Monday, 21 May 2007

Avez-vous su? - 6

80 yrs. ago, to the day - Charles Lindberg became the 1st person to fly a solo, non-stop flight from New York to Paris in the Spirit of St. Louis.
He flew from Roosevelt Airfield (in Garden City, New York) to Le Bourget, Paris in 33.5 hours. He left NY on 20th May 1927, and arrived the next day.
In his words,
I first saw the lights of Paris a little before 10 P.M., or 5 P.M., New York time, and a few minutes later I was circling the Eiffel Tower at an attitude of about four thousand feet.
Although he was a decorated hero, later in life - he was accused of AntiSemitism and of being being a Nazi sympathiser.

His grandson Erik Lindbergh repeated this trip 75 years later in 2002 in 17 hours 17 minutes.

8 comments:

Alok said...

blog mein peris ka pic bhi lagaayie...blog sunder dikhega :))

Shantanu said...

@alok:- www.picasaweb.google.com/shantanugangal

Anonymous said...

abbey shudnt it be altitude???

Shantanu said...

@anonymous:-
1. Please don't leave anon comments. Its there so that those w/o a google id (I know thats rare), can sign their name in text.

2. It should be 'altitude', but I am quoting his words, can't change that can I?

आलोक कुमार said...

very good collection...but maine to blog ko achchha karne kaha tha :))

Anti said...

@gangal: attitude is also used for altitude. lindenbergh wasnt wrong. neither are you.

Anti said...

attitude -- (position of aircraft or spacecraft relative to a frame of reference (the horizon or direction of motion))

Shantanu said...

@Everyone :-
Trust Anti, to have all the answers :D.
Thanks!