Atlantic Fever – Lindbergh, His Competitors & The Race To Cross The Atlantic

Author: Joe Jackson
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2012
A Book Review – by Allen Penticoff

Be transported back in time to 1927. World War I has been over for nine years. Airplanes have accelerated quickly in development in the 24 years since the Wright Brothers’ flimsy “Flyer” levitated from the sandy flats of Kill Devil Hills. Yet by more modern standards, the technology was quite primitive – a modern aviator would be very reluctant to take on this trip with these crude machines, and depending to a great extent upon pure luck to survive.

There is a big cash prize put up by hotelier Raymond Orteig for the first to fly non-stop from New York to Paris or the other way around. The prize expires as no one can complete the flight – it is renewed. While the money is an incentive, it is the glory to be the first to accomplish this feat that pushes most competitors. Much in the way of resources, skill, and strategy will be put into many attempts. Politics, not by the government – but among the contenders – will lead to some failing to miss the opportunity to be first. A spell of bad weather has an important role in who will win.

Large airplanes, war hero pilots, fatal firey crashes, crowds of spectators – all play into the formula. Famous names in aviation: Richard Byrd, Rene Fonck, Giuseppe Bellanca, Anthony Fokker and of course, Charles Lindbergh. The narrative also richly explores the dozens of others who were involved in the competition and the rivalries between them. This is where Jackson shines in “Atlantic Fever,” the willingness to go off the beaten path and explore the deep nooks and crannies of this interesting and important time…to reveal the humanity of these heroes and daredevils, to find the truth in what happened and why.

It was an exciting time for the people who lived it and who followed it. It will keep you captivated as well, while you learn much about the early history of aviation. We know well the story of Lindbergh squeaking into the sky with the overloaded “Spirit of St. Louis,” his fight with sleep and his good fortune to find Paris and his sudden burst of worldwide fame, which he loathed. But we don’t hear of flights by Nungesser and Coli in “White Bird,” which, apparently flew from Paris to the North American Coast, where it was likely shot down by rum runners as it passed overhead in the fog. Nor of the successful flight of Richard Byrd, Bernt Balchen and George Noville, who flew on instruments (needle, ball and airspeed) for 42 hours, only to ditch in the English Channel when they could not find Paris in the fog – a month after Lindbergh’s successful flight.

These and many other flights, and attempted flights, are chronicled, as well as the public reaction to such flights and the period of hysteria over aviator worship that still rings with us today.

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