I know Jimmy Stewart was near 50 when he filmed this, but he was a true aviator and commander of a bomber squadron during WW2 so who better to know what Lindbergh went through. 'Flight of the Phoenix' is another favorite.
@@lt4324 '12 O'Clock High' while we're at it. Love Jimmy's line in 'Flight of the Phoenix' when they're burying passengers that died in the crash. Someone asks him "Would you like to say a few words?" Jimmy glares at him and says "What do you expect me to say, Sorry?" His loathing of Herr Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger) is almost comical sometimes.
My grandfather saw the Spirit fly over St John's Nfld. They let the children out of classes to see the plane as the local newspapers had announced the time the Spirit would be flying over the city enroute to Paris. He said it went high over the port as if Lindbergh wanted to be seen. People waved hankies and signs. He soared up, flew right over Cabot Tower atop Signal Hill, clearing it by about 500 feet, and then headed straight out east into the North Atlantic. Signal Hill is where Marconi received the 1st trans Atlantic wireless signal from Europe.
My mother saw him take off when he cross-countried the Spirit up to Roosevelt Field. Funny you should mention St. Johns, NFLD. in 1943, she later married my father, a naval aviator, and they ended up spending 3 years at NAS Argentia, NFLD in the late 50's (he was nearing retirement at that point and was flying EC-121 Lockheed Warning Stars).
The most incredible thing about Charles Lindbergh's flight is not that he was able to fly from New York to Paris, it's that he was able to stay awake for over 33 hours during the flight.
I actually can't recall ever seeing the movie...but it's amazing piece of work. It built the suspense relaying in general what it was like...all without the use of CGI and fireball explosions.
Lindbergh would spend the years leading up to WW II actively campaigning to “protect the white race” and for the U.S. to maintain strict neutrality toward Nazi Germany.
I just watched this on BluRay HD. Having only prior seen the film cropped and shrunk-down on a TV screen, I was amazed at the amazing detail, and the efforts the producers the went through to accurately depict every detail of the original Spirit. Great performance by James Stewart!
My late father was raised in Little Falls, MN, home of Charles Lindbergh. Dad was five when the solo transatlantic flight occurred. Lindbergh came home and spent a summer’s day flying over Little Falls while performing a one man air show. The people of Little Falls were waving and yelling enthusiastically. Dad clearly remembered that until the day he died.
Lindbergh actually cleared the trees by 20+ feet and the backers of the Spirit weren't down at the takeoff roll part of the runway as you see in the movie,they were down at the other end with fire extinguishers just in case Lindbergh crashed.
Than k you for saying where it was filmed. In the movie Pearl Harbor the opening scene is suppose to be Mitchel Field but the mountain behind it looks more like SantaPaula California ?!! Probably 35 % of the USA from the East coast could tell you Long Island has No mountains within 100 miles!
@@josephpadula2283 Also Long Island in that area was not open fields at that time. In the 1960s I spent a lot of time at the shopping mall they built after the air base was closed.
My Dad grew up in Little Falls, Minnesota. He was five when Lindbergh made his famous flight. Charles came home and did a lengthy flight with many maneuvers above Little Falls. Per my Dad everyone was out on the streets yelling and waving, including my Dad. Some day, huh?
Watched this wonderful movie for the first time as a kid in 1966, and it would become one of my inspirations to pursue an aviation oriented career. This takeoff scene and many other flying sequences were filmed at Santa Maria Municipal Airport and nearby Hancock Field, now Allan Hancock College in California. Those eucalyptus trees at the end of the "runway" (actually an abandoned taxiway) still exist at the airport and throughout the Santa Maria Valley.
I wish the federal government hadn't implemented the 1500hr law for first officers. Destroyed my hope of a flying career, now I have a useless CPL and instrument rating. Whoever voted that in are unforgivable. I'd give anything to be able to fly for a living.
@@Mikhail-Tkachenko Yeah, it's very difficult to become an ATP, easier if you're ex-military, then you only need half of those total hours. You could get your CFI and build hours that way, but it's still gonna take time. Wishing you the best of luck!
@@Mikhail-Tkachenko Go build hours. You can say the 1500hr rule made it hard to get into a flying career, but you also can look at it with a positive mindset. It made wages increase dramatically. Regional pilots used to make minimum wage, now they actually make decent money.
@@daytonasixty-eight1354 Can you send me the contact info to the companies you're in touch with who hire low hour commercial/instrument rated pilots? I can relocate anywhere in the world within the week. My only lead was a close friend & dropzone owner killed in a plane crash at Skydive Hawaii 2 years ago. I've yet to find another company in my searching & networking but that'd be really a great piece of luck if I unexpectedly met someone who owns or know of a company I haven't contacted yet. I'm happy for you to have been able to increase your income from the 1500hr law. It's certainly good you were born early enough to start your aviation career & build enough hours prior to the implementation of that law so you weren't affected in a negative way by it. I'm strongly against corrupt politicians regulating things they know nothing about. Free market capitalism has historically shown to be the best course of action. Anyway, I'm also a licensed skydiver as well & hold a BASE # I don't wish to share here. Also certified master watchmaker and skilled TIG/SMAW/MIG welder & metal fabricator. Edit: Anywhere that doesn't still have closed borders that is.
@@Mikhail-Tkachenko California has pretty routine openings for skydiving and banner towing. Cost of living is high. CFI is the most reliable way to build hours low time. To use your commercial ticket, you really need to get 500+ hours minimum because that is what a lot of insurance these companies carry requires. Look into Ameriflight, FedEx caravan, Mountain Air Cargo, etc. Basically any of the small feeders for UPS, FedEX, DHL etc are good for commercial. Typically require a multi engine and around 500-750 hours for first officer in something like a metroliner. Need multiengine obviously. Ideally get CFI and try to get a school to pay partially for Multiengine instructor. Survey companies in California, Texas, and Midwest. They tend to be around 500 hours or so. Sometimes less. Again, CFI is most reliable. If you are in Hawaii, you need to go to the mainland. Otherwise Mokulele might be a shot but it's not ideal.
@@mercian7 its not games shithead bigot! GENERAL Stewart did EVERYTHING lindberg did without hating any of his fellow countrymen! reported and blocked!
my oh my.. i was maybe 6 when i first saw this about 20 years ago maybe even longer. i hunted the name of this movie for years after my dad passed. ive finally found it. im more than happy, thank you for posting this tiny clip, this helped me more than you could ever imagine.
Lindbergh would spend the years leading up to WW II actively campaigning to “protect the white race” and for the U.S. to maintain strict neutrality toward Nazi Germany.
Beautifully filmed. I love this movie and have watched it many times. A great book on the flight is Dan Hampton’s “The Flight - Charles Lindbergh’s Daring and Immortal Transatlantic Crossing”.
I was just reading Bill Brysons book 1927. This is very accurate to how the takeoff was like. The crappy runway, the bouncing, the near miss. Great stuff.
