How Long Did Charles Lindbergh's Airplane Flight Across the Atlantic Ocean Take?

Many of us have heard of the great flight by Charles Lindbergh. His flight was of great historic importance, and he accomplished a task that no one before him ever had been able to do.

On May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh made his flight across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Spirit of St. Louis. He arrived the next day, May 21, after traveling for 34 hours and 3610 miles. He made the flight all alone, and this venture named him as the first person to make a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

Even if you travel across the Atlantic frequently and do not think of it as a big deal, think about where air flight might have gone or been delayed if Lindbergh had not accomplished this feat.

Life of Charles Lindbergh

It seems that from the start, Lindbergh was destined to accomplish this massive mission. When he was growing up, he did not have siblings around his age and he wound up spending a lot of time by himself. He spend countless hours outdoors exploring nature and becoming acquainted with the difference forces of it. Not only was Lindbergh laying the groundwork for understanding how nature works and how it would keep him in the air for all of that time, but he was already preparing himself to spend those 34 hours alone.

By the time he was 21 years old, Lindbergh had a pilot's license and he owned a Jenny to take for rides. When he was 22, he headed to the United States Army Flying School in Texas. He graduated first in his class. Upon graduation, he began working as an air mail pilot covering the areas between Saint Louis, Missouri and Chicago, Illinois.

Lindbergh's Flight Across the Atlantic Ocean

Starting in 1919, Raymond Orteig began offering $25,000 for the person who could complete the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris. Several individuals tried, but no one passed the task until Lindbergh came along. Lindbergh was interested, and the Ryan Aeronautical Company of San Diego built him a plane for $10,580. It was in this plane, named the Spirit of St. Louis,  that Lindbergh would attempt and complete the famed flight.

Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field, on Long Island, New York, and began his journey, and that takes us back to where our tale began.

Legacy of the Lindbergh Flight

The length of the flight across the Atlantic Ocean is only part of the legacy that Lindbergh left. Roosevelt Field on Long Island has become a major shopping center, although it was still a historic site until only a few decades ago. Thousands of people pass through every day and walk on the ground where Lindbergh took off on his famous flight just a few years short of a century ago. A few minutes away from the site of Roosevelt Field Mall you will find an aviation museum. The location of that establishment is certainly no coincidence.

His plane has lived on as well. The famous Spirit of St. Louis proudly hangs in the atrium of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. for all to see.