ATLANTIC
WINGS 1919-1939 LINDBERGH NUNGESSER EARHART BALBO ALCOCK & BROWN BREMEN
THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTH
ATLANTIC BY AEROPLANE
HARDBOUND BOOK with DUSTJACKET
by KENNETH McDONOUGH
FIRST EDITIONS LIMITIED COPY
No.228 AUTOGRAPHED BY THE AUTHOR
READ, SMITH & ARNOLD
ARNOLD, NELSON AND HARDING
ALCOCK & BROWN
THE LOSS OF NUNGESSER and COLI
CHARLES LINDBERGH SPIRIT OF
ST. LOUIS RYAN
CHAMBERLAIN & LEVINE
BYRD, BALCHEN, ACOSTA AND
NOVILLE
Von HUENEFELD, KOEHL and
FITZMAURICE
THE FIRST FLIGHT FROM EAST TO
WEST
FRENCH WINGS OVER THE ATLANTIC
ASSOLANT, LEFEVRE and LOTTI
KINGSFORD SMITH, VAN DYK, SAUL
and STANNAGE
COSTES and BELLONTE
PARIS TO NEW YORK NON-STOP
MOLLISONS
AMELIA EARHART
GENERAL BALBO AND THE ITALIAN
FORMATION FLIGHT
CODOS and ROSSI
PIONEER COMMERCIAL CROSSINGS
BENNETT and COSTER
WRONG WAY CORRIGAN
SOPWITH ATLANTIC
VICKERS VIMY
LEVASSEUR PL-8
RYAN NYP
BELLANCA W.B.2
JUNKERS W33L
BERNARD XIX SUPER TR
DE HAVILLAND DH.80 PUSS MOTH
SAVOIA MARCHETTI S-55X
SHORT MERCURY
FOKKER F VIIb/3m
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Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902
August 26, 1974), nicknamed Slim, Lucky Lindy, and The Lone Eagle, was an
American aviator, author, inventor, military officer, explorer, and social
activist.
As a 25-year-old U.S. Air Mail pilot, Lindbergh
emerged suddenly from virtual obscurity to instantaneous world fame as the
result of his Orteig Prize-winning solo nonstop flight on May 2021, 1927, made
from the Roosevelt Field in Garden City on New York's Long Island to Le Bourget
Field in Paris, France, a distance of nearly 3,600 statute miles
(5,800 km), in the single-seat, single-engine, purpose-built Ryan
monoplane Spirit of St. Louis. As a result of this flight, Lindbergh was the
first person in history to be in New York one day and Paris the next. The
record setting flight took 33 hours and 30 minutes. Lindbergh, a U.S. Army Air
Corps Reserve officer, was also awarded the nation's highest military
decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his historic exploit.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Lindbergh used
his fame to promote the development of both commercial aviation and Air Mail
services in the United States and the Americas. In March 1932, his infant son,
Charles, Jr., was kidnapped and murdered in what was soon dubbed the "Crime
of the Century". It was described by journalist H. L. Mencken,
as "... the biggest story since the resurrection." The
kidnapping eventually led to the Lindbergh family being "driven into
voluntary exile" in Europe, to which they sailed in secrecy from New York
under assumed names in late December 1935 to "seek a safe, secluded
residence away from the tremendous public hysteria" in America. The Lindberghs
returned to the United States in April 1939.
Before the United States formally entered World War II,
Lindbergh was accused by some of being a fascist sympathizer. He was a
supporter of the isolationist America First movement which advocated America
remain neutral during the war, as had his father, Congressman Charles August
Lindbergh, during World War I. This conflicted with the official policy of the
Franklin Roosevelt administration which sought to protect Britain from a German
takeover. Lindbergh subsequently resigned his commission as a colonel in the
United States Army Air Forces in April 1941 after being publicly rebuked by
President Roosevelt for his isolationist views. Nevertheless, Lindbergh
publicly supported the war effort after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and
flew 50 combat missions in the Pacific Theater of World War II as a civilian
consultant, though President Roosevelt had refused to reinstate his Army Air
Corps colonel's commission. In his later years, Lindbergh became a prolific
prize-winning author, international explorer, inventor, and environmentalist.
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Additional Information from
Internet Encyclopedia
The Bremen is a German Junkers W
33 aircraft that made the first successful transatlantic aeroplane flight from
east to west on April 12 and 13, 1928.
After weather delays lasting 17
days, the Bremen left Baldonnel Aerodrome, Ireland, on April 12 with a three
man crew, arriving at Greenly Island, Canada, on April 13, after a flight
fraught with difficult conditions and compass problems.
Owner Ehrenfried Günther
Freiherr von Hünefeld, a wealthy German aristocrat, and pilot Captain Hermann
Köhl had made an all-German attempt at the feat in 1927, but had to abandon it
due to bad weather. For this new attempt, they were joined by a third crewman,
Irish navigator Major James Fitzmaurice. Fitzmaurice had also previously
attempted the crossing, as co-pilot of the Princess Xenia with Robert McIntosh,
but they had to abandon the attempt due to high headwinds in September 1927.
12 Apr, 05:09 GMT: Started
engine of the Bremen at Baldonnel Aerodrome (about 19 km (12 mi) southwest of
Dublin).
12 Apr, 05:38 GMT: Lifted off
from Baldonnel Airport and headed west.
