AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2014 - 78

Lindbergh had his competitors, but he
flew into hero status when he made the
New York-to-Paris flight on May 20 and 21, 1927.
That all changed when the Wrights
demonstrated their Flyer in France in 1908
and 1909. Crowds and royalty alike flocked
to see the airplane fly, and the Wrights even
started a flying school in Pau, France. A previously unimpressed U.S. Army contracted
to buy its first military airplane-the Wright
Military Flyer-in 1909. And the world was
about to go aviation-crazy.
In the pre-World War I years, European
airshows and exhibitions garnered lots of
press coverage. New designs were coming
out monthly. Airshows drew thousands who
gasped at the sight of a steep turn. While
the Wrights began a lengthy fight to defend
their patents, it was European general aviation that got the most attention.
After World War I, America took the
limelight and never relinquished it. Warsurplus Curtiss JN-4 Jenny trainers could
be had for $200, and pilots lined up to buy
them. Thus began the barnstorming era. All
through the 1920s, pilots would drop in on
towns large and small, give rides, and put on
airshows. Some even put on "Air Circuses."
It was the first mass, up-close introduction to aviation for the American populace.
Aviation, previously the province of an
in crowd of designers and the privileged,
reached the middle class in a big way.
Barnstorming mirrored the freewheeling, exuberant spirit of the times. Airplanes
raced each other, raced cars, flew the first
wingwalkers, served as in-flight trapezes,
and put on aerobatic demonstrations. But it
78 | AOPA PILOT May 2014

wasn't all levity. Serious advances in airplane
design were in the works. Increasingly, old
wood-and-fabric biplanes were viewed as
antiques as strut-braced and cantilevered
monoplanes made of aluminum began to
arrive on the scene. Without exaggeration,
one such airplane in particular revolutionized aviation and truly signaled a new dawn
in what was then identified as the Air Age.
It was the Spirit of Saint Louis, the
year was 1927, and the pilot was Charles
Lindbergh-a former barnstormer and air
mail pilot. Lindbergh set out in pursuit of a
$25,000 prize offered by hotelier Raymond
Orteig to the first person who could fly nonstop from New York to Paris. True, John
Alcock and Arthur Brown had already flown
their Vickers Vimy from Newfoundland to
Ireland nonstop in 1919, but that achievement received little publicity at the time and
by 1927 it had been all but forgotten.
Lindbergh had his competitors, but he
flew into hero status when he made the New
York-to-Paris flight on May 20 and 21, 1927.
His life, and American aviation, underwent
an immediate transformation. For the next
14 years, Lindbergh would be surrounded
by crowds, deluged by mail, and hounded
by the press. His son was kidnapped and
murdered. At the same time, American
civil aviation assumed big-league status.
By proving that the North Atlantic could be

safely crossed in a single-engine airplane,
Lindbergh cleared the way for airline travel.
It was also a sort of signal for a huge
number of general aviation manufacturers
to set up shop. This was a time of glorious
general aviation expansion and diversification, as historic brands such as Beechcraft,
Bellanca, Cessna, Fairchild, Mooney, Myers,
Piper, Porterfield, Stinson, Taylorcraft,
Waco, and many others hit their stride-in
spite of the Great Depression.
Movies began to play a part in aviation
mania. Wings, a silent movie about aerial
combat in World War I, came out in 1927
and won an Oscar-the last of the silent
movies to win the award. This was followed by another movie-a "talkie" this
time-about World War I dogfighting, Hell's
Angels. It was a $4 million epic that cost four
pilots their lives, took three years to make,
and grossed $8 million. The producer/
director was a young oil drill-bit manufacturer and pilot named Howard Hughes.
Hughes entered aviation history in 1937
when he broke a transcontinental speed
record by flying his H-1 racer from Los
Angeles to Newark, New Jersey, in seven
hours, 28 minutes. More noteworthy flying
records, and aircraft designs, followed.
Other pilots were also busy setting
records in the 1930s. In November 1930

When Apollo 11 landed the first men on the
moon, the whole world tuned in to watch.
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2014

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