U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager became the first person to
fly faster than the speed of sound.

Yeager, born in Myra, West Virginia, in 1923, was a combat fighter
during World War II and flew 64 missions over Europe.

   
    
Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager (1923 – 2020)

       
CAMILLE BOHANNON

The Double Eagle II completed the first transatlantic balloon
flight when it landed in a barley field near Paris, 137 hours
after lifting off from Presque Isle, Maine.

The helium-filled balloon was piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie
Anderson and Larry Newman and flew 3,233 miles in the six-
day odyssey.         
        
        
        
        
        
            
       

Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman arrival
in France.

the Gondola of Double Eagle 2 is on display
in Ultralight Aircraft at the Steven F.
Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.

Five years to the day that aviator Charles Lindbergh became
the first pilot to accomplish a solo, nonstop flight across the
Atlantic Ocean, female aviator Amelia Earhart became the
first pilot to repeat the feat, landing her plane in Ireland after
flying across the North Atlantic. Earhart traveled over 2,000
miles from Newfoundland in just under 15 hours.

Unlike Charles Lindbergh, Earhart was well known to the public
before her solo transatlantic flight. In 1928, as a member of a
three-person crew, she had become the first woman to cross
the Atlantic in an aircraft.

Although her only function during the crossing was to keep
the plane’s log, the event won her national fame. For her
solo transatlantic crossing in 1932, she was awarded a
Distinguished Flying Cross by the U.S. Congress.

Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, where Amelia Earhart set off
from on her record-breaking solo flight.

SANDY KOZEL

The Spirit is on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution‘s National Air and Space Museum in
Washington, D.C..