90 YEARS AGO IN AVIATION WEEK
In January, 1927, Capt. Charles Lindbergh sent a telegram to this magazine asking about the terms of the Raymond Orteig prize. The prize, proffered in 1919, offered $25,000 for the first nonstop aircraft flight between New York and Paris. “Thus, four months ago, began the project which culminated in the greatest single feat in aviation history,” proclaimed an article in our May 30, 1927 edition, which chronicled Lindbergh’s historic 33 1/2 hour flight and touchdown at Paris’s Le Bourget airport on May 21.
The article provided a detailed account of the flight, noting that Lindbergh’s altitude ranged from just 10 feet above the ocean to more than 10,000 feet and achieved an average speed of 108 mph.  The cover featured the 25-year-old Lindbergh standing in front of his aircraft, The Spirit of St. Louis, which today is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington.