Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis hanging in the. Smithsonian National
Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Washington (AP) – Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, one of the most
treasured aircraft at the National Air and Space Museum, has been lowered
to the floor for its first conservation treatment in 22 years.

For decades, the single-engine aircraft has been suspended from the ceiling
and seen from afar. Early Thursday, it was carefully lowered to the floor. Now
visitors are getting an up-close look at the historic plane and can better imagine
what it must have been like to fly.

For the next eight months, the aircraft is expected to be in full view to the
museum’s millions of visitors as conservators repair cracks in its fabric skin
and search for other damage.

Charles Lindbergh with the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927