James Stewart a great actor and an even better Intelligence Officer spreading propaganda regarding Charles Lindbergh hoaxed hop from New York to Paris. It was completely faked. America wanted to be the first so they faked it to win. Simple nothing more than propaganda!
I love this movie but I have to make a pot of coffee to watch it, I get so sleepy with Jimmy towards the end! Good movie though. Jimmy Stewart loved aviation, you know he enjoyed making this and many other movies about it. This movie captures an important milestone in aviation and helps pass down the story of how it happened.
@PDZ1122 - I commented to that affect before I way this post. I actually can't recall ever seeing the movie...but it's amazing piece of work. It built the suspense relaying in general what it was like...all without the use of CGI and fireball explosions.
I saw this movie "Spirit" plane at Movieland of the Air Museum in Orange County, CA. several times, starting in 1965. The plane had 2 sets of flight controls: 1 for Stuart and 1 for stunt pilot Paul Mantz who did all of the actual flying. The plane was the prized showpiece of the museum.
growing up on Long Island, I was used to seeing the commemorative stone in the parking lot of the Roosevelt Field shopping mall in Garden City marking the spot where Lindbergh took off.
0:32 "Pull the chocks!" 0:38 Eight men and the propeller straining to move that winged gas tank through the mud. IMO they didn't need the chocks. #humor
A masterpiece? It was exaggerated to all hell. In actuality, he wasn't anywhere near the trees or power lines upon takeoff. Check the actual film of it.
Charles Lindbergh's epic flight is to this day an achievement of bravery, ingenuity and the combination of multiple skill sets, especially navigation solely by magnetic compass. His story was an inspiration for me as boy to pursue a career in aviation and become a pilot. When viewed against the mainstream aircraft of the time, the Spirit was thoroughly modern and displayed the latest technology in instrumentation and the powerplant. The state-of-the-art 225hp Wright Whirlwind made the flight possible more than anything else. Indeed, the advance of aviation has had more to do with the advance of powerplants. Think of the first commercial jet airliner, the Boeing 707. It needed 4 engines to carry approximately 180 passengers. Today, a 777 with just two engines can carry 300-400 passengers and takeoff at a weight nearly 8 times the MTOW of the 707.
And then-newly developed Earth Inductor Compass. he had one on board, along with the Whiskey Compass. Using the Inductor Compass, he was only 10 miles off cumulative over the route. Back then, it was the equivalent of OMEGA, or LORAN.
Lindbergh would spend the years leading up to WW II actively campaigning to “protect the white race” and for the U.S. to maintain strict neutrality toward Nazi Germany.
I often shout “Which way to Ireland”? in my best Jimmy Stewart voice from altitude (when Solo, I wouldn’t want to look silly)! as a tribute to Mr Lindbergh
Briefly; The SoSL had never been tested with this fuel load, the prop had been increased 1° in pitch for better cruise speed, contaminated runway conditions, all with an aircraft about the size of a Cessna 207, and an engine with about 223 horsepower. When they got back from overseas, the Navy Sea Bees put her back together. They found a cracked wing attach point, and the number eight cylinder had a cracked valve lifter. There's lots more involved with the build that CAL didn't know about. A broken wing rib, and a lost rubber vent hose inside a tank. Talk about a stacked deck.
@@bbface21 The above conditions were for the actual flight, not for the movie. Cal's fuel situational awareness was paramount. Frank Tallman's 1957 performance in flying the replica was with a very light fuel load.
So basically you are saying Lindbergh was an idiot. Because it's the pilot's responsibility to make sure a plane is in proper working condition before a flight.
_Every_ time my brothers and I watched this when we were kids we'd yell 2:37 right there as he snagged the cables. How in the world did they compose this scene? Amazing!
They are there to protect the public. Those trees form a barrier to prevent wayward planes from crashing into the road and houses beyond the runway!!! If a planes crashes on takeoff he will hit the trees and kill himself. But without the trees, he would crash into the houses beyond and kill a lot more people. Lindbergh knew what those trees were for.
And this movie was filmed only 30 years after the real flight took place. What incredible progress we've made in aviation over the years, man really does want to fly!
Except in reality he cleared the telephone wires by 10 feet.... The plane used in filming was weighted down and the stunt pilot didn't lift her off in time to clear the wires during the filming of the sequence....
@@avmtech1968 Yeah...or even more than ten feet. And...that white scrap of material on that stake in the ground next to the runway is true, but it was used by Lindbergh to mark the half way point of the runway. In this clip it looks like it's almost at the end of the runway.
Whoever that actress was looking adoringly as The Spiritof St..Louis was very cute. That Spirit replica flown by James Stewart in the film was donated to the Henry Ford/Greenfield Village Museum in Dearborn, Michigan shortly after the film was completed. Captain James Stewart/ United States Army Air Force.
@@avmtech1968 the whole thing was fake. lindberg shacked up in a whore house while a black dude flew the atlantic. he took a ship over to paris a week earlier.
The reason there isn't a windshield is that an extra fuel tank was added at the cowling between the engine and firewall. From I remember reading about this it was Charles Lindbergh's idea and mount a periscope to see out of. Can any of you imagine doing this for 33 hours? Thank you Charles Lindbergh and Col Jimmy Stewart for pioneering aviation.
Lindbergh figured that since most of his flight would be over water, he didn't really need a windshield. He could use the periscope to assist in takeoff and landing. The extra fuel, as well as the aerodynamic advantage of fairing in the cockpit, was worth the loss of forward vision.
@@scotpens I would think that the extra fuel would have been better than the periscope I noticed if the portrayal is true to the story that Lindbergh would have been looking out of the side windows. Either way 33 1/2 was a long uncomfortable flight.
You dont need to see forward from a plane. In mail plane he was sitting on the back, as there were mailbags on front seat. When you need to see directly in front of plane, just use you rudder to lean a little. There is a periscope mounted on dashboard to see obstacles when landing and taking of. Rest of light was done using only compass and looking left or right from windows.
And today we fly across the ocean with comfortable seats, full meals served to us, and our own individual TV monitor on which we can watch TV shows, watch movies, and play video games. And we complain about how "hard" it is to do a long flight. Oh my goodness. Could you imagine what Lindbergh went through?
One comedian, I think it was Louis C.K. said something like, "you are sitting in a chair, 35,000 feet in the sky being served drinks and food, so what the hell is the problem? "
Probably the most qualified actor at the time to play the role. In his 20s in the 20s so he knew how American men thought at the time, a pilot, an officer in the USAAC, USAF and Brigadier General USAF Reserves. Sure James Dean might have looked the part in 57, but he would have played it as James Dean like all his roles till his young death.
Lindbergh's amazing achievement of this crossing a mere 8 years after Alcock and Browns flight across the Atlantic in a first world war military aircraft!
