| Charles Lindbergh | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Charles Augustus Lindbergh |
|
Born |
February 4, 1902 |
|
Died |
August 26, 1974 |
Origin[]
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, and military officer. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 km), flying alone for 33.5 hours in the first solo transatlantic flight. His aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, was designed to compete for the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the first flight between the two cities, and also set the record at the time for the furthest nonstop, non-refueled flight.
Lindbergh was raised mostly in Little Falls, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C., the son of U.S. Congressman Charles August Lindbergh. He became a U.S. Army Air Service cadet in 1924. Later that year, he was hired as a U.S. Air Mail pilot in the Greater St. Louis area, where he began to prepare for his historic 1927 transatlantic flight. After completing the flight, Lindbergh went from general obscurity to instant world fame. President Calvin Coolidge presented him both the Distinguished Flying Cross and Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. military award. He was promoted to colonel in the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve and also earned the highest French order of merit, the Legion of Honor. His achievement spurred significant global interest in flight training, commercial aviation and air mail, which revolutionized the aviation industry worldwide (a phenomenon dubbed the "Lindbergh boom"), and he spent much time promoting these industries.
In 1928, Time magazine named Lindbergh its first Man of the Year for 1927. President Herbert Hoover appointed him to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1929 and he received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1930. In 1931, he and French surgeon Alexis Carrel began work on inventing the first perfusion pump, a device credited with making future heart surgeries and organ transplantation possible.
On March 1, 1932, Lindbergh's first-born infant child, Charles Jr., was kidnapped and murdered in what the American media called the "crime of the century". The case prompted the U.S. to establish kidnapping as a federal crime if a kidnapper crosses state lines with a victim. By late 1935, the press and hysteria surrounding the case had driven the Lindbergh family into exile in Europe, from where they returned in 1939. In the months before the United States entered World War II, Lindbergh's non-interventionist stance and statements about Jews and race led some to believe he was a Nazi sympathizer, although Lindbergh never publicly stated support for the Nazis and condemned them several times in both his public speeches and personal diary. However, he supported the isolationist America First Committee and resigned from the U.S. Army Air Corps in April 1941 after President Franklin Roosevelt publicly rebuked him for his views. In September 1941, Lindbergh gave a significant address, titled "Speech on Neutrality", outlining his position and arguments against greater American involvement in the war.
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and German declaration of war against the U.S., Lindbergh avidly supported the American war effort but was rejected for active duty, as Roosevelt refused to restore his colonel's commission. Instead he flew 50 combat missions in the Pacific Theater as a civilian consultant and was unofficially credited with shooting down an enemy aircraft. In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower restored his commission and promoted him to brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. In his later years, he became a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, international explorer and environmentalist, helping to establish national parks in the U.S. and protect certain endangered species and tribal people in both the Philippines and east Africa. After retiring in Maui, Lindbergh died of lymphoma in 1974 at the age of 72.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Charles Lindbergh from before January 1, 1931 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
Public Domain literary Appearances Inspired by Charles Lindbergh[]
- Over the Ocean to Paris (1927)
Public Domain Film Appearances[]
- Charles A. Lindbergh (1927)
- 40,000 Miles with Lindbergh (1928)
Public Domain Animated Appearances[]
- Plane Crazy (1928)
Public Domain Music Appearances[]
In the two-year period following Lindbergh's flight, the U.S. Copyright Office recorded three hundred applications for Lindbergh songs. A few notable songs are listed below:
- Lindbergh (The Eagle of the U.S.A.) (1927)
- Lucky Lindy! (1927)
Public Domain Comic Appearances[]
- Mickey Mouse Comic Strip (1930)
- Lost on a Desert Island
- Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact #350
- Picture Progress v2 #1
- A Picture Story of the United States #1
- Funny Picture Stories v2 #3
- Aviation Adventures and Model Building #17
Notes[]
Original Poster to the 1929 Cartoon, Plane Crazy - originally produced as a silent film in 1928
- Shortly after he made his famous flight, the Stratemeyer Syndicate began publishing a series of books for juvenile readers called the Ted Scott Flying Stories (1927–1943), which were written by a number of authors using the nom de plume "Franklin W. Dixon", in which the pilot hero was closely modeled after Lindbergh.
- During World War II, Lindbergh was a frequent target of Dr. Seuss's first political cartoons, published in the New York magazine PM, in which Seuss criticized Lindbergh's isolationism, antisemitism, and supposed Nazi sympathies.
- Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis is featured in the opening sequence of Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–2005).
- In the animated short Plane Crazy (1928), Mickey Mouse is trying to fly an airplane to imitate Charles Lindbergh. In the comic strip story-line Lost on a Desert Island (1930), which is loosely based on that same short, Mickey states that he wants to become a great aviator like Lindbergh and imagines himself alongside him, which motivates him to "learn how to fly like Lindy".
- Lindbergh inspired comic strips such as Tailspin Tommy (1928-1942), Skyroads (1929-1942), Scorchy Smith (1930-1961), The Adventures of Smilin' Jack (1933-1973) and Flyin' Jenny (1939-1946).