

Autobiography and tours

Main article: "WE" (1927 book)

Barely two months after Lindbergh arrived in Paris, G. P. Putnam's Sons published his 318-page autobiography "WE", which was the first of 15 books he eventually wrote or to which he made significant contributions. The company was run by aviation enthusiast George P. Putnam.^[124] The dustjacket notes said that Lindbergh wanted to share the "story of his life and his transatlantic flight together with his views on the future of aviation", and that "WE" referred to the "spiritual partnership" that had developed "between himself and his airplane during the dark hours of his flight".^[125][126] However, as Berg wrote in 1998, Putnam's chose the title without "Lindbergh's knowledge or approval," and Lindbergh would "forever complain about it, that his use of 'we' meant him and his backers, not him and his plane, as the press had people believing"; nonetheless, as Berg remarked, "his frequent unconscious use of the phrase suggested otherwise."

Putnam's sold special autographed copies of the book for $25 each, all of which were purchased before publication."WE" was soon translated into most major languages and sold more than 650,000 copies in the first year, earning Lindbergh more than $250,000. Its success was considerably aided by Lindbergh's three-month, 22,350-mile (35,970 km) tour of the United States in the Spirit on behalf of the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics. Between July 20 and October 23, 1927, Lindbergh visited 82 cities in all 48 states, rode 1,290 mi (2,080 km) in parades, and delivered 147 speeches before 30 million people.^[128]

Lindbergh then toured 16 Latin American countries between December 13, 1927, and February 8, 1928. Dubbed the "Good Will Tour", it included stops in Mexico (where he also met his future wife, Anne, the daughter of U.S. Ambassador Dwight Morrow), Guatemala, British Honduras, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, the Canal Zone, Colombia, Venezuela, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba, covering 9,390 miles (15,110 km) in just over 116 hours of flight time.^[38][129] A year and two days after it had made its first flight, Lindbergh flew the Spirit from St. Louis to Washington, D.C., where it has been on public display at the Smithsonian Institution ever since.^[130] Over the previous 367 days, Lindbergh and the Spirit had logged 489 hours 28 minutes of flight time.^[131]

A "Lindbergh boom" in aviation had begun. The volume of mail moving by air^[where?] increased 50 percent within six months, applications for pilots' licenses tripled, and the number of planes quadrupled.^[87]: 17 President Herbert Hoover appointed Lindbergh to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.^[132]

Lindbergh and Pan American World Airways head Juan Trippe were interested in developing an air route across Alaska and Siberia to China and Japan. In the summer of 1931, with Trippe's support, Lindbergh and his wife flew from Long Island to Nome, Alaska, and from there to Siberia, Japan and China. The flight was carried out with a Lockheed Model 8 Sirius named Tingmissartoq. The route was not available for commercial service until after World War II, as prewar aircraft lacked the range to fly Alaska to Japan nonstop, and the United States had not officially recognized the Soviet government.^[133] In China they volunteered to help in disaster investigation and relief efforts for the Central China flood of 1931.^[134] This was later documented in Anne's book North to the Orient.

Air mail promotion

Lindbergh used his world fame to promote air mail service. For example, at the request of Basil L. Rowe, the owner of West Indian Aerial Express (and later Pan Am's chief pilot), in February, 1928, he carried some 3,000 pieces of special souvenir mail between Santo Domingo, Dominican Repulic; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; and Havana, Cuba^[135]‍—‌the last three stops he and the Spirit made during their 7,800 mi (12,600 km) "Good Will Tour" of Latin America and the Caribbean between December 13, 1927, and February 8, 1928, and the only franked mail pieces that he ever flew in his iconic plane.^[136]

Two weeks after his Latin American tour, Lindbergh piloted a series of special flights over his old CAM-2 route on February 20 and February 21