Lindbergh Lifts Off From Roosevelt Field

At 7:52 in the morning on May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh lifted the Spirit of St. Louis off a rain soaked, muddy runway at Roosevelt Field on Long Island, so heavy with fuel that ground crew had to push the wings just to get it rolling. He flew alone, with no radio and no copilot, navigating by compass and dead reckoning toward Le Bourget Aerodrome outside Paris, 3,610 miles away. He landed there at 10:22 the next night, after roughly 33 and a half hours in the air and close to 60 hours without real sleep. What was really on the line was whether a solo pilot in a single engine plane could survive an ocean crossing that had already killed or nearly killed several better funded rivals chasing the same $25,000 Orteig Prize.