Fabuloso. Parabéns. Grande exemplo p/ toda a humanidade. Cresci ouvindo essa linda história. Meu conterrâneo, filho de família amiga, de Jaú SP, aviador João Ribeiro de Barros concluiu a travessia entre Europa (Ilha da Madeira) e Brasil (Ilha Fernando de Noronha) na mesma época que Charles Lindemberg concluiu a travessia entre EUA e Europa. João era filho de um grande cafeicultor, e batizou seu avião bimotor com o nome de Jahu. Na ilha da madeira seu avião foi sabotado, e ele mesmo precisou desmontar os motores, tendo encontrado dentro do motor, areia, sabão e pedaços de bronze. Enquanto desmontava os motores, o ditador Getúlio Vargas lhe mandou um telegrama, falando p/ deixar dessa loucura, desmontar o avião e embarcar em um navio, remetendo-o para o Brasil. João respondeu: Presidente, cuide do seu trabalho, que do meu cuido eu. A mãe de João enviou-lhe outro telegrama dizendo: Continue Filho, a Bandeira Nacional do Brasil está nas asas de seu avião. Qdo João conclui sua travessia, meus avós paternos estavam no Adriático, e comentavam que houve uma grande comemoração, por lá, do feito de João Ribeiro de Barros. Minha avó, ao ler nos jornais, sobre a conclusão da travessia de João Ribeiro de Barros, ficou impressionada e falou para meu avô: Olha, é o Joãozinho! Ele estudou com minhas tias + velhas.
@@mkor7 I know. It’s been a while, but I’ve read his “Spirit of St. Louis” and “We.” The movie is still good, with a few embellishments every now and then.
And SAC line aircraft, all types, including B-57's and B-52's. He probably rubbed elbows with Yeager, but Chuck was a fighter jock and stereotypicaly hated bombers.
You could feel every butterfly in his stomach, facing that terrible flaming death in the face. And was that an amazing miniature, or did somebody fly a replica Ryan for this movie?
1/2 inch lower, well, it would have been a different story. Took off one time with one of my r. c. pusher type electrics. Knew I was close to a concrete curb stop on take run but had a good flight. Would oft fly for two hours or more on thermals, fifteen minutes of full power battery life. But after landing, the bottom of the left wing had a 1/8” deep grove about 6 “ out from fuselage. A piece of re-bar to locate the curb had left its mark,,, cutting it close.
I consider Lindbergh's 1927 solo flight , an act of unmatched courage...even to this day. The technology of that era was primitive, to say the least. He relied on his gut and his flying skills...nothing more. There were no preflight checks, no computer simulations...just his sheer will. What Lindbergh did is nothing short of miraculous. Few individuals have changed the world as profoundly as Charles Lindbergh did, in that flimsy little plane. Bravo to Jimmy Stewart for such a wonderful performance...one of my favorite movies ever!
Seen the plane, when i was younger, either they photoshopped it out , or removed it... Older pics had it, but for some reason, newer history books, have sanitized and deleted embarrasing, chapters, or misleading facts, to bend their minds, to a biased outlook, on history.....
Scott Lunsford Perhaps but consider the immense bravery of the two British pilots Alcock and Brown who flew the FIRST TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT 10 YEARS EARLIER. If things were primitive for Lindbergh JUST IMAGINE WHAT IT WAS FOR Alcock and Brown.
It was state-of-the-art airaplane custom-built just for that one purpose with all possible available simulations and calculations. And Lindbergh certainly had to do pre-flight checks necessary for that airplane. He was gutsy indeed, but first solo flight from New York to Paris was more a technical achievement instead of gutsy display or piloting. Gutsy piloting (and luck with following winds) was needed, but all the work was more than halfway done before he even took off. General James Stewart also performed really well in this role.
Fancy building a plane with no windscreen, I would have thought being able to see where you're going is the most fundamental requirement when traveling forwards at speed.
Read the spirit of st Louis Lindbergh's publisher prize novel about the story of his historic quest to be first from new York to Paris across the Atlantic. Spellbinding story you will be with him each mile of his journey and the torturous fight he had to stay awake.
Actually Lindbergs flight was eight years later,a solo flight,a much longer flight from NY to Paris instead of St.Johns to Ireland and a safe landing instead of a crash. Other than that............
@@bengus8148 Well let's face it The Spirit of At Louis was a much more modern aircraft and didn't even have biplane wings with a better engine and navigation equipment and of course he knew it was possible as it had been done before by somebody else :)
@@henryhall9623 Amazing he was able to do it with an aircraft as technically more advanced over the Vickers Vimy as the Vimey was over the first1908 Wright flyer purchased by the US army.
@@andrewallen9993 It wasn't just a flight across the bloody atlantic, but a flight from New Your to Paris! St Johns to Eire is only 3150 km, New York to Paris is 5830 km, 85% longer.
True but takeoffs and especially landings would be a complete bitch. Nothing more than a death trap. That is why it was faked. The Lindbergh's were nothing more than a clan of hoaxer's that is why our intelligence services pick him. He loved playing the part. And by the way James Steward retired as a General and since he was in the movies then he was in intelligence!
Because of tank placement he was so far back in the fuselage where he set he could touch BOTH SIDES with his out stretched elbows. All he had to do was lean a bit and he could look out the window. Gawd....
2:38 in the video. Someone dropped the ball! Those phone wires should have been clipped, then rehooked up after take off...And the trees at the end of the runway trimmed or removed also...
@@samsharp8539 All the years I have been interested in planes and with your help I just realized that the tail skid was to stop the thing on landing. Any day one can learn something is not a wasted day!
@@B-and-O-Operator-Fairmont Exactly... That's the fun part. Now TURNING the plane around back then, require the pilot to add down elevator, full rudder, and 'blip' the engine. I still teach in taildraggers on occasion, and it's fun to watch a nosewheel pilot try to do a 180 degree turn with the engine at idle while moving. No rudder authority there. Doh!!!
@@B-and-O-Operator-Fairmont I forgot to mention... The R/C modellers that have built the SoSL in various scales are fun to watch. The handling of the Spirit in scale shows just how much adverse yaw and instability the Spirit had inherently by Eng. Hall's design. Some of my best students (now major airline captains) are still R/C and tailwheel pilots. R/C and me?? I have tried... And failed miserably.
if this is indeed how it happened... it's kinda comical how nobdy thought to extend the runway for the day by lowering that power line? and maybe removing those trees?
This is a dramatization made in the golden days of hollywood when audiences kind of understood even an unknown mail pilot can't just snap his fingers and extend runways, drop trees, and lower power lines. Lindbergh knew he had enough runway barring engine failure and I imagine most of the audience knew the outcome of this flight before going into the theater. I wasn't there but newspaper reporting of the event does make mention of the mud and rain and the takeoff's proximity to the power lines.
