Spirit of St. Louis
Ryan Airlines, designed by Donald Hall with Charles Lindbergh (Charles Lindbergh 1902 to 1974) · 1927
A small silver monoplane hangs above you with its name painted on the nose and, if you look closely, the flags of the countries it visited painted on the cowling. There is no front window. Charles Lindbergh had the fuel tank placed ahead of the cockpit for safety, so for the thirty three and a half hours of his flight from New York to Paris in May 1927 he saw forward only through a periscope or by leaning out of the side window. He was twenty five, an airmail pilot nobody had heard of, and when he landed at Le Bourget one hundred and fifty thousand people broke through the police lines to reach him.
The aircraft was built in San Diego in sixty days by a small company called Ryan Airlines, to Lindbergh's specification: one engine, one pilot, and every gram saved for fuel. He refused a radio and a parachute, cut the corners off his maps and carried five sandwiches. Look at the wing, longer than a standard Ryan to lift the extra weight, and the wicker pilot's seat, chosen because it was light. The engine, a Wright Whirlwind, was the most reliable of its day, and Lindbergh stayed awake by holding his eyelids open with his fingers. The flags on the nose were added during the goodwill tour of Latin America that followed.
Lindbergh flew the Spirit around the United States and to Mexico and Central America, then in 1928 flew it to Washington and gave it to the Smithsonian, where it has hung ever since. It moved to this building in 1976 and to the renewed Pioneers of Flight gallery in 2025, lower than before, so you can see the periscope on the left side and the door he squeezed through. Its flight turned aviation from a stunt into an industry; within a year, passenger numbers in the United States had multiplied several times over.
Did You Know? Lindbergh could not see straight ahead from the cockpit and used a small periscope, and a side window, for the entire Atlantic crossing.
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