Flying the Atlantic

May 20, 2009

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Profile America — Wednesday, May 20th. Two authentic American aviation heroes made headlines on this day in the past. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic, flying from Long Island, New York, to Paris in his Ryan monoplane, named the “Spirit of St. Louis.” Five years later to the day, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to make the solo flight, flying a Lockheed Vega from Newfoundland to Ireland. Their daring captured the imagination of the entire country and ushered in an age of great expansion in aviation. When Lindbergh flew the Atlantic, there were some 1,600 pilots in the U.S. Today, more than 597,000 Americans hold pilots licences, 6 percent of them women. Profile America is a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau, now preparing for the 2010 Census.

Sources: Chase's Calendar of Events 2009, p. 276
Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, p. 772
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2009, t. 1042
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2009edition.html