Charles Lindbergh Won the Prize, but Did His Rival Get There First?

WSJ ^ | 06 Sept 2011 | SEBASTIAN MOFFETT

[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.

[USNBandit]

So if the Russians had sent a manned rocket to crash on the Moon........

[nikos1121]

New York to Paris, not North America to Europe as that had already been done I believe by an Army team.

[Oztrich Boy]

Any landing you walk away from is a success......... Oh...er as you were

[tpmintx]

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

It is my understanding that Landing is the hardest, and most important part of flying. It should have been a clue to the people who were asked to train the 9/11 pilots, when they gave no interest in learning how to land.

Quotes from pilots I have heard:
• "Any flight you can walk away from is a successful one."
• "Well, we've cheated death again."

[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.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Of course he landed in a marsh, with all the other frogs.

[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!

[Redleg Duke]

A good landing is one you can walk away from.

A great landing is one in which you can use the airplane again!

[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.

[WayneS]

You got it!

This Frenchman would say the U.S. was the SECOND country to land men on the moon.

[Paladin2]

It always makes me nervous when the stews now suggest that "we will be on the ground soon" rather than "We'll be landing soon" near the conclusion of a commercial flight.

The lawyers must be involved in massaging the implied promise over the years.

[Little Ray]

Didn’t make it to NYC? Fail.

[tpmintx]

I, for one, have never liked the “Terminating in (wherever)” announcement.