He really didn't need a windscreen, this airplane was custom built for one purpose. To win the $25,000 Ortieg prize by flying nonstop from NYC to Paris. Since there was no other traffic to be concerned with out over the Atlantic, the space for a windscreen was given over to fuel tanks. This improved the C/G and lessened the risk of the pilot being crushed to death in the event of a nose-over on takeoff. The Ryan aircraft was equipped with a periscope to see over the nose, but as he had learned flying mail planes, Lindbergh simply yawned the plane when he needed a good look ahead
I never said that! What I said who ever made the hop from New York to Paris it would have been done in a tri-motor of its day with a pilot, co-pilot, and navigator/radio operator. Plus thrown in just for grins a front windshield! Since he faked it who ever did it as the second team would have done it first. But in life who remembers who did it after the hoax master Lindbergh??
I think he is referring to Commander Richard E. Byrd who (almost) completed the New York to Paris flight, crash-landing on a beach in Normandy five WEEKS after Lindbergh's flight.
The 25,000 dollars NY to Paris prize money would certainly have been an incentive for somebody to fake a flight, but how exactly would Lindbergh have faked it as you claim?
Tungsten Kid.....Here is a link to Miles Mathis who has researched past [including Lindbergh] and present hoaxes and faked events. mileswmathis.com/lindy.pdf
Thanks but saying Lindbergh never flew the Atlantic is like saying men never walked on the moon.Tell Mathis to come and post his theory in the Fortean forum where I hang so it can be discussed fully..:)..forum.forteantimes.com/index.php
I appreciate that there was just the sound of the roaring engine during the take-off. NO distracting music playing.
I know Jimmy Stewart was near 50 when he filmed this, but he was a true aviator and commander of a bomber squadron during WW2 so who better to know what Lindbergh went through. 'Flight of the Phoenix' is another favorite.
Lets not forget "Strategic Air Command", great movie and fantastic REAL footage.
@@lt4324 '12 O'Clock High' while we're at it. Love Jimmy's line in 'Flight of the Phoenix' when they're burying passengers that died in the crash. Someone asks him "Would you like to say a few words?" Jimmy glares at him and says "What do you expect me to say, Sorry?" His loathing of Herr Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger) is almost comical sometimes.
@@tomservo5347 Yes, Great movie! as many fastastic shows and or movies back then!
@@tomservo5347 I loved 12'Oclock High! Movie and series
Mr Stewart flew for the USAF in england during the second world war . A truly talented man .
My grandfather saw the Spirit fly over St John's Nfld. They let the children out of classes to see the plane as the local newspapers had announced the time the Spirit would be flying over the city enroute to Paris. He said it went high over the port as if Lindbergh wanted to be seen. People waved hankies and signs. He soared up, flew right over Cabot Tower atop Signal Hill, clearing it by about 500 feet, and then headed straight out east into the North Atlantic.
Signal Hill is where Marconi received the 1st trans Atlantic wireless signal from Europe.
".. signal from Europe." From Poldhu, Cornwall, England to be precise.
My mother saw him take off when he cross-countried the Spirit up to Roosevelt Field. Funny you should mention St. Johns, NFLD. in 1943, she later married my father, a naval aviator, and they ended up spending 3 years at NAS Argentia, NFLD in the late 50's (he was nearing retirement at that point and was flying EC-121 Lockheed Warning Stars).
Very nice comment. Thanks for sharing...
Good to know!!!
Robert.
That is fantastic, to have witnessed such an event!
I believe St John's is still a 'jumping off'
point for Transatlantic flights.
🇨🇦 🇺🇸 🇬🇧
The most incredible thing about Charles Lindbergh's flight is not that he was able to fly from New York to Paris, it's that he was able to stay awake for over 33 hours during the flight.
And he didn't sleep - or barely - the night before the take-off...
@@ZenYoda Yes, more famous than Neils Armstrong. But then Slim accomplished his goal alone. He held so many skills.
Also, no forward visibility really, few by instruments and dead reckoning.
And he navigated across the Atlantic with only a hand made chart and a compass, reached Ireland within a few miles of his planned course
He should have just turned on the autopilot and taken a nap.
I will forever love this movie. It was one of the things that made me fall in love with aviation at an early age and continue to present.
Keep on Flying!!!!!!
Me too!
One of my top 5 all time movie favorites!!!! absolutely wonderful depiction of the famous aviator!!!!!, I miss Jimmy Stewart, THE BEST!!!
I actually can't recall ever seeing the movie...but it's amazing piece of work.
It built the suspense relaying in general what it was like...all without the use of CGI and fireball explosions.
@@BWolf00 By all means, find it and watch it. Worth the time.
"Flight's neither science nor art. Flight is and always will be a miracle."- Charles Lindberg.
That's bullshite.
@@tomcooper6108 That's what he said. I like the poetry of it. What's yr issue with it?
@@BurntPlaydoh He was clearly being poetic. Allegory is something you dont get?
Lindbergh would spend the years leading up to WW II actively campaigning to “protect the white race” and for the U.S. to maintain strict neutrality toward Nazi Germany.
A great film with a truely great actor. Thank you Jimmy for helping us to escape.
I just watched this on BluRay HD. Having only prior seen the film cropped and shrunk-down on a TV screen, I was amazed at the amazing detail, and the efforts the producers the went through to accurately depict every detail of the original Spirit. Great performance by James Stewart!
My father was 3 in 1927 and Lindbergh became 1 of his all time heroes . Loved this movie
He was one of my heroes as well until WW11 where he trashed his legacy by becoming an adoring fan of Nazi Germany.
My late father was raised in Little Falls, MN, home of Charles Lindbergh. Dad was five when the solo transatlantic flight occurred. Lindbergh came home and spent a summer’s day flying over Little Falls while performing a one man air show. The people of Little Falls were waving and yelling enthusiastically. Dad clearly remembered that until the day he died.
Freaking Missouri rain! One of Jimmy's best films. RIP Sir.
Can you imagine how much music they'd add to this scene if it were filmed today!
Lindbergh actually cleared the trees by 20+ feet and the backers of the Spirit weren't down at the takeoff roll part of the runway as you see in the movie,they were down at the other end with fire extinguishers just in case Lindbergh crashed.
Snagging the wires although in the actual take off he cleared them was considered dramatic enough to be left in the film.
Filmed at Hancock Field, Santa Maria, CA
Than k you for saying where it was filmed.
In the movie Pearl Harbor the opening scene is suppose to be Mitchel Field but the mountain behind it looks more like SantaPaula California ?!!
Probably 35 % of the USA from the East coast could tell you Long Island has No mountains within
100 miles!
@@josephpadula2283 Also Long Island in that area was not open fields at that time. In the 1960s I spent a lot of time at the shopping mall they built after the air base was closed.
My Dad grew up in Little Falls, Minnesota. He was five when Lindbergh made his famous flight. Charles came home and did a lengthy flight with many maneuvers above Little Falls. Per my Dad everyone was out on the streets yelling and waving, including my Dad. Some day, huh?
