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In 1927, in a hotel near New York’s Roosevelt Field, air
pilot Charles A. "Slim" Lindbergh has been waiting for seven days for
the rain to stop, so that he can embark on what he hopes will be man’s
first successful nonstop trans-Atlantic flight to Paris. While
Lindbergh lies sleepless, his friend, B. F. "Frank" Mahoney, guards his
hotel room door from the numerous reporters who have waited with him for
a break in the weather. In his room, Lindbergh reminisces about
his former days as an air mail pilot flying over the Midwest.
On a wintry night flight to Chicago, Lindbergh lands his
antiquated De Haviland in a tiny air field to gas up. Although
snow seems imminent, Lindbergh takes off, unaware that the Chicago
landing field has closed due to snow. While in the air,
Lindbergh’s plane ices up and stalls, forcing him to parachute out with
the mailbag. Continuing his journey by train, Lindbergh meets a
suspender salesman who, recognizing he is an aviator, reports that two
airmen died competing for the Orteig prize to be awarded to the first
pilots to fly across the Atlantic nonstop. His interest piqued,
Lindbergh calls Columbia Aircraft Corporation in New York City from the
diner at St. Louis’ Lambert Flying Field. Pretending to represent
a group of prominent businessmen planning to buy a plane to compete in
the trans-Atlantic race, Lindbergh is quoted the price of $15,000 for a
Belanca plane.
For the next six weeks, Lindbergh proposes his idea about
entering the competition to St. Louis financiers. Eventually, with
the help of his flying student, Harry Knight, Lindbergh meets with bank
president Harold Bixby and other prominent St. Louis citizens. He
explains to the group that, according to his calculations, flying
nonstop he can cross the ocean in forty hours in a single-engine plane
by stripping the craft of all nonessential weight, thus allowing room
for extra fuel tanks. The men are excited by Lindbergh’s vision
and create a name for the plane, Spirit of St. Louis.
With a $15,000 check provided by them, Lindbergh proceeds
to New York but, upon arriving there, is told by Columbia’s president
that the company will not sell the plane unless they choose the pilot.
Dispirited, Lindbergh returns to St. Louis, where his sponsors
immediately send him to San Diego to check out a small aircraft factory,
Ryan Company. There he meets Frank, the president who promises to
build a plane in ninety days. At the factory, Frank, Lindbergh and
Ryan’s chief engineer agree upon a design that puts the gas tank in
front. Although it blocks Lindbergh’s forward view, he is
confident that he can use side windows and a periscope to compensate.
To further decrease the weight, Lindbergh refuses to install all heavy
indicator panels and plans to navigate by "dead reckoning," using the
stars, sun and magnetic field. In the race to complete the plane
ahead of schedule, workers at the factory agree to work twenty-four hour
shifts.
Meanwhile, a radio broadcast reports that a team of two
pilots, who were vying for the Orteig prize, were killed flight-testing
a plane. The Ryan plane is completed in sixty-three days, but it
seems all for nothing, as two French fliers competing for the prize take
off for New York. Confident that the pilots will succeed,
Lindbergh flies the Ryan to St. Louis, where he apologizes to Bixby
about losing the prize money to the French fliers, thus depriving his
backers of the opportunity to recoup their investment. However,
Bixby reports that the Frenchmen, now missing, are believed to have gone
down from ice on their wings. Although other pilots are preparing
to attempt the crossing, the businessmen are reluctant to risk
Lindbergh’s life. Determined to carry on, Lindbergh explains that
the dead pilots would understand his resolve and proceeds as planned.
At the New York hotel, where reporters type that he is
sleeping like a baby, Lindbergh breaks out of his reverie and worries
about building enough speed to take off in the mud. To decrease
the weight of his plane, if only by a pound, Lindbergh unpacks his
toothbrush, razor and extra shirt. He also unpacks the St.
Christopher medal given to him by his student, Father Hussman, and
reminisces how the priest’s special prayers for every occasion seemed to
compensate for his poor flying skills. Finally, unable to sleep,
Lindbergh goes to the airport, where his plane waits, filled with three
hundred gallons of gas. To decrease the plane’s weight by twenty
pounds, he eliminates the parachute. Limited space in the
compartment necessitates placing the magnetic compass in an awkward
position, so he determines that he needs a small mirror to see it.
From the crowd waiting to watch the take-off, a young woman offers her
mirror, which is then glued into place. Surreptitiously, Frank
slips the St. Christopher’s medal into Lindbergh’s lunch bag.
After a risky take-off, during which Lindbergh barely
tops the trees, he discovers he has a stowaway, a fly, and passes time
by calculating whether the insect flying within the plane adds weight.
Every hour, Lindbergh switches fuel tanks to keep the load balanced.
After passing over Cape Cod, he realizes his foot is numb and that he
has not slept in twenty-eight hours. This prompts memories of
sleeping on railroad tracks, short bunk beds, and under a windmill.
When Lindbergh begins to doze, the fly, which he named
"Jasper," awakens him by alighting on his face. Passing over Nova
Scotia, Lindbergh spots a motorcyclist below and remembers his own
Harley-Davidson, which he traded for his first plane on which he taught
himself to fly. Eleven hours from New York, and with 1,900 miles
of open water to cover before reaching Ireland, Lindbergh sees mountain
peaks and wonders if the downed pilots are lost there. His own
dangerous stunts come to mind and he recalls performing in a "Flying
Circus."
During his sixteenth hour of flight, as darkness falls,
he worries that the plane’s cylinder might crack from the cold.
The sight of a "white ship," which he soon realizes is an iceberg, is
evidence that he is near the Arctic Circle. Exhausted, he longs to
land on one and sleep, and remembers the time he landed an old clunker
of a plane at Brooks Field army base. After eighteen hours of
flight, the plane’s wings ice up and, when the engine stalls, he turns
the plane toward warmer air. As the stalled plane begins to
plummet, he prepares to bail out, but the ice breaks off and the engine
resumes running.
Upon returning to his course, Lindbergh discovers that
his compass has become inoperable, thus forcing him to resort to flying
by the stars. By dawn, he is so tired that he cannot do
calculations and falls asleep, causing the plane to circle and descend,
but sunlight reflecting off the mirror awakens him in time to regain
control of the plane. A seagull alerts him to the nearness of
land, and he soon realizes that he has reached Ireland ahead of
schedule. When he prepares to eat his sandwich, he finds the St.
Christopher’s medal and hangs it on the dashboard.
At the coast of France he turns northeast to follow the
Seine River, noting he has only ninety-eight miles to go. Anxiety
strikes when his engines again cut out, until he realizes he forgot to
switch gas tanks. With a flick of the switch, he remedies the
problem and the plane continues. Evening falls and he sees the
lights of Paris. Flying toward Le Bourget airfield, he is
bewildered to see spotlights and crowds of people. Exhaustion
causes him to panic as he lands and he cries out one of Father Hussman’s
prayers, "Oh, God help me!"
On the ground, hordes of people rush to Lindbergh, blind
him with camera flashes and carry him triumphantly to the hangar, to
which others are dragging his plane. Tired and confused, Lindbergh
eventually realizes that the crowd is cheering for his great
achievement. Upon Lindbergh’s return to New York, the celebrations
continue with a huge parade in his honor. |
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