Cleveland High School - Beacon Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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FIRST FLIGHTS By DOLORES GERARD To Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh belongs Torever The crediT and The honor oT being The TirsT person To Tly alone across The ATlanTic Ocean. The drama OT The shy, unassuming young man Taking oTT alone in a plane procured Through his own eTTorTs To make a non-sTop crossing To Europe, appealed To The whole world. I'Ie modesTly sTepped inTo his plane aT RoosevelT Field, New York, on The morning oT lvlay 20, I927, Took over The conTrols oT his plane, The SpiriT oT ST. Louis, and wiTh an inconspicuous wave oT his hand merely said, I'm oTi. The world in general, and all America in parTicular, waiTed wiTh baTed breaTh unTiI ThirTy-Three and one-halT hours laTer, The same daring buT Tired young man landed aT Le BourgeT Field aT Paris, sTepped ouT oT his plane, and wiTh his cusTomary modesTy said, I am Charles Lindbergh. To him, Trom ThaT momenT, has been given in praise The name oT The Lone Eagle. From him no one can ever Take away, in The leasT degree, The hpnor ThaT The world has so universally besTowed. I-Iis was The ouTsTanding TlighT oT a Time. As Typical oT The TaTe oT Tlyers who Tried buT did noT succeed, The memory oT The Tragic aTTempT oT CapTains Nungesser and Coli s+iIl haunTs The Trans-ATlanTic rouTes. Their recenT disappearance was Tresh in The mind oT Charles Lindbergh when he sTarTed on his memorable TlighT, Tor on Ivlay 8, I927, These gallanT Tlyers had seT ouT in Their plane, chrisTened The WhiTe Bird and decoraTed wiTh The insignia oT skull and coTfin, inTenTionally To mock The deaTh ThaT was soon To be Their TaTe. They, Too, had seT up The crossing oT The ATlanTic as Their goal: buT whaT happened on The TlighT is sTill a mysTery, Tor The ocean has never revealed The secreT oT where They landed or oT whaT caused Their disasTer. EighT years beTore, however, Two oTher vaIianT men, in spiTe oT The Tailures and deaTh oT previous Trans-oceanic Tlyers, had braved and had successTully overcome The Terrors oT The vasT expanses oT The ATlanTic. To Those Two pioneers in long- disTance Tlying, belongs The enviable honor oT being The TirsT aviaTors To succeed in making a non-sTop TlighT Trom America To Europe. These Two heroes were CapTain John Alcock, an Englishman, piloT oT The plane, and LieuTenanT ArThur W. Brown, an American, The navigaTor. These gallanT airmen Took oTT Trom NewToundIand on June I4, I9I9. For hours They saw neiTher sun nor moon, neiTher land nor sea. They Tlew blind Through a dense Tog, and conTinuously, hour aTTer hour, The plane was covered wiTh a sheeT oT ice caused by Trozen sleeT. AT Times The Tog was so dense and weT ThaT Their aviaTion insTrumenTs did noT work. This added To Their alarm and danger, and, aT one Time, To Their Terror, They Tounol Themselves barely Ten TeeT above The surTace oT The ocean. A single dip inTo The waTer and The ATlanTic would have been Their gravel INleverTheless, aTTer sixTeen hours and Twelve minuTes oT This consTanT danger, They arrived aT CliTden, Ireland. For This TlighT They were knighTed by King George V oT England. AIThough people generally Think oT Alcock and Brown, or perhaps even more oTTen oT Lindbergh, as being The TirsT To Tly across The ocean, iT was The UniTed STaTes Navy's Tlyers who acTually made The TirsT Trans-ATlanTic TlighT. They used sea-planes, and compleTed The Trip by sTages. OUT oT The Three planes which sTarTed The TlighT, The one To survive aT The end oT The Trip was The NC-4, which was commanded by LieuTenanT-Commander AlberT C. Read, a small, reserved, raTher sTudious man Tor a Tlyer. They seT ouT on May I6, l9I9, Trom Trepassy, NewToundland, and landed aT Lisbon, PorTugal, on May 27, I9I9. Page T el e