60 Fun Facts About Charles Lindbergh

In which year did Lindbergh make his famous nonstop flight from New York to Paris?

It covered 3,600 miles in over 33 hours and was the first solo crossing of the Atlantic.

Lindbergh's aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, was named in honour of what?

He had been flying the mail out of St. Louis when local businessmen agreed to fund the plane.

How much was the Orteig Prize that Lindbergh's flight won?

Hotel owner Raymond Orteig had offered it in 1919 for the first nonstop New York-Paris flight.

Roughly how long did Lindbergh's New York to Paris flight take?

He had barely slept the night before and began to hallucinate during the flight.

Which British pair had already flown the Atlantic nonstop in 1919, eight years before Lindbergh?

They won the Daily Mail prize flying from Newfoundland to Ireland; Lindbergh's was the first solo crossing.

In which city was Lindbergh born in 1902?

He grew up mostly in Little Falls, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C.

What was the occupation of Lindbergh's father, Charles August Lindbergh?

He was born Carl Månsson in Sweden and emigrated to Minnesota as an infant.

Lindbergh dropped out of which college in his sophomore year to learn to fly?

He enrolled at the Nebraska Aircraft Corporation's flying school in Lincoln in 1922.

Under what stage name did he barnstorm across the Midwest in 1923?

He had started out as a wing walker and parachutist before buying his own war-surplus Jenny for $500.

How much did Lindbergh pay for his first plane, a war-surplus Curtiss JN-4 'Jenny', in 1923?

He made his first solo flight in it at Souther Field in Americus, Georgia.

Where did Lindbergh graduate first in his class from Army flight training in 1925?

Only 18 of 104 cadets who started the year finished.

What job was Lindbergh doing when he began planning his Atlantic flight?

He flew the St. Louis to Chicago route in surplus de Havilland DH-4s.

Which small San Diego firm built the plane for the flight?

Chief engineer Donald Hall and the staff built it in just 60 days for $10,580.

How long did Ryan take to design and build the plane?

Owner Benjamin Franklin Mahoney had wired 'Can complete in two months.'

Why did Lindbergh's plane have no forward windscreen?

A former submariner at Ryan installed a periscope so he could see ahead.

What was the registration number of Lindbergh's plane?

The X stood for 'experimental', since it was a nonstandard design.

What engine powered Lindbergh's plane?

It produced 223 hp and the plane carried about 450 gallons of fuel.

What was deliberately uncomfortable about the cockpit of Lindbergh's plane?

The seat was custom-fitted but meant to keep him awake.

What was the first European land Lindbergh saw on his flight?

He veered off course to identify it as the southern tip of Ireland.

At which Paris airfield did Lindbergh land on 21 May 1927?

A crowd of about 150,000 dragged him from the cockpit and carried him around for half an hour.

How big was the crowd said to have stormed the airfield when Lindbergh landed in Paris?

Souvenir hunters damaged the plane before French soldiers got it to a hangar.

Which two French war heroes vanished flying Paris-New York two weeks before Lindbergh?

Their seaplane L'Oiseau Blanc was last reliably seen over the west coast of Ireland.

How many people died in crashes while competing for the Orteig Prize?

René Fonck's Sikorsky crashed on takeoff in 1926, and Davis and Wooster died testing their American Legion.

Which president presented Lindbergh with both the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Medal of Honor?

He was also promoted to colonel in the Army Air Corps Reserve and given France's Legion of Honor.

Lindbergh was the first person ever named what by Time magazine?

He was 25, and remained the youngest holder until Greta Thunberg in 2019.

Who finally broke Lindbergh's record as the youngest Time Person of the Year, in 2019?

Lindbergh had held the record since appearing on the cover in January 1928.

What was the title of Lindbergh's 1927 autobiography, chosen by the publisher without his approval?

He said it meant him and his backers, not him and his plane, as the press assumed.

How many US states did Lindbergh visit on his three-month Guggenheim tour in late 1927?

He gave 147 speeches to 30 million people in 82 cities.

Which Smithsonian museum has housed the Spirit of St. Louis since 1928?

Lindbergh flew it to Washington in April 1928 after his Latin American goodwill tour, and it has been displayed there ever since.

Lindbergh met his future wife Anne Morrow in which country, where her father was US ambassador?

He was on a goodwill tour of Latin America; they married in 1929.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh became the first American woman to hold which licence, in 1930?

She flew as her husband's radio operator and copilot on survey flights and wrote North to the Orient.

Which 1955 book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh became a bestseller and inspiration for many American women?

