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Lindbergh's Grandson Arrives in France After Repeat of Historic 1927 Solo Flight
AP ^ | 5-2-02 | Pamela Sampson

Posted on 05/02/2002 6:23:49 AM PDT by Pharmboy

LE BOURGET, France (AP) - Erik Lindbergh, two generations later, replicated his grandfather's groundbreaking 1927 solo Atlantic air crossing, landing in Paris on Thursday in half the time it took the aviation pioneer to make the historic journey. Lindbergh's Lancair Columbia 300 - dubbed the New Spirit of St. Louis - landed at Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly before 11:30 a.m., 17 hours after taking off from Farmingdale, N.Y.

Visibly fatigued, wearing his blue pilot's jumpsuit, Lindbergh addressed his sponsors and about 100 reporters who met him at the small airport.

"It was an amazing time, 1927, and I really wanted to celebrate the 75th anniversary of grandfather's flight," Lindbergh said.

The re-creation was part of anniversary commemorations of Charles Lindbergh's May 20-21, 1927 voyage, the first nonstop solo run from New York to Paris.

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took five sandwiches with him on the journey but ate only a bite. His grandson brought six sandwiches along and ate one and a half.

"I did it in half the time and ate twice as much," Erik Lindbergh joked. His grandfather's flight time was 33 1/2 hours.

Lindbergh had taken off from Republic Airport in Farmingdale at 12:15 p.m. EDT Wednesday. He already has duplicated the first two legs of his grandfather's journey: from San Diego to St. Louis, and St. Louis to Farmingdale.

Lindbergh said his interest in planes didn't really stem from his grandfather.

"Becoming a pilot was almost accidental," he said. "I didn't really think about it until I was 24 and took a flight with a friend."

"It was sort of accidental," he said. "Not many members of the family fly."

The voyage was designed to raise awareness of rheumatoid arthritis, which disabled 37-year-old Lindbergh for 15 years before drug treatment helped restore his movement.

Organizers also hope the journey will promote the X Prize Foundation, a St. Louis-based nonprofit group that is offering $10 million to the first private group that can build and launch a manned spacecraft into space, then repeat the feat within two weeks.

"I'm trying to open up space flight for everyone, so that in the near future people like you and I can go and buy a ticket and fly into space," Lindbergh said.

Lindbergh's $289,000 aircraft, made of a glass and carbon composite, has an average cruise speed of 184 mph, compared with the 108 mph of the original Spirit of St. Louis, built for $10,580.

The single-engine plane uses a Global Positioning System navigation device to chart its exact location. In comparison, Charles Lindbergh used deduced reckoning - basically, "holding a compass and guessing at the wind," as his grandson has described it.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: atlantic; charleslindbergh; crossing; france; germany; godsgravesglyphs; lindbergh
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When he landed, did he praise LePen?
1 posted on 05/02/2002 6:23:49 AM PDT by Pharmboy
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To: Pharmboy
He was met by Frenchman waving white flags. >:)

-Eric

2 posted on 05/02/2002 6:24:40 AM PDT by E Rocc
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To: Pharmboy
Dead reckoning across the Atlantic! Incredible!

We'll probably never know how many did not make it all the way across....RIP.

Thanks Lindy, you're still inspiring young pilots.....and you married well!

Respectfully,
Older but not bolder

3 posted on 05/02/2002 6:34:45 AM PDT by AzJP
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To: Pharmboy
I'm curious about the modifications needed to cross the Atlantic in a small plane like that, i.e. extra large fuel tank. Even modern personal aircraft usually have a pretty limited range around 1600 miles. Crossing the Atlantic is about twice that distance.
4 posted on 05/02/2002 6:46:11 AM PDT by tdadams
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To: Pharmboy
I hope he doesn't think those 1 million Frenchmen waving signs and banners were there for him when he landed.
5 posted on 05/02/2002 6:46:36 AM PDT by TADSLOS
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To: tdadams
He flew a Lancair Columbia 300 with ferry tanks. That, some extra communications gear (HF), a little luck and extra large cajones was all he needed.
6 posted on 05/02/2002 7:19:36 AM PDT by grobdriver
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To: Pharmboy
Now that he's in France, maybe he can recreate his grandfathers Anti-Semetic and pro-NAZI stance as well.
7 posted on 05/02/2002 7:20:44 AM PDT by Bommer
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To: Bommer
**Now that he's in France, maybe he can recreate his grandfathers Anti-Semetic and pro-NAZI stance as well. **

Do you have a source for this allegation?

8 posted on 05/02/2002 7:23:43 AM PDT by homeschool mama
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To: Pharmboy
A young Charles Lindbergh used to hop over in his plane from St. Louis to a small, primitive air field in what is now a far western suburb of Chicago.

He liked to kibbitz with the younger local set that hung around the hangar there.

My mom and her boyfriend (later to be my dad) loved Lindbergh and mom said he was great fun.

I scoured the fading photos in the family album from that time, but, alas, no pictures of Lucky Lindy.

Leni

9 posted on 05/02/2002 7:31:38 AM PDT by MinuteGal
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To: tdadams
Aux tanks (wing tips and aft), plus that little sweetheart is a gas miser, he probably was burning less than 15 gph.

