Word: lindbergh
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...Spirit of St. Louis, by Charles A. Lindbergh. An engrossing re-creation of the epoch-making flight, by the man who made it (TIME, Sept...
Before daybreak, May 20, Lindbergh arrives at Roosevelt Field to find a light, dismal drizzle falling. The field is mushy. The Spirit of St. Louis is shrouded and dripping. Reporters and a handful of onlookers shake their heads. "It's more like a funeral procession than the beginning of a flight to Paris." As the engine warms up, it is 30 r.p.m. low. The stick wobbles sluggishly in the taxiing run; water and mud spew from the tires, drum on the fabric. Lindbergh, at the head of the runway, opens the throttle. Three times he lifts his plane from...
...Which Way Is Ireland?" Lindbergh carries five sandwiches in a brown paper bag, a canteen of water, a rubber raft, two small flashlights, a knife, and not much more except an iron will. For the first hours, that will is lightly tested, an occasional nodding daydream, a slight arm or leg cramp. Now & then he takes a swallow of water and keeps alert by checking his instruments and charts. But after nightfall, with The Spirit of St. Louis a dot over the Atlantic, fog closes in. Lindbergh looks for holes, climbs to 10,000 ft., goes down...
...18th hour, "my back is stiff; my shoulders ache; my face burns; my eyes smart ... All I want in life is to throw myself down flat, stretch out . . ." He pushes his eyes open with his thumbs. Daylight comes, but in the 24th hour, Lindbergh has to strike his face and arms viciously and stamp his feet to keep awake. Over and over again he does his navigation chores: ". . . And 12 make 23. Twenty-three-what do I want with 23?" But even in a semi-stupor, he does his chores right. In the 27th hour, he joyously sights some fishing...
...start to taxi back toward the floodlights and hangars-but the entire field ahead is covered with running figures!" Lindbergh was completely unprepared for the crowd of 25,000 that had broken down Le Bourget's fences to greet him. He had rather expected to have to introduce himself...