Watched this wonderful movie for the first time as a kid in 1966, and it would become one of my inspirations to pursue an aviation oriented career. This takeoff scene and many other flying sequences were filmed at Santa Maria Municipal Airport and nearby Hancock Field, now Allan Hancock College in California. Those eucalyptus trees at the end of the "runway" (actually an abandoned taxiway) still exist at the airport and throughout the Santa Maria Valley.
I wish the federal government hadn't implemented the 1500hr law for first officers. Destroyed my hope of a flying career, now I have a useless CPL and instrument rating. Whoever voted that in are unforgivable. I'd give anything to be able to fly for a living.
@@Mikhail-Tkachenko Yeah, it's very difficult to become an ATP, easier if you're ex-military, then you only need half of those total hours. You could get your CFI and build hours that way, but it's still gonna take time. Wishing you the best of luck!
@@Mikhail-Tkachenko Go build hours. You can say the 1500hr rule made it hard to get into a flying career, but you also can look at it with a positive mindset. It made wages increase dramatically. Regional pilots used to make minimum wage, now they actually make decent money.
@@daytonasixty-eight1354 Can you send me the contact info to the companies you're in touch with who hire low hour commercial/instrument rated pilots? I can relocate anywhere in the world within the week. My only lead was a close friend & dropzone owner killed in a plane crash at Skydive Hawaii 2 years ago.
I've yet to find another company in my searching & networking but that'd be really a great piece of luck if I unexpectedly met someone who owns or know of a company I haven't contacted yet. I'm happy for you to have been able to increase your income from the 1500hr law. It's certainly good you were born early enough to start your aviation career & build enough hours prior to the implementation of that law so you weren't affected in a negative way by it. I'm strongly against corrupt politicians regulating things they know nothing about. Free market capitalism has historically shown to be the best course of action.
Anyway, I'm also a licensed skydiver as well & hold a BASE # I don't wish to share here. Also certified master watchmaker and skilled TIG/SMAW/MIG welder & metal fabricator.
Edit: Anywhere that doesn't still have closed borders that is.
@@Mikhail-Tkachenko California has pretty routine openings for skydiving and banner towing. Cost of living is high. CFI is the most reliable way to build hours low time. To use your commercial ticket, you really need to get 500+ hours minimum because that is what a lot of insurance these companies carry requires. Look into Ameriflight, FedEx caravan, Mountain Air Cargo, etc. Basically any of the small feeders for UPS, FedEX, DHL etc are good for commercial. Typically require a multi engine and around 500-750 hours for first officer in something like a metroliner. Need multiengine obviously. Ideally get CFI and try to get a school to pay partially for Multiengine instructor.
Survey companies in California, Texas, and Midwest. They tend to be around 500 hours or so. Sometimes less.
Again, CFI is most reliable. If you are in Hawaii, you need to go to the mainland. Otherwise Mokulele might be a shot but it's not ideal.
James Maitland Stewart was just as brave in real life as Charles Lindberg.
Braver....
@@sethkimmel7312 They were both..lets not play games
@@mercian7 its not games shithead bigot! GENERAL Stewart did EVERYTHING lindberg did without hating any of his fellow countrymen! reported and blocked!
@@sethkimmel7312 Flippin eck
@@sethkimmel7312 Umm...he didn't hate his fellow countrymen
my oh my.. i was maybe 6 when i first saw this about 20 years ago maybe even longer. i hunted the name of this movie for years after my dad passed. ive finally found it. im more than happy, thank you for posting this tiny clip, this helped me more than you could ever imagine.
That solo flight is still the Mount Everest of solo flights.
Love this movie and Jimmy Stewart. Thank You For Your Service Sir. I'm Retired USAF.
Lindbergh would spend the years leading up to WW II actively campaigning to “protect the white race” and for the U.S. to maintain strict neutrality toward Nazi Germany.
Beautifully filmed. I love this movie and have watched it many times. A great book on the flight is Dan Hampton’s “The Flight - Charles Lindbergh’s Daring and Immortal Transatlantic Crossing”.
The late Brigadier General USAF Reserve Jimmy Stewart RIP
An amazing film about a great man!
I was just reading Bill Brysons book 1927. This is very accurate to how the takeoff was like. The crappy runway, the bouncing, the near miss. Great stuff.
I grew up right by those fields, played on them as a boy! Never really knowing the important history that was right beneath my feet
THE SPIRIT!!!!!! What a beauty!!!!!!!!!.God speed!!!!!
Greatest movie with one of the true heroes of aviation, James Stewart
James Stewart a great actor and an even better Intelligence Officer spreading propaganda regarding Charles Lindbergh hoaxed hop from New York to Paris. It was completely faked. America wanted to be the first so they faked it to win. Simple nothing more than propaganda!
@@kennethroyer9949 STFU troll
I don't know how accurate that was but it's still a great scene.
In actuality, he wasn't anywhere near the trees or power lines upon takeoff. Check the actual film of it.
It never gets old to hear the music cut in after he clears the trees! 👍
I love this movie but I have to make a pot of coffee to watch it, I get so sleepy with Jimmy towards the end! Good movie though. Jimmy Stewart loved aviation, you know he enjoyed making this and many other movies about it. This movie captures an important milestone in aviation and helps pass down the story of how it happened.
One of my many lifetime HEROES!
Jimmy Stewart. Yes. Lindbergh was an anti semite.
One of the best flying films ever. Before everything turned to CGI shit.
Ditto!
@PDZ1122 Obviously you have never seen "The Battle of Britain"
@@robertcieslak1861 Obviously you have never seen "The Battle of Britain"
@PDZ1122 - I commented to that affect before I way this post.
I actually can't recall ever seeing the movie...but it's amazing piece of work.
It built the suspense relaying in general what it was like...all without the use of CGI and fireball explosions.
Best? It was exaggerated to all hell. In actuality, he wasn't anywhere near the trees or power lines upon takeoff. Check the actual film of it.
Jimmy Stewart was great at underplaying so the story can be told. He was the same as Glenn Miller. One of the good guys.
One of three replicas made by Paul Mantz for the film,the aircraft were converted from Ryan Broughams a similar commercial design.
I saw this movie "Spirit" plane at Movieland of the Air Museum in Orange County, CA. several times, starting in 1965. The plane had 2 sets of flight controls: 1 for Stuart and 1 for stunt pilot Paul Mantz who did all of the actual flying. The plane was the prized showpiece of the museum.
growing up on Long Island, I was used to seeing the commemorative stone in the parking lot of the Roosevelt Field shopping mall in Garden City marking the spot where Lindbergh took off.
SIMPLE and BRILLIANT.
They are awesome! The runway is aimed directly at the tallest trees in the area!
0:32 "Pull the chocks!"
0:38 Eight men and the propeller straining to move that winged gas tank through the mud.
