第2章
The Race Across the Atlantic
The First World War had dramatically transformed aviation from a novelty into a deadly serious technology. Before 1914, military air forces were minimal-France led with just three dozen planes while America had only two. By war's end, combatant nations had spent $1 billion on their air fleets, with France building 70,000 planes, Britain 55,000, and Germany 48,000. Aviation had become deadly-between thirty and forty thousand fliers died or were seriously injured during the war, with pilot life expectancy dropping to just eight days by 1917.
When peace came, both planes and pilots suddenly lost their value. Many aviators turned to dangerous stunts for income, while ocean crossings remained perilous. In 1919, the U.S. Navy sent three Curtiss flying boats toward Portugal with sixty-six ships positioned along the route for safety, yet only one plane completed the journey, taking eleven days. That same summer, Jack Alcock and Arthur "Teddy" Brown achieved the seemingly impossible by crossing the Atlantic in a single leap. Flying a frail Vickers Vimy from Newfoundland to Ireland, they endured sixteen hours of brutal conditions-rain, hail, snow, lightning and violent winds. Brown repeatedly crawled onto the wings to clear ice from air intakes with bare hands while Alcock struggled to control the plane. After crash-landing in an Irish bog, they received heroes' welcomes and knighthoods in England, but quickly faded from public memory.
Around this time, Raymond Orteig, a French-born New York hotelier, offered $25,000 to the first person to fly nonstop between New York and Paris. Initially impossible, by 1924 when Orteig renewed his offer, air-cooled engines and talented engineers made it feasible. The prize created what became known as the Great Atlantic Air Derby, drawing ambitious aviators and designers eager to prove themselves.
The first serious attempt came from France's greatest war ace, Rene Fonck, partnering with Russian emigre designer Igor Sikorsky. Their luxurious plane with leather fittings, a sofa, and even a bed was doomed by Fonck's poor judgment. He insisted on flying before adequate testing and grossly overloaded the plane with extra fuel, emergency equipment, two radios, spare clothes, gifts, wine, champagne, and even a celebratory dinner. On September 21, 1926, the overloaded plane failed to get airborne, tumbled over an embankment, and exploded in flames. Fonck and his navigator escaped, but two crew members perished.
By spring 1927, America had three teams competing for the Orteig Prize. The Columbia, piloted by Chamberlin and Acosta, had recently set an endurance record. Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd led the best-funded team with the three-engine America. On April 16, during its maiden flight, the America crashed nose-first due to weight distribution problems. Eight days later, Clarence Chamberlin damaged the Columbia during an emergency landing. Then on April 26, naval officers Noel Davis and Stanton Wooster crashed their overweight Keystone Pathfinder during a test flight, both dying instantly. With these disasters, America temporarily had no contenders left in the race.
Meanwhile, Italian aviator Francesco de Pinedo was making impressive progress. A loyal Fascist and Mussolini's emissary of the air, Pinedo had already completed a remarkable 34,000-mile journey from Italy to Australia and back in 1925. In spring 1927, he achieved the first westward crossing of the Atlantic by airplane, albeit in short hops via Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. Disaster struck at Roosevelt Lake near Phoenix when his seaplane caught fire after a youth carelessly tossed a match onto oil-slicked water.
In France, Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli attempted an east-west crossing in their plane L'Oiseau Blanc (The White Bird). They disappeared over the Atlantic, sparking international tensions as rumors circulated that the U.S. Weather Bureau had deliberately withheld crucial information. It was at this low point that a gangly young man known as Slim flew in from the west and announced his plan to fly the ocean alone. His name was Charles Lindbergh. An extraordinary summer was about to begin.
