Achievements in the Air
Louis Blériot (1872–1936) successfully completed the first crossing of the English Channel on July 25, 1909. The Frenchman flew aboard the Blériot XI, a tractor-propeller monoplane built in his own workshop. The distance of 33.7 km between Calais and Dover was covered in 37 minutes. The event caused a sensation, spreading rapidly, and a journalist from The Observer exclaimed: “England ceases to be an island!”
In North Carolina, the brothers Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright made a historic flight on December 17, 1903, covering a distance of 260 meters at an altitude of 4.5 meters above the ground. Their aircraft was powered by an engine, and the brothers are considered pioneers of aviation. However, at the time of their achievement, only three American newspapers reported the event.
Charles Lindbergh (1902–1974) left the U.S. Army in 1925 to work for an airmail company. In his hometown of St. Louis, he built a monoplane weighing 1,025 kg. Named the Spirit of St. Louis in honor of his city, the aircraft was powered by a 120-horsepower engine. Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field on May 20, 1927, and landed at Le Bourget Airport on the evening of May 21. At the age of 25, he completed a non-stop flight of 5,800 km between the two continents in 33 hours and 27 minutes.
Aboard the airship Norge, the Italian Umberto Nobile flew over the North Pole in 1926 during an expedition led by the explorer Roald Amundsen. General Nobile designed and built this innovative airship. He later led another expedition aboard the Italia, but it was lost near Svalbard. Nobile and his crew were eventually rescued by the Swedish aviator Einar Lundborg and a Soviet icebreaker. Amundsen died while attempting to rescue them.
