About 80 and a kitteh *The R34 had a cat on the crew list 
Posted on 11/13/2010 5:17:28 AM PST by atomic conspiracy
Charles Lindbergh is renowned as the first person to fly across the Atlantic, but according to new research, he was beaten to the achievement ten days earlier. According to French aviation enthusiast Bernard Decré, Lindbergh was only the first to complete the crossing and survive, with two French pilots believed to have reached the coast of Canada ten days before Lindbergh's Spirit of St Louis touched down in Paris in May 1927. New documentary evidence found in the U.S. national archives may prove that Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli completed a transatlantic crossing and were the first men to do so, though they were likely killed in the process. The fate of Nungesser and Coli has been called the 'Everest of aviation mysteries' with their disappearance sparking a raft of conspiracy theories, including speculation that their sea plane, L'Oiseau Blanc, was shot down by Maine bootleggers who feared police surveillance. But the discovery of a U.S. Coast Guard telegram which tells of the wreckage of a white aircraft seen floating some 200 miles off the New York coast on August 18 1927 could have solved the riddle - and changed Lindbergh's role in the history books. The American aviator successfully flew the Spirit of St Louis from New York to Le Bourget in France on May 20-12 1927, winning a $25,000 prize offered by hotelier Raymond Orteig as well as claiming the U.S. Medal of Honour and the French Legion d'Honneur. Yet according to Mr Decré, 70, Lindbergh's triumph - and the improved U.S.-Franco relations that followed - was only made possible by a cover-up of the fateful flight of L'Oiseau Blanc. Wrecked: Documentary evidence tells of the remains of a white plane, possibly Nungesser and Coli's L'Oiseau Blanc (pictured), being found 200 miles off the New York coast
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“It was also the first solo flight across the Atlantic”
That’s how I remember it being put.
Thanks for the correction.
50 year-old memories can be treacherous.
Hell, remembering what I had for lunch yesterday can be a challenge!
Yeah, surviving does make a big difference, LOL.
“know any landing you can walk away from is a good landing”
I’ve never liked this saying. Doesn’t everyone realize planes cost money? How is crashing them a good thing, even if you walk away?
Landing a dead man on the Moon wouldn’t have been much of an achievement, and we would look like fools or French journalists if we claimed that it trumped a later flight by someone who got back alive.
“Charles Lindbergh is renowned as the first person to fly across the Atlantic, but according to new research, he was beaten to the achievement ten days earlier.”
Don’t you love it when people spice up stories by pulling myths out of thin air and debunking them? Lucky Lindy (the flying fool) has always been, to my knowledge, renowned as the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic.
Now I hear he was the first to fly across the Atlantic period.
But wait, he wasn’t. There were these other guys.
Oh, but they died. So I guess he was.
Ugh, what a waste of time.
I think you have to live in order to collect the prize.
My history book says it was a guy named Mohammed.
Plus, didn’t he support the Germans during WWII?
...on his magic carpet.
"Pioneers: New evidence suggest Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli may have died after successfully completing a transatlantic flight in 1927"
By this standard, poor Lt/Col Custer died after successfully attacking an Indian encampment.
Mexican?
Close...I did make some Caribbean-style beans to go with rice and boneless pork ribs.
But I had to think real hard to remember.
“By this standard, poor Lt/Col Custer died after successfully attacking an Indian encampment.”
LOL
Mr. niteowl77
*His WWI career is sadly overlooked today.
not only that, I just saw his biography on TV...the guy had 3 women by whom he had a load of children in Germany..while still married to Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
He felt he had those superior Aryan genes and wanted to make sure they were dispersed as much as possible for posterity.
What a piece of work.
Close only counts in horseshoes and handgrenades.
About 80 and a kitteh *The R34 had a cat on the crew list
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