Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born on February 4, 1902 in Detroit, Michigan. He grew up in Little Falls, Minnesota and Washington, D. C. The only child of Charles August Lindbergh and Evangeline Lodge Land Lindbergh, he developed an interest in all things mechanical at an early age. Lindbergh enrolled in the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1920 to study mechanical engineering. By the time he enrolled in the university, he had already become fascinated with flying. In 1922, he dropped out of the engineering program and went to Lincoln, Nebraska to learn to fly. Once he had his training, Lindbergh became a barnstormer, which is a pilot who performs daredevil stunts at fairs and other events in order to get experience and more money to pay for additional training.
In 1927 he decided to try for the Orteig Prize, $25,000 offered by hotelier Raymond Orteig to the first aviator who could fly nonstop from New York to Paris. Several attempts had already been made and some pilots and their crews had gotten lost. Lindbergh believed he could be successful if he had the right plane. He convinced several businessmen from St. Louis to finance a special plane he designed with the help of the Ryan Aeronautical Company. The plane's test flight was flying from San Diego to New York City, with a brief overnight stop in St. Louis. Charles set a new transcontinental record on this flight, making it from the West Coast to the East Coast in 20 hours and 21 minutes.
On May 20, 1927, Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in his plane, the “Spirit of St. Louis”. Barely clearing the telephone lines at the end of the field, he flew the next 33.5 hours fighting ice, fog, and storm clouds. He navigated by the stars when he could see them and ''dead reckoning,'' finally landing at Le Bourget at 10:22 pm on May 21. Over 150,000 people waited for his arrival. Lindbergh's fame was born and would last the rest of his life. He received the French Legion of Honor from Gaston Doumergue, the President of France. Upon his return to America, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross from President Calvin Coolidge. His flight was commemorated on a 10 cent Airmail stamp depicting the “Spirit of St. Louis” and a map of the historic flight.
Lindbergh met Anne Morrow in December of 1927. They were married in 1929 and eventually had six children. The first, Charles Lindbergh, Junior was kidnapped when he was 20 months old in 1932. He was later found dead not far from his parents' home. Bruno Hauptmann was later convicted and executed for the kidnapping and murder of Lindbergh's infant son. They also had four more sons and a daughter: Jon, Land, Scott, Reeve, and Anne. Lindbergh taught his wife to fly and they often explored and charted air routes together.
After the kidnapping trial, the Lindberghs moved to Europe. They settled in Kent, England for a few years and then moved to a small island off the coast of Brittany, France. Lindbergh later studied organ perfusion with French surgeon, Dr. Alexis Carrel, to help people suffering from organ failure. He invented a glass perfusion pump that, while imperfect in 1938, later led to the construction of the first heart-lung machine. This machine has allowed many people to have heart surgery successfully.
Lindbergh reported to the US on Germany and Russia's air power before World War II. He met Hermann Goring and received a medal on behalf of Adolf Hitler. This caused some controversy in the United States. Some believed that Lindbergh had German sympathies when he urged the US, Britain, and France to stay out of the war. He moved his family back to the United States and resigned his military commission to speak out against the war for the America First Committee.
After the Japanese attacked in December, 1941, Lindbergh became a technical advisor. He later flew combat missions and after the war, he was a consultant to the Chief of Staff of the US Air Force and Pan American Airways. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1954 for his book on his historic flight from New York to Paris.