IMO they didn't need the chocks. #humor
In actuality, he wasn't anywhere near the trees or power lines upon takeoff. Check the actual film of it.
I don't think this scene could be filmed any better today!
God, I loved him. One of my favorites along with "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation."
This is a Masterpiece of filming.
A masterpiece? It was exaggerated to all hell. In actuality, he wasn't anywhere near the trees or power lines upon takeoff. Check the actual film of it.
Soooo riveting... I feel it in my gut...!!!!
My favourite aviation movie .
Charles Lindbergh's epic flight is to this day an achievement of bravery, ingenuity and the combination of multiple skill sets, especially navigation solely by magnetic compass. His story was an inspiration for me as boy to pursue a career in aviation and become a pilot. When viewed against the mainstream aircraft of the time, the Spirit was thoroughly modern and displayed the latest technology in instrumentation and the powerplant. The state-of-the-art 225hp Wright Whirlwind made the flight possible more than anything else. Indeed, the advance of aviation has had more to do with the advance of powerplants. Think of the first commercial jet airliner, the Boeing 707. It needed 4 engines to carry approximately 180 passengers. Today, a 777 with just two engines can carry 300-400 passengers and takeoff at a weight nearly 8 times the MTOW of the 707.
The first commercial jet passenger aircraft was the De Havilland Comet.
@@FiveTwoSevenTHR Model 14 Benoist airboat, first pressed into regular schedule in 1914. Oh you meant to sat 'jet airliner' I guess.
@@scottross8606 considering that I was responding to a claim that the first jet airliner was the 707, yes I meant to say jet airliner.
And then-newly developed Earth Inductor Compass. he had one on board, along with the Whiskey Compass. Using the Inductor Compass, he was only 10 miles off cumulative over the route. Back then, it was the equivalent of OMEGA, or LORAN.
Lindbergh would spend the years leading up to WW II actively campaigning to “protect the white race” and for the U.S. to maintain strict neutrality toward Nazi Germany.
I often shout “Which way to Ireland”? in my best Jimmy Stewart voice from altitude (when Solo, I wouldn’t want to look silly)! as a tribute to Mr Lindbergh
Briefly; The SoSL had never been tested with this fuel load, the prop had been increased 1° in pitch for better cruise speed, contaminated runway conditions, all with an aircraft about the size of a Cessna 207, and an engine with about 223 horsepower. When they got back from overseas, the Navy Sea Bees put her back together. They found a cracked wing attach point, and the number eight cylinder had a cracked valve lifter. There's lots more involved with the build that CAL didn't know about. A broken wing rib, and a lost rubber vent hose inside a tank. Talk about a stacked deck.
I thought the delayed takeoff was for the fuel load, and not the director being melodramatic.
@@bbface21 The above conditions were for the actual flight, not for the movie. Cal's fuel situational awareness was paramount. Frank Tallman's 1957 performance in flying the replica was with a very light fuel load.
@@samsharp8539 Actually, 'replica' is not correct. SoSL-II was more of a sister ship. There were other replicas
@@bbface21 it was close one for sure. but the movie makes it even more dramatic then it was.
So basically you are saying Lindbergh was an idiot. Because it's the pilot's responsibility to make sure a plane is in proper working condition before a flight.
I always dreamed of traveling on a plane around the world all by myself
And hopefully your plane has a windshield!
_Every_ time my brothers and I watched this when we were kids we'd yell 2:37 right there as he snagged the cables. How in the world did they compose this scene? Amazing!
They did not compose the scene,it was by accident that Paul Mantz snagged the wires,it was considered dramatic enough to leave in the film.
In actuality, he wasn't anywhere near the trees or power lines upon takeoff. Check the actual film of it.
All the trees right at the end of the runway. Great!
They are there to protect the public. Those trees form a barrier to prevent wayward planes from crashing into the road and houses beyond the runway!!!
If a planes crashes on takeoff he will hit the trees and
kill himself. But without the trees, he would crash into the houses beyond and kill a lot more people.
Lindbergh knew what those trees were for.
In actuality, he wasn't anywhere near the trees or power lines upon takeoff. Check the actual film of it.
And this movie was filmed only 30 years after the real flight took place. What incredible progress we've made in aviation over the years, man really does want to fly!
Very, very accurate and close to the real thing of that takeoff from Roosevelt Field.
Except in reality he cleared the telephone wires by 10 feet.... The plane used in filming was weighted down and the stunt pilot didn't lift her off in time to clear the wires during the filming of the sequence....
@@avmtech1968 Yeah...or even more than ten feet. And...that white scrap of material on that stake in the ground next to the runway is true, but it was used by Lindbergh to mark the half way point of the runway. In this clip it looks like it's almost at the end of the runway.
the records show he cleared the cables by 20 feet.
Whoever that actress was looking adoringly as The Spiritof St..Louis was very cute. That Spirit replica flown by James Stewart in the film was donated to the Henry Ford/Greenfield Village Museum in Dearborn, Michigan shortly after the film was completed.
Captain James Stewart/ United States Army Air Force.
@@avmtech1968 the whole thing was fake. lindberg shacked up in a whore house while a black dude flew the atlantic. he took a ship over to paris a week earlier.
Jimmy reminds me of pilots back in the day everyone one of them I met was a credit to the human race.
Ein Meilenstein der Filmgeschichte.👆👆👆👆👆😍😍😍😄😄😄😄 Viele Grüsse aus Germany
The reason there isn't a windshield is that an extra fuel tank was added at the cowling between the engine and firewall. From I remember reading about this it was Charles Lindbergh's idea and mount a periscope to see out of. Can any of you imagine doing this for 33 hours? Thank you Charles Lindbergh and Col Jimmy Stewart for pioneering aviation.
Lindbergh figured that since most of his flight would be over water, he didn't really need a windshield. He could use the periscope to assist in takeoff and landing. The extra fuel, as well as the aerodynamic advantage of fairing in the cockpit, was worth the loss of forward vision.
@@scotpens I would think that the extra fuel would have been better than the periscope I noticed if the portrayal is true to the story that Lindbergh would have been looking out of the side windows. Either way 33 1/2 was a long uncomfortable flight.
You dont need to see forward from a plane. In mail plane he was sitting on the back, as there were mailbags on front seat. When you need to see directly in front of plane, just use you rudder to lean a little. There is a periscope mounted on dashboard to see obstacles when landing and taking of. Rest of light was done using only compass and looking left or right from windows.
Lindy did it best in those days. It took bravery.
El histórico vuelo del.piloto y aviador Charles Lindbergh , basado en un hecho real e historico con su protagonista James Stewart
"for me to succeed, the others must fail."
-Charles Lindbergh
Up, up and awaaaaayyyy!!! 😎
And today we fly across the ocean with comfortable seats, full meals served to us, and our own individual TV monitor on which we can watch TV shows, watch movies, and play video games. And we complain about how "hard" it is to do a long flight. Oh my goodness. Could you imagine what Lindbergh went through?
