home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- This file is copyright of Jens Schriver (c)
- It originates from the Evil House of Cheat
- More essays can always be found at:
- --- http://www.CheatHouse.com ---
- ... and contact can always be made to:
- Webmaster@cheathouse.com
- --------------------------------------------------------------
- Essay Name : 1464.txt
- Uploader :
- Email Address :
- Language : English
- Subject : History
- Title : Charles Lindbergh
- Grade : 96
- School System : High School
- Country : USA
- Author Comments : A report on Lindbregh's legendary flight
- Teacher Comments :
- Date : 5/96
- Site found at : Yahoo
- --------------------------------------------------------------
- A small one-engined plane with "The Spirit of St. Louis" painted on the side lands at Le
- Bourget field, in the midst of thousands of cheering spectators. A tall, thin, sandy haired,
- twenty-five-year-old man emerges from the cockpit and timidly smiles. Modestly, he says "well,
- I made it." (http://141.224.128.4) What this man has just accomplished is something nobody had
- done before: fly nonstop over the Atlantic ocean alone. This was one of the many achievements
- of this man we call Lindbergh, who created drama and interest in the lives of many people
- across the globe.
- Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born on February 4, 1902, to Charles Lindbergh, Sr.,
- and Evangeline Land Lodge. His father was a lawyer and later a U.S. congressman. His
- mother taught chemistry at the local high school. Although he was born in Detroit, he grew up
- on a farm near Little Falls, Minnesota. (World Book)
- Lindbergh was a whiz with mechanics. By age twelve, he was in charge of driving and
- fixing the car. In high school, he assembled a tractor from a mail order kit. When he was
- eighteen he entered the University of Wisconsin to study engineering. He found he was more
- interested in flying, so after two years he became a barnstormer, which was a pilot who
- performed daredevil stunts at fairs. (World Book)
- In 1924 Lindbergh enlisted in the U.S. Army so he could be trained to be a pilot. In
- 1925 he graduated as the top pilot in his class. He soon began working as a mail deliverer
- between St. Louis and Chicago.
- Lindbergh soon heard of an offer given in 1919 by a hotel owner named Raymond
- Orteig. The offer was this: the first aviator to fly nonstop from New York to Paris would receive
- 25,000 dollars. Nobody had succeeded by 1927, and Lindbergh decided he could do it if he
- had a suitable plane. He arranged for nine St. Louis businessmen to help him finance his plane.
- A company in San Diego called Ryan Aeronautical Company was chosen to construct the plane,
- which Lindbergh helped design. The plane was named "The Spirit of St. Louis". A
- transcontinental record was immediately set in a test run when Lindbergh flew from San Diego to
- New York City in twenty hours and twenty-one minutes. Nine days later Lindbergh started his
- thirty-three and one-half hour journey across the ocean.
- After this flight, Lindbergh became an international celebrity. He was honored with
- awards, celebrations, and parades. Some of his more esteemed awards were the Congressional
- Medal of Honor and the first ever Distinguished Flying Cross, both given to him by President
- Calvin Coolidge.
- Lindbergh was later asked by the United States government if he would fly to various
- Latin-American countries as a symbol of American good will. Some of the countries were
- Guatemala, British Honduras, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and
- perhaps most importantly, Mexico. It was in Mexico that he met Anne Spencer Morrow,
- daughter of the American ambassador there. Charles and Anne were married in 1929. Charles
- taught her to fly and they went on many expeditions around the world, charting mew routes for
- airlines. Anne was also a famous poet and writer.
- Between 1931 and 1935 Lindbergh invented an "artificial heart" for Alexis Carvel, a
- French surgeon and biologist. The device could pump the substances necessary for life
- throughout the tissues of an organ. It was in this period of time that disaster struck in the
- Lindbergh family. On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus, Jr., their twenty-month-old son, was
- kidnapped. Ten weeks later his body was found. In 1934 a carpenter was convicted of the
- crime. In 1935, due to the pestering of reporters, photographers, and curious onlookers,
- Charles and Anne took their three-year-old, Jon< and moved to Europe in search of privacy
- and safety.
- Charles Lindbergh relates to Gatsby in a few ways. One is the fact that they both set
- their sights on a goal and would do whatever it took to achieve it. Another is that they were
- both well known figures in the community. (Lindbergh was more well known. One last thing I
- think they share is that they both demonstrate the 1920s, and how there were so many "Big
- Shots" in those days that started very small.
- The achievements of Charles Lindbergh were many. They ranged from setting world
- records to assembling farm supplies at a young age to helping in the advancement of science. I
- am glad that I was able to learn about these things, and I am glad to know that a man that has
- done so much will not be forgotten, but will be remembered through his accomplishments.
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------
-