The Spirit of St. Louis
by Charles A. Lindbergh · first published 1953
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I can think of one great example of this. Charles Lindbergh won the Pulitzer prize in 1954 for his Spirit of St. Louis autobiography. He worked on it for 15 years and refused to use a ghost writer, and the result was a masterpiece. Between his poetic writing style and the mountains of fascinating details leading up to…
on “How To Write With Style (1999)” ↗…descriptive words of man — where immortality is touched through danger, where life meets death on equal plane; where man is more than man, and existence both supreme and valueless at the same instant." [1] The Spirit of St Louis, Charles Lindbergh, 1953
on “Sky Diving Cured My Depression” ↗…words of man — where immortality is touched through danger, where life meets death on equal plane; where man is more than man, and existence both supreme and valueless at the same instant. " [1] 'The Spirit of St Louis,' Charles A. Lindbergh, 1953
on “Increasing numbers of wingsuit jumpers are dying (2016)” ↗Lindbergh's Spirit of St Louis had the main fuel tank directly in front of him. This was in spite of his primal fear of being burned alive. In some airplanes you sit on the fuel tank.
on “Starship Flight 7” ↗Hasn’t this been validated for hundreds of years? The Story of Longitude is a great read. Harrison spent decades working on the problem. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_(book) The Spirit of St. Louis crossing the Atlantic was for a prize, and I believe an inspiration for the current X-Prize. I don’t think we need “grand challenges” but simply challenges, to help get us to successive breakthroughs.…
on “A Pentagon-funded contest spawned many of today’s self-driving startups” ↗…being overloaded by 500 lbs. Crashing overloaded bombers at the end of the runway was a popular way to die in WW2, as they were always deliberately overloading them. Linbergh famously overloaded the Spirit of St Louis and figured his biggest risk of death came from getting the machine off the ground.
on “Finding Amelia Earhart’s Plane Seemed Impossible – Then Came a Startling Clue” ↗…words of man — where immortality is touched through danger, where life meets death on equal plane; where man is more than man, and existence both supreme and valueless at the same instant." [1] [1] "The Spirit of St Louis", C. Lindberg, 1954. Quote was lightly edited for brevity.
on “Alex Honnold Scales El Capitan Without Ropes, and the Climbing World Reels” ↗…pounds more than they ever carried before—five thousand pounds to be lifted by nothing more tangible than air." He also indicated that the airplane was not stressed to land with such a heavy load. -- The Spirit of St. Louis
on “Finding Amelia Earhart’s Plane Seemed Impossible – Then Came a Startling Clue” ↗