Charles Lindbergh

American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist (1902–1974)

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Lived 1902–1974, aged 72United States

United States WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
76 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1902–1974
Aged 72
Known for
Along Came a Spider
2001

Summary

Updated 2026-08-28

He flew alone across the Atlantic for 33 hours in 1927 and landed as the most famous man alive — then spent the rest of his life unable to escape what that attention cost him.

Biography

About

Raised in Minnesota, the son of a congressman, Lindbergh became an Air Mail pilot in St. Louis and began planning a New York-to-Paris run for a $25,000 prize. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the 3,600-mile crossing solo in the Spirit of St. Louis, the longest flight yet attempted, igniting a worldwide aviation boom. Time named him its first Man of the Year; he won the Medal of Honor and spent years promoting commercial flight. In 1931 he partnered with surgeon Alexis Carrel to invent an early perfusion pump, a forerunner to heart surgery technology, though the device proved impractical. Then in 19…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh

saidJul 1964

Life — a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an indication of a future beyond knowledge, the quality that gives a touch of divinity to matter.

— "Is Civilization Progress?" in Reader's Digest (July 1964)

Charles Lindbergh

saidJul 1964

If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.

— "Is Civilization Progress?" in Reader's Digest (July 1964)

Charles Lindbergh

said1953

It was a love of the air and sky and flying, the lure of adventure, the appreciation of beauty.

— Thoughts on his first parachute jump in The Spirit of St Louis (1953)

Charles Lindbergh

said11 Dec 1941

Now, all that I feared would happen has happened. We are at war all over the world, and we are unprepared for it from either a spiritual or a material standpoint.

— Journal entry (11 December 1941); later published in The Wartime Journals (1970)

Charles Lindbergh

said11 Dec 1941