From time to time, the National Air and Space Museum Archives commemorates milestones
in the history of flight by displaying images and artifacts from our collections. This May,
we recall two memorable moments: one was a triumph, the other, a tragedy.
The 70th Anniversary of Charles A. Lindbergh's
New York - Paris Flight, May 20-21, 1927
Detail from The Lone Eagle
NASM 2B 16839
Few flights have been as celebrated as Charles Lindbergh's solo flight from New York to Paris in the Spirit of St. Louis. The modest Air Mail pilot and former barnstormer became an instant hero, and an avalanche of photographs, souvenirs, books, songs, and even dances - the "Lindy Hop" - were churned out to meet the public's interest.
Lindy - Youth with a Heart of Gold
Sheet music by Norman Leigh and George L. Cobb
Published by Walter
Jacobs Inc., Boston 1927.
Lindy - Youth with a Heart of Gold
Whose name do the people shout?
Who's the boy we're all wild about?
Who's the wonder of the day?
Who's the Ace of the U.S.A.?
Lindy, Lindy, youth with the heart of gold -
Lindy, Lindy, spirit - so bold -
Others talk about tryin'
You just stuck to plain flyin'
Till you flew straight through the blue -
So here's our hand to you.
The Lone Eagle
Author and artist unknown. Blakely Printing Co.,
Chicago, 1929
SI 94 6292 CT
Montage of portraits of Charles A. Lindbergh, 1927.
Photographers unknown.
SI A 4812 A
The 60th Anniversary of the Explosion of LZ 129 Hindenburg,
May 6 1937, Lakehurst, New Jersey
In 1937, the Zeppelin organization, Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, and its passenger line, Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei, were at the pinnacle of their success. For the 1937 flying season, LZ 129 Hindenburg was to take the North Atlantic run from Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, to Lakehurst, New Jersey, and LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin was to fly from Friedrichshafen, Germany, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II was being built, and another airship, LZ 131, was in the design stage. Future plans included a new partner, the American Zeppelin Transport Corporation, and new routes to the Pacific. Also planned was a new airship port to replace Lakehurst. It was to be built in Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, D.C.. But the Hindenburg's first trans-Atlantic flight of the 1937 season ended disastrously at Lakehurst on May 6, and with it