Lindbergh's Flight From New York to Paris Took 33 and a Half Hours

In 1927 nobody had flown nonstop between New York and Paris, and a prize was waiting for the first to do it. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, which holds the aircraft, records that Raymond Orteig had offered $25,000 in 1919 for the first nonstop flight between the two cities. Charles Lindbergh competed for it in a Ryan monoplane named the Spirit of St. Louis. According to the museum, he took off for Paris alone on the morning of May 20, 1927. Thirty-three hours, 30 minutes and 3,610 miles later he landed safely at Le Bourget Field, near Paris, where he was greeted by a wildly enthusiastic crowd of 100,000. The museum describes it as an extraordinary solo transatlantic flight.