One comedian, I think it was Louis C.K. said something like, "you are sitting in a chair, 35,000 feet in the sky being served drinks and food, so what the hell is the problem? "
Now That's a takeoff!
In reality, if you look at the actual film of the take off, he wasn't anywhere close to the trees when taking off.
Great, suspenseful (though the outcome is never in doubt). Like the original "Day of the Jackal".
In actuality, he wasn't anywhere near the trees or power lines upon takeoff. Check the actual film of it.
The plane used in this film is displayed at Henry Ford Museum-Dearborn MI
@ Ray Opezzo thank you! Gives my good incentive to get there.
My mum heard this song and that's why I'm called Emilia.
This is a coincidence
Emilia is a beautiful name.
Great Movie!
The plane was one giant gas tank strapped to a great engine with one purpose , Get to Paris .
Wonderful movie about a deeply flawed man.
that's the oldest looking 25 year old I've ever seen
Man got through some rough... air, ya know.
Probably the most qualified actor at the time to play the role. In his 20s in the 20s so he knew how American men thought at the time, a pilot, an officer in the USAAC, USAF and Brigadier General USAF Reserves.
Sure James Dean might have looked the part in 57, but he would have played it as James Dean like all his roles till his young death.
Have you ever been to New Mexico or Arizona? People there are dried up like prunes by their early 30s.
Then, you haven't seen the supposedly young Robert de Niro at The Irishman
I loved the WWII movies with Robert Mitchum and John Wayne and others playing 20-25 year olds.
Lindbergh's amazing achievement of this crossing a mere 8 years after Alcock and Browns flight across the Atlantic in a first world war military aircraft!
Lindbergh's flight was for the Ortieg Prize. He flew twice as far as the John Alcock and Arthur Brown flight.
Nice takeoff! Tom cruise had a similar scene in an Aerostar in the movie “American Made”
BALLS OF STEEL!!
Fabuloso.
Parabéns.
Grande exemplo p/ toda a humanidade.
Cresci ouvindo essa linda história.
Meu conterrâneo, filho de família amiga, de Jaú SP, aviador João Ribeiro de Barros concluiu a travessia entre Europa (Ilha da Madeira) e Brasil (Ilha Fernando de Noronha) na mesma época que Charles Lindemberg concluiu a travessia entre EUA e Europa.
João era filho de um grande cafeicultor, e batizou seu avião bimotor com o nome de Jahu.
Na ilha da madeira seu avião foi sabotado, e ele mesmo precisou desmontar os motores, tendo encontrado dentro do motor, areia, sabão e pedaços de bronze.
Enquanto desmontava os motores, o ditador Getúlio Vargas lhe mandou um telegrama, falando p/ deixar dessa loucura, desmontar o avião e embarcar em um navio, remetendo-o para o Brasil.
João respondeu:
Presidente, cuide do seu trabalho, que do meu cuido eu.
A mãe de João enviou-lhe outro telegrama dizendo:
Continue Filho, a Bandeira Nacional do Brasil está nas asas de seu avião.
Qdo João conclui sua travessia, meus avós paternos estavam no Adriático, e comentavam que houve uma grande comemoração, por lá, do feito de João Ribeiro de Barros.
Minha avó, ao ler nos jornais, sobre a conclusão da travessia de João Ribeiro de Barros, ficou impressionada e falou para meu avô: Olha, é o Joãozinho!
Ele estudou com minhas tias + velhas.
A perfect runway to take off from with a plane overloaded with gas 😱
And came close to costing Stewart his life!
But he made it.
@@patrickwheeler5144 In actuality, he wasn't anywhere near the trees or power lines upon takeoff. Check the actual film of it.
@@mkor7 I know. It’s been a while, but I’ve read his “Spirit of St. Louis” and “We.” The movie is still good, with a few embellishments every now and then.
Jimmy Stewart was actually a real pilot. He flew bombers in ww2, also flew his own plan as a civillian.
And SAC line aircraft, all types, including B-57's and B-52's. He probably rubbed elbows with Yeager, but Chuck was a fighter jock and stereotypicaly hated bombers.
And oh yes,I have a plastic model of the "SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS"!
Me too - FROG 1/72
Only one? You can never have enough. Still have the one that came in a cereal box in 1957. And my first Spirit that I built when I was 10 years old.
You could feel every butterfly in his stomach, facing that terrible flaming death in the face. And was that an amazing miniature, or did somebody fly a replica Ryan for this movie?
They flew a replica for this.
I like that they chocked the wheels even though the plane was stuck in the mud and needed to be pushed by a bunch of guys.
Everything had to be done according to the pre-flight checklist!!
I saw this in original release at a theater. I remember it as being in black and white.
It's interesting that such a dangerous take off had to be made because of the race, but who else was competing for the prize I'd like to know?
@@borisromanoff6956 In actuality, he wasn't anywhere near the trees or power lines upon takeoff. Check the actual film of it.
Good idea to have high trees at the end of a runway in those days!
They are there for the protection of the public. Precisely to prevent wayward planes from crashing into the road and houses beyond.
In actuality, he wasn't anywhere near the tree line upon takeoff. Check the actual film of it.
Lindbergh was 25 years old.
Yes, Jack Warner selected a 27 year old actor but unfortunately he turned down the role.
1/2 inch lower, well, it would have been a different story.
Took off one time with one of my r. c. pusher type electrics. Knew I was close to a concrete curb stop on take run but had a good flight. Would oft fly for two hours or more on thermals, fifteen minutes of full power battery life.
But after landing, the bottom of the left wing had a 1/8” deep grove about 6 “ out from fuselage. A piece of re-bar to locate the curb had left its mark,,, cutting it close.
I consider Lindbergh's 1927 solo flight , an act of unmatched courage...even to
this day. The technology of that era was primitive, to say the least. He relied on
his gut and his flying skills...nothing more. There were no preflight checks, no
computer simulations...just his sheer will. What Lindbergh did is nothing short
of miraculous. Few individuals have changed the world as profoundly as Charles
Lindbergh did, in that flimsy little plane. Bravo to Jimmy Stewart for such a
wonderful performance...one of my favorite movies ever!
Seen the plane, when i was younger, either they photoshopped it out , or removed it... Older pics had it, but for some reason, newer history books, have sanitized and deleted embarrasing, chapters, or misleading facts, to bend their minds, to a biased outlook, on history.....
Scott Lunsford Perhaps but consider the immense bravery of the two British pilots Alcock and Brown who flew the FIRST TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT 10 YEARS EARLIER.
If things were primitive for Lindbergh JUST IMAGINE WHAT IT WAS FOR Alcock and Brown.
It was state-of-the-art airaplane custom-built just for that one purpose with all possible available simulations and calculations. And Lindbergh certainly had to do pre-flight checks necessary for that airplane. He was gutsy indeed, but first solo flight from New York to Paris was more a technical achievement instead of gutsy display or piloting. Gutsy piloting (and luck with following winds) was needed, but all the work was more than halfway done before he even took off. General James Stewart also performed really well in this role.
