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Some Great names in Aviation
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh's whole name was Charles Augustus Lindbergh. He was born in Detroit on in February 1902. He went to the university of Wisconsin, but two years later he left and went to flying school in Lincoln in Nebraska. He started flying in 1922 and in 1926 he flew a mail plane to St. Louis, Missouri and Chicago.
In 1919, He decided to enter a competition for $25,000. The competition was to fly alone from New York across the Atlantic to Paris.
In his single engined monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis, he left Roosevelt airfield on Long Island at 7.52a.m. on May 20, 1927. His flight lasted almost 34 hours. Charles Lindbergh landed at Le Bourget Airport beside Paris. His accomplishment made the world very enthusiastic about flight. Charles Lindbergh was then known as a hero of the United States of America and Europe. He was later a colonel in the US Air Service Reserve and was a technical advisor to commercial airlines.
In 1932, the kidnapping and murder of Lindbergh's child took place. He was 19 months old and his name was Charles. In 1935, he moved to Europe to avoid further publicity. Later, he joined the German Air Force. During World War II he was sent on missions to the Pacific Ocean for the US Air Force.
He died on August 26th, 1974 in Hawaii.
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas.
In 1907, when Amelia was ten years old, she saw her first airplane at the Iowa State Fair. She described it as a "thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting".
It wasn't until ten years later when Amelia started to be interested in aviation.
In 1932, she became the firsat woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone, establishing a new record for the crossing - thirteen hours and thirty minutes. For this, she was given awards by the American and French governments. In 1935, she became the first woman to fly the Pacific Ocean, flying from Hawaii to California.