12 Apr, 07:05 GMT: The Bremen
passed the Slyne Head Lighthouse in County Galway, started across the Atlantic,
and headed for Mitchel Field, Long Island, New York while maintaining an
altitude of 1,500 feet (460 m) and an airspeed of 200 kilometres per hour (120
mph)
12 Apr, 09:00 GMT: The crew
started their first meal aloft: hot bouillon and sandwiches.
12 Apr, 13:45 GMT: Bremen
crossed the 30th meridian west. Surface speed was over 90 knots (170 km/h; 100
mph).
12 Apr, 16:00 GMT: Bremen
climbed to 610 m (2,000 ft).
12 Apr, 21:00 GMT: Crew made
their last drift calculation. When the sun disappeared and the clouds obscured
the stars, the Bremen climbed to 6,000 feet (1,800 m). Köhl estimated that they
were then about three hours from land. If they had been able to stay on course,
his estimate would have proven to have been correct. In fact, without the aid
of the north star, they then relied on a magnetic compass and drifted far off
course toward the north.
13 Apr, 06:50 GMT: They saw
Polaris again. Fitzmaurice then estimated that their magnetic compass was in
error by 40 degrees. Köhl immediately turned southwesterly to follow the east
coast of North America towards Mitchel Field on New York's Long Island, which
was then about 1,500 miles (2,400 km) south of the Bremen. They flew among the
Torngat Mountains of Labrador (then part of the Dominion of Newfoundland) and
then, unable to recognize any landmarks, followed the George River upstream in
the northeastern part of the Canadian province of Quebec. In order to minimize
the adverse effect of a strong southwest wind, Köhl descended into the George
River Valley and flew at an altitude of 10 feet (3.0 m).
13 Apr, 14:00 GMT: The Bremen
passed over the lakes at the source of the George. The crew saw nobody on the
ground but people on the ground sighted the plane.
13 Apr, 15:00 GMT: The Bremen
had crossed back into Labrador, and was seen flying over North West River on
the shore of Lake Melville.
13 April: At about 17:50 GMT, with
about two hours of fuel remaining, and only a general knowledge of their
location, the crew spotted a lighthouse on an island with a pack of dogs and
four people. The island was Greenly Island in the Strait of Belle Isle, which
separates the island of Newfoundland from Labrador and Quebec on the mainland.
Greenly Island, only 1 square kilometre (0.39 sq mi) in size, lies about 4
kilometres (2.5 mi) off the Quebec mainland.
Greenly Island is small, barren
and rocky. It was fortunate for the crew that the airplane landed in a peat
bog. The relatively soft landing saved them but damaged the plane.
The clock in the lighthouse was
remembered (by the family of the lighthouse keeper) as indicating 2 p.m.
Atlantic Time when the Bremen was first sighted from the ground. Captain Köhl
and Baron von Hünefeld said that they were in the air 36½ hours. If their
statements of elapsed time had an accuracy of better than one minute, which is
unlikely, then the time of touchdown was 18:08 GMT or 13:08 EST or 14:08
Atlantic Time.
Gretta May Ferris, a nurse from
Saint John, New Brunswick, who was posted at nearby Forteau's Grenfell Medical
Station, travelled by dogsled some 15 miles (24 km) to attend to the crew's
medical needs; she was the first to write the story that was picked up by the
international media saying that the Bremen had landed and that the crew were
safe.
Alfred Cormier of Long Point
(Lourdes-de-Blanc-Sablon), who operated the local telegraph office from his
home, made contact with Marconi station VCL at Point Amour in Labrador18 miles
(29 km) east of Long Point. From there, his message went through St. John's,
Newfoundland (at 6:30 p.m.) and Louisbourg, Nova Scotia. It was forwarded by
land lines across Canada and via Radio Corporation of America (RCA) station WCC
at Chatham, Massachusetts, for transmission to New York City.
The first message read:
"German plane at Greenly Island, wind southeast, thick [fog]."
A short time later, a second
message was sent: "German plane Bremen landed Greenly Island, noon, slightly
damaged, crew well."
By 7:15 p.m., the story was in
all the newsrooms of the eastern seaboard.
The first Canadian aircraft to
reach the scene was piloted by Duke Schiller and the second machine was flown
by the Canadian Transcontinental Airways's (192738) Chief Pilot, Romeo Vachon,
who arrived two days later with a group of media representatives. Both Schiller
and Vachon were flying Fairchild FC-2W machines; G-CAIQ (Schiller) and G-CAIP
(Vachon). Ultimately, some 60 journalists would crowd onto the island to report
on the successful crossing. The Bremen crew did not depart the island for two
weeks as they attempted to repair the aircraft, but they were ultimately
unsuccessful.
The crew of the Bremen was
rescued by a Ford Trimotor flown by veteran pilots Bernt Balchen (who would
later pilot the first aircraft over the South Pole) and Floyd Bennett (who had
piloted the first aircraft over the North Pole, in 1926). Bennett was suffering
from pneumonia and died during the flight, leaving and Balchen to fly the last
eight hours of the mission. On their arrival in New York on April 30, the
Bremen's crew were honoured with a tickertape parade.
On 2 May, the 70th United States
Congress authorized President Calvin Coolidge, to confer the United States
Distinguished Flying Cross on the Bremen Flyers.[3] Back in Ireland on 30 June
1928, they were bestowed the Freedom of the City of Dublin in recognition of
their trans-Atlantic flight achievement.
Later in 1928 they published a
book about their experience called (in English) The Three Musketeers of the
Air.