AFTER LINDBERGH’S SOLO trans-Atlantic flight, 80 years ago this weekend, made him an international hero, every municipality wanted to claim him. Chicago was no exception, welcoming him three months later for a weekend of feting. But this city had as much claim to him as any; Slim, as his flying compadres called him, had flown the new ST. LOUIS-CHICAGO air mail route before setting off to make history. In a year and a half, shuttling back and forth in the aptly named “flaming coffins,” Lindbergh had survived two emergency parachute jumps. LUCKY LINDY, indeed.
– Percentage of the first 40 air mail pilots who were killed in crashes: 77.
– Number of sandwiches Lindbergh carried on his 33-1/2-hour flight over the Atlantic: 5.
– New name for the Lindy hop after Lindbergh’s pre-World War II isolationist views cost him his popularity: THE JITTERBUG.
Sources: Tribune archives, “Charles Lindbergh: An American Aviator” (charleslindbergh.com), “Lindbergh” by A. Scott Berg, “The American Experience: Lindbergh.”
———-
nwatkins@tribune.com
