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The "Spirit of St. Louis" plane that carried Charles Lindbergh on his historic transatlantic flight from New York to Paris was strikingly simple in design
The "Spirit of St. Louis" plane that carried Charles Lindbergh on his historic transatlantic flight from New York to Paris was strikingly simple in design. The plane flew 3,610 miles nonstop in just 33.5 hours, yet it measured less than 28 feet long, seven feet shorter than a standard school bus, and it was built with just a single 220-horsepower engine, about the same as a full-size sedan. Its fuselage was constructed with a pared-down steel frame and its wings were made from spruce. And the whole plane, apart from the engine, was wrapped with only canvas. In fact, it didn't even have a front windshield because extra gas tanks were placed directly in front of the cockpit to help balance out the weight of the additional fuel. But despite its shortcomings, the plane did exactly what it was supposed to do — and made Lindbergh the most famous pilot on Earth. Read the story of Charles Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis" by following the link in our profile. Th