[Paladin2]

Landing vs. “being on the ground” doesn’t enter into the terms of success?

[USNBandit]

I guess that would make Lindbergh the first to fly the Atlantic non-stop without dying.

[BitWielder1]

That does not count as a successful flight.
We could have had a man on the moon 6 years earlier if his survival was not an issue.
We have interstellar flight capability right now, if we don't care when or in what shape the passengers arrive.

[ClearCase_guy]

Nungesser was a really fascinating individual. But he’s never going to get credit for beating Lindbergh. He failed the task.

[Chi-townChief]

Sacre bleu!!!

[cuban leaf]

It only counts if you land. And “landing” means you survive the flight.

[Jack Hydrazine]

“So Mr. Nungesser and navigator François Coli...”

Francois Coli or also known as F. Coli. I wonder if he had a brother named E. Coli? LOL!

[WayneS]

So, according to this Frenchman, arriving alive was not part of the challenge? Nice.

[Huskrrrr]

Yes, the prize was for New York to Paris or the reverse, thus demonstrating a potential for regular transatlantic flights. Even considering Lindbergh’s troublesome political alignment in the late 30’s his kind of rugged individualism is just what this country needs now.

[Little Ray]

Didn’t make it to NYC? Fail.

[DesertRhino]

Sorry Maverick, below the hard deck doesn’t count!

[Charles Martel]

There's a clue as to why Lindbergh won in this photo of navigator Coli (L) and pilot Nungesser:

[ozzymandus]

There was a story on “Unsolved Mysteries” TV show about some guy who found an old airplane engine in the woods in Maine or somewhere like that. When he went back, he couldn’t find it again. The claim was that this was the engine of the “White Bird”.

[EternalVigilance]

They broke the first rule of piloting: Keep your number of landings equal to your number of take-offs.

[Meet the New Boss]

The Oiseau Blanc probably flew over Newfoundland, before crash-landing off the coast of Canada.

So Mr. Nungesser and navigator François Coli might have been the first men to fly nonstop to North America from Continental Europe

a number of fliers made it across in other ways—via Ireland, or by refueling at sea—but the nonstop, continent-to-continent challenge was different.

But Newfoundland is not part of the North American continent, it is an island. If for purposes of the contest Ireland does not count as mainland Europe why should Newfoundland count as mainland North America?

So even if this guy is right, Nungesser still wasn't the first to fly continent-to-continent.

[Lancey Howard]

So, who won the prize for being first to make the trip from the top of the Empire State Building to the ground?