According to the hangar flying around here right now, his actual flt distance was 3300 mi.

Two other major accomlishments:
1. Staying more or less awake and coherent, even with the comforts of that nice Lancair, and
2. Getting FAA license after his wheelchair arthritis.

Gossip says he's taking a com'l flight home, with some lucky s.o.b. flying the Lanc back to the states.

10 posted on 05/02/2002 7:36:32 AM PDT by AzJP
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To: Bommer, Pharmboy
LOL!
11 posted on 05/02/2002 7:44:23 AM PDT by KC_Conspirator
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To: homeschool mama
Bommer probably doesn't. Flamer: toss and run.

Some who knew Lindy's contemporaries say that Lindy was what we might now call an isolationist. At his time, many said out loud that we should keep our troops home and not send 'em to Europe again to die over there.

Thus, that era's crop of antagonistic divisiveness converted that to "oh, therefor you must be pro-nazi, therefor anti-semitic.

That's my opinion.

12 posted on 05/02/2002 7:47:56 AM PDT by AzJP
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To: AzJP
If you haven't already read it, get and read "Spirit of St. Louis," Charles Lindbergh's own book about the flight. It's one of the great works of American literature. Lindbergh was a fabulous writer.
13 posted on 05/02/2002 7:49:38 AM PDT by MoralSense
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To: MinuteGal
How great to hear a personal connection story, MinuteGal.
14 posted on 05/02/2002 7:50:31 AM PDT by homeschool mama
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To: MoralSense
**If you haven't already read it, get and read "Spirit of St. Louis," Charles Lindbergh's own book about the flight. It's one of the great works of American literature. Lindbergh was a fabulous writer.**

Yeppers. We'll be reading it next month for school. :o) The movie based on the book, with Jimmy Stewart playing Lindbergh, was recently on the Old Movie Channel. Wonderful.

15 posted on 05/02/2002 7:52:01 AM PDT by homeschool mama
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To: homeschool mama
Unfortunately, it's true. Lindbergh was an "America First" -er (isolationist) who made speeches against President Roosevelt and "the Jews" who were trying to drag us into World War II. He also visited Nazi Germany in the mid-Thirties, and made a number of statements praising the Nazi regime, including expressions of admiration for their racial and eugenics policies. To some extent, Lindbergh later redeemed himself by flying combat missions in the Pacific (as a civilian technical adviser, he had resigned his Army Air Corps Reserve commission in protest over Franklin Roosevelt's attempts to get us involved in WWII).
16 posted on 05/02/2002 7:53:02 AM PDT by pawdoggie
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To: homeschool mama
Lindbergh & the America First Committee

"If any one of these groups--the British, the Jewish, or the administration--stops agitating for war, I believe there will be little danger of our involvement."
Charles Lindbergh- September 11, 1941

On September 11, 1941, Charles Lindbergh appeared in Des Moines, Iowa, to speak on behalf of the isolationist America First Committee. The famous aviator criticized the groups he perceived were leading America into war for acting against the country's interests. He expressed doubt that the U.S. military would achieve victory in a war against Germany, which he said had "armies stronger than our own." The Des Moines speech was met with outrage in many quarters, and Lindbergh was denounced as an anti-Semite. In his hometown of Little Falls, Minnesota, his name was even removed from the town's water tower.

Six years earlier, Lindbergh had moved to England with his wife to escape the publicity surrounding the kidnapping and murder of their infant son. In 1936, he inspected Germany's military aviation program on behalf of the U.S. government, and in August attended the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin as a guests of Nazi Hermann Goering, the head of the Luftwaffe. Impressed by German industry and society under Adolf Hitler, the Lindberghs considered moving to Berlin.

In 1938, Goering presented Lindbergh with the Service Cross of the German Eagle for his contributions to aviation. Returning to America in 1939, Lindbergh became an advocate of American isolationism, but was criticized for his Nazi sympathies and anti-Semitic beliefs.

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and debate over U.S. war policy came to an end. Lindbergh, who had resigned his military commission in 1939, asked to be reinstated, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt refused. The middle-aged Lindbergh later made it to the Pacific as an observer, and eventually ended up flying over two dozen combat missions, including one in which he downed a Japanese aircraft.

From lindbergh.com

17 posted on 05/02/2002 7:54:52 AM PDT by Pharmboy
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To: homeschool mama
My mom often commented on how good-looking the young Lindy was. I wondered if she had a crush on him, LOL.

Well, she did the next best thing. She married my dad who was also named "Charles", heheh.

Leni

18 posted on 05/02/2002 8:06:10 AM PDT by MinuteGal
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To: AzJP; homeschoolmama
He may have had flowing locks and was brave enough to cross the Atlantic, and had a terrible kidnapping. But overall Lindbergh was an Anti-Semtic, pro-Nazi America First Liberal dimwit. You both need to wake up and read your history! As a homeschooler, you should have already known this mama!
19 posted on 05/02/2002 8:24:56 AM PDT by Bommer
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To: all
Yaaaawwwwn.
20 posted on 05/02/2002 8:32:35 AM PDT by Registered
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