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

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IT was The English who Took The lead in making The TirsT round-Trip airship crossing oT The ATlanTic. WiTh an apparenT ease which hid The skill oT iTs commander, lvlaior G. H. ScoTT, The R-34 leTT EasT l:orTune, ScoTland, July 2, l9I9, and aTTer Tlying Three Thousand Two hundred and sevenTy miles in one hundred eighT hours and Twelve minuTes, Tied up quieTIy, July 6, aT The mooring masT erecTed aT Mineola Field. There were TwenTy-nine persons aboard. ATTer a wild nighT wiTh a sTorm ThreaTening To Tear The dirigible loose Trom iTs masT, The R-34 swiTTly reTurned To Pulham, England, July 9-I2, in sevenTy-Tive hours. IT was anoTher conguesT oT The air, boldly carried ouT wiTh consummaTe skill. During lvlay and June, l922, The TirsT Trans-ATlanTic TlighT Trom EasT To WesT was successTully made. On This TlighT, CapTain Sacudura Cobral was in command oT The PorTuguese seaplane, The Eairey Ill, on The Trip Trom Europe To SouTh America: Trom Lisbon To Rio de Janeiro. In IQZ4, UniTed STaTes Army Tlyers made The Tamous Round-The-World TlighT, Two oT The Tour planes Tinishing The SeaTTle-To-SeaTTle TlighT beTween April 6 and SepTember 28. The acTual Tlying Time was Three hundred TiTTy-one hours, alThough one hundred sevenTy-Tive days were consumed, and TiTTy-seven sTops were made. LieuTenanT Lowell SmiTh commanded The Tlagship, Chicago: LieuTenanT Erik Nelson, The New Orleans. The TlighT marked The TirsT wesTward crossing oT The ATlanTic Ocean. The TirsT wesTward non-sTop aeroplane TlignT over The NorTh ATlanTic was accomplished May I2-I3, I928. This TlighT was compleTed by The laTe Baron Von I-IueneTeld, CapTain Koehl and lvlaior FiTzmaurice, who wenT by way oT Ireland To Greenlee Islands, near NewToundland. In The same year, SmiTh, Ulm, and Lyons sTarTed on The TirsT TlighT across The PaciTic, leaving Oakland, CaliTornia, on lvlay 28, and arriving aT Sidney, June IO, To claim all The honors They had courageously won. STill anoTher pioneer TlighT was The unTorgeTTable world Tour made by The GraT Zeppelin which leTT LakehursT, New Jersey, AugusT 8, l929, aT I2:4O A. lvl., and, aTTer Tlying over FrederichshaTen, Tokyo, and Los Angeles, alighTed again aT LakehursT, Thus having encircled The world in iusT TwenTy-one days, eighT hours and TwenTy- six minuTes. AviaTor aTTer aviaTor has accepTed The challenge oT long disTance and hazardous TlighTs. Some have succeeded and some have Tound graves in The ocean. Trans- PaciTic, Trans-polar, and around-The-world TlighTs have become almosT commonplace: buT, in The minds oT a hero-loving world, no one can ever Take away The glory oT Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh Tor his pioneer solo non-sTop TlighT Trom America To Europe. - . .' 15- 2922-. ., 'T37-sibgbff, iff-i'r1'fZ'+ i:-T 'f', -'-' f .'1 Pai Tfifiifafl lf-fag ,ff1f5i5:-55 ,5-. ,z ff.. -1 I - - 1 ' -- :-:eras ' I ' -' T?ff35i1iii-'12:,. I ' ' vii 7 ':'.-'55-5.?1E'Tf ' ' ' . - A . 1 -viii - Q -lliiv : it-v ' li 7 v vtilturt tiiti, i wf W Page TI1irTeen