Does it make sense to have a power line and trees at the end of a runway?
If you look at actual film of the take off he wasn't anywhere near the trees and lines in actuality.
imagine hitting those trees... shortest movie ever
In actuality, he wasn't anywhere near the trees or power lines upon takeoff. Check the actual film of it.
Fancy building a plane with no windscreen, I would have thought being able to see where you're going is the most fundamental requirement when traveling forwards at speed.
All that looking out of the window...when he had a periscope.
Is this coming to blu-ray?
Ask Google
Read the spirit of st Louis Lindbergh's publisher prize novel about the story of his historic quest to be first from new York to Paris across the Atlantic. Spellbinding story you will be with him each mile of his journey and the torturous fight he had to stay awake.
Lindberg the man may have been an ass...but he was a great pilot.
One of the great moments in aviation history...
Where is he going ?
How incredible! An American managing a crossing of the Atlantic only a decade or so after Alcock and Brown did it in a Vickers Vimy!
Actually Lindbergs flight was eight years later,a solo flight,a much longer flight from NY to Paris instead of St.Johns to Ireland and a safe landing instead of a crash. Other than that............
@@bengus8148 Well let's face it The Spirit of At Louis was a much more modern aircraft and didn't even have biplane wings with a better engine and navigation equipment and of course he knew it was possible as it had been done before by somebody else :)
He also did it solo.
@@henryhall9623 Amazing he was able to do it with an aircraft as technically more advanced over the Vickers Vimy as the Vimey was over the first1908 Wright flyer purchased by the US army.
@@andrewallen9993 It wasn't just a flight across the bloody atlantic, but a flight from New Your to Paris!
St Johns to Eire is only 3150 km, New York to Paris is 5830 km, 85% longer.
He had balls, no forward vision, no brakes
No front windshield; no radio; and no compass. Balls?? No! It was faked so the U.S. would win the prize as propaganda for the masses!
Forward vision periscope. Small but he could see forward.
True but takeoffs and especially landings would be a complete bitch. Nothing more than a death trap. That is why it was faked. The Lindbergh's were nothing more than a clan of hoaxer's that is why our intelligence services pick him. He loved playing the part. And by the way James Steward retired as a General and since he was in the movies then he was in intelligence!
Because of tank placement he was so far back in the fuselage where he set he could touch BOTH SIDES with his out stretched elbows. All he had to do was lean a bit and he could look out the window. Gawd....
@@kennethroyer9949 Ah, another flat-earther type. Go back in your hole.
Wow un criminal volando
2:38 in the video. Someone dropped the ball! Those phone wires should have been clipped, then rehooked up after take off...And the trees at the end of the runway trimmed or removed also...
I'll bet a tail wheel instead of a tail skid would have been helpful. But, any takeoff that you can land from is a good one.
No brakes on the Spirit. Tailwheels were just being thought of in 1927.
@@samsharp8539 All the years I have been interested in planes and with your help I just realized that the tail skid was to stop the thing on landing. Any day one can learn something is not a wasted day!
@@B-and-O-Operator-Fairmont Exactly... That's the fun part. Now TURNING the plane around back then, require the pilot to add down elevator, full rudder, and 'blip' the engine. I still teach in taildraggers on occasion, and it's fun to watch a nosewheel pilot try to do a 180 degree turn with the engine at idle while moving. No rudder authority there. Doh!!!
@@B-and-O-Operator-Fairmont I forgot to mention... The R/C modellers that have built the SoSL in various scales are fun to watch. The handling of the Spirit in scale shows just how much adverse yaw and instability the Spirit had inherently by Eng. Hall's design. Some of my best students (now major airline captains) are still R/C and tailwheel pilots. R/C and me?? I have tried... And failed miserably.
Jimmy was too long in the tooth for this role. Lindbergh was only 25 yrs old when he did this.
Lindbergh wasn't an Air Force General you moron.
Probably
@@steveconkey7362 No joke, Woodrow. Now, do bears really crap in the woods?
@@gotch09 Who's Woodrow and why would he be involved in this discussion? No joke...The Pope shits in the woods, and the bear wears a funny hat.
@@steveconkey7362 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
if this is indeed how it happened... it's kinda comical how nobdy thought to extend the runway for the day by lowering that power line? and maybe removing those trees?
This is a dramatization made in the golden days of hollywood when audiences kind of understood even an unknown mail pilot can't just snap his fingers and extend runways, drop trees, and lower power lines. Lindbergh knew he had enough runway barring engine failure and I imagine most of the audience knew the outcome of this flight before going into the theater. I wasn't there but newspaper reporting of the event does make mention of the mud and rain and the takeoff's proximity to the power lines.
The plane looks wonderful by design but how can a plane be without front window?
The plane was fitted with a periscope for forward vision.
He really didn't need a windscreen, this airplane was custom built for one purpose. To win the $25,000 Ortieg prize by flying nonstop from NYC to Paris.
Since there was no other traffic to be concerned with out over the Atlantic, the space for a windscreen was given over to fuel tanks. This improved the C/G and lessened the risk of the pilot being crushed to death in the event of a nose-over on takeoff.
The Ryan aircraft was equipped with a periscope to see over the nose, but as he had learned flying mail planes, Lindbergh simply yawned the plane when he needed a good look ahead
Hey Ken, you say another crew flew to Paris before Lindbergh.If that's true why have we never heard of them?
I never said that! What I said who ever made the hop from New York to Paris it would have been done in a tri-motor of its day with a pilot, co-pilot, and navigator/radio operator. Plus thrown in just for grins a front windshield!
Since he faked it who ever did it as the second team would have done it first. But in life who remembers who did it after the hoax master Lindbergh??
I think he is referring to Commander Richard E. Byrd who (almost) completed the New York to Paris flight, crash-landing on a beach in Normandy five WEEKS after Lindbergh's flight.
The 25,000 dollars NY to Paris prize money would certainly have been an incentive for somebody to fake a flight, but how exactly would Lindbergh have faked it as you claim?
Tungsten Kid.....Here is a link to Miles Mathis who has researched past [including Lindbergh] and present hoaxes and faked events.
mileswmathis.com/lindy.pdf
Thanks but saying Lindbergh never flew the Atlantic is like saying men never walked on the moon.Tell Mathis to come and post his theory in the Fortean forum where I hang so it can be discussed fully..:)..forum.forteantimes.com/index.php
Who puts power lines at the end of a runway?
Who builds a runway next to power lines?
In actuality, he wasn't anywhere near the tree line upon takeoff. Check the actual film of it.
Or power lines.
Sparit ! Ovvio ..
The scene was filmed in California. Note the eucalyptus.
minut 2:50. but before of the landing a trees cut ????