On May 21, 1927, Charles "Lucky" Lindbergh landed his single engine aircraft, "The Spirit of St. Louis" in Paris, winning the $25,000 Orteig Prize offered to the first allied aviator(s) to fly non-stop from New York City to Paris or vice-versa.

Two years later a little known Robert "Believe it or Not!" Ripley established his own claim to fame by publishing the fact that, contrary to popular perception, Lindbergh was the 67th man to make a non-stop flight over the Atlantic.  Unknown to most of the world, a two man British airplane made the Atlantic crossing in 1919. and that same year, an English dirigible flew it with a crew of 31 men. In 1924 a German dirigible repeated the Atlantic flight with its crew of 33. Link

The first non-stop flight in a heavier than air craft was accomplished by Alcock and Brown (Newfoundland to Ireland) in 1919, winning a £10,000 prize as the first flyers to cross the Atlantic non-stop.

Lindbergh, of course, is credited with making the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic.  A solo flight was not a condition of the prize.

Webb wrote on May 21^st, 2007 at 7:08am:
Crazy. This reminds me of how people think the Wright Brothers made the first flight yet there are reports of other people doing it before them. We sure do live in a world of mysteries. 

murjax wrote on May 25^th, 2007 at 9:51am:



Ask a German and they will say the first person to fly was Otto Linenthal.

Matt

Hagar wrote on May 25^th, 2007 at 10:11am:

Surely you know by now that Americans see nothing that happens outside of America.  If Alcock and Brown had landed in the US instead of Newfoundland Americans would have been yawning over Lindbergh.  Maybe.  But Lindbergh was American and Alcock & Brown were English.

If you need further proof ask the average American which name sounds more familiar - Yuri Gagarin, Alan Shepard or John Glenn.

It's always nice to find someone else that shares my December 25 birthday.

Hagar wrote on May 26^th, 2007 at 3:56am:



Bugger, I thought James Stewart did it first

Matt

H wrote on May 26^th, 2007 at 6:21am:



A 1500 mile buffer zone, South Korea could only dream of that

Matt

Arnimon wrote on May 26^th, 2007 at 4:51pm:


Ah, but Arni, I said that if you asked a German. I am English, but as we used to say in a previous life, it was close enough for government work 

Matt

You will be telling us Frank Whittle did not invent the jet engine next

Matt

Probably Gagarin... He ended up being buried at the famous Kremlin Wall memorial site.

You know what the oldest regular long distance airline route is that is still in existance... KLM Amsterdam - Jakarta. Started off with a Fokker F7b/3m somewhere in the 1920s, and took a week to complete

JA 37 Viggen wrote on Jun 2^nd, 2007 at 7:42pm:

Nah.  Everyone knows it was George Welch in an F-86.

Ask anyone except Australians what Australia is like and I'd bet they'd say a big, sandy, red desert woth Croc hunters everywhere.

You ignorant fools.

Zerotime wrote on Jun 3^rd, 2007 at 3:51am:


You forgot BBQ's and Fosters stands on every street corner.

Matt

expat wrote on Jun 3^rd, 2007 at 6:12pm:

dcunning30 wrote on Jun 4^th, 2007 at 3:49pm:



Because America is a very insular nation. The vast majority of it's population only look inward. You, the other American Sim V members and most of my American friends are in the minority of people that look beyond the borders and know of the world beyond and what goes on in it. Unfortunately as we all to often see, regardless of topic, the majority manage to tar the rest with the same brush meaning, you are American, wear a baseball cap, chew tobacco, have a gun under your pillow and drive an SUV. It is stereotyping and it will never go away. Sometimes it is funny, and sometimes ignorant.

Matt

H wrote on Jun 5^th, 2007 at 7:36am:



Buggar... ...!

...and there's me thinking that GWB was a typical example of the average American Citizen... ...!

That's spoilt all the fun now... ...!

LOL... ...!

Paul...Watched too many John Wayne/Cowboy Films?.... ...!

JSpahn wrote on Jun 5^th, 2007 at 8:19am:

Webb wrote on May 21^st, 2007 at 7:08am:



I believe it was New York - Paris.