Her first book, North to the Orient, had won a National Book Award in 1935.

On what date was Lindbergh's 20-month-old son kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, New Jersey?

The press called it the crime of the century; the child's body was found on May 12.

What was found beneath the nursery window on the night of the kidnapping?

Wood expert Arthur Koehler later matched the ladder to a plank from Hauptmann's attic floor.

How much ransom was handed over to a man claiming to be the kidnapper on 2 April 1932?

Some of it was in soon-to-be-withdrawn gold certificates whose serial numbers were recorded, which led to the arrest.

What was the trade of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the German immigrant convicted of the kidnapping?

He was caught in 1934 after paying for petrol with a ransom bill; over $14,000 of ransom money was in his garage.

Where was Hauptmann tried in the 'Trial of the Century' in 1935?

He was executed at Trenton State Prison on 3 April 1936.

Which retired Bronx schoolteacher acted as go-between with the kidnapper under the alias 'Jafsie'?

He met the man in Woodlawn Cemetery.

What did the so-called 'Lindbergh Law' passed by Congress make a federal crime?

It is officially the Federal Kidnapping Act.

Which gangster offered from prison to help recover the Lindbergh baby?

Willie Moretti, Joe Adonis and Abner Zwillman made similar offers.

With which Nobel-winning French surgeon did Lindbergh develop a perfusion pump in the 1930s?

The device is credited with paving the way for organ transplants, though their version proved impractical.

Where did the Lindberghs rent a house called Long Barn after fleeing the US in 1935?

They later bought the tiny island of Illiec off Brittany and returned to the US in 1939.

Which isolationist organisation did Lindbergh become the star speaker for before Pearl Harbor?

It had over 800,000 members and dissolved four days after the Pearl Harbor attack.

In which city did Lindbergh give his 1941 speech blaming the British and the Jews for pushing America toward war?

He had already resigned his Air Corps commission after Roosevelt publicly rebuked him.

How many combat missions did Lindbergh fly in the Pacific as a civilian consultant during World War II?

He shot down a Japanese observation plane in July 1944 while flying a P-38.

Which president restored Lindbergh's commission and made him a brigadier general in 1954?

Roosevelt had refused to restore his colonelcy during the war.

Lindbergh's 1953 book about his flight won which honour the following year?

Scribner's published it as The Spirit of St. Louis.

Who played Lindbergh in Billy Wilder's 1957 film The Spirit of St. Louis?

Stewart, himself a wartime flyer, was 47 and dieted hard to play the 25-year-old.

Which secret about Lindbergh's private life was confirmed by DNA tests in 2003?

Three were with the hatmaker Brigitte Hesshaimer, all while he remained married to Anne.

Where did Lindbergh die and get buried in 1974?

He died of lymphoma at 72 and lies at Palapala Ho'omau Church in Kipahulu, in a grave he helped design.

Whose personal guest was Lindbergh at the July 1969 launch of Apollo 11?

He had visited the Apollo 8 crew the day before their launch the previous December.

Which endangered Philippine dwarf buffalo was among the species Lindbergh campaigned to protect?

He also worked for humpback and blue whales and the Philippine eagle.

What name was given to the surge of interest in flight training and air travel after 1927?

He spent much of the late 1920s promoting commercial aviation and air mail.

Which rocket pioneer did Lindbergh help secure a Guggenheim endowment for in 1930?

Lindbergh had taken an interest in his work the year before.

How long was Lindbergh's 'Good Will Tour' of Latin America and the Caribbean in 1927-28?

Its last three stops, Santo Domingo, Port-au-Prince and Havana, carried the only franked mail he ever flew in the Spirit.

Lindbergh's 1929 inaugural airmail flight from Brownsville to Mexico City used which aircraft?

Mail bags that went missing for a month became known to collectors as the 'Lost Mail Flight' covers.

Which Secretary of War blocked Lindbergh's 1942 bid to be recommissioned in the Army Air Forces?

He objected to Lindbergh's long record of isolationist public comments.

Which bomber's Willow Run production line did Lindbergh troubleshoot for Ford in 1942?

He then joined United Aircraft in 1943, working mostly with its Chance-Vought division.

Which Japanese aircraft did Lindbergh shoot down on a P-38 escort mission on July 28, 1944?

He also taught P-38 pilots engine-leaning techniques that saved 50 to 100 gallons of fuel a mission.

The 10-cent 'Lindbergh Air Mail' stamp of June 1927 was the first US stamp to do what?

It came out less than three weeks after the flight, showing the Spirit and its route map.