Chapter 3 Summary and Analysis

By the fall of 1926, aviation was quite the craze, and a $25,000 prize called the Orteig prize was being offered to any pilot who could make a transatlantic flight, from New York to Paris. Convinced that he had enough experience and that flight technology was at a point that made such a flight possible, Lindbergh convinced a businessman named Harry Knight to fund his transatlantic flight. Lindbergh was given freedom to pick out his own plane and make all other decisions. Lindbergh called his plane The Spirit of St. Louis, and both Lindbergh and Knight hoped to establish St. Louis as a new mecca for aviation.

Lindbergh believed the best way to cross the Atlantic Ocean was in a single-engine plane solo. This flied in the face of conventional wisdom, as many said a multi-engine plane with both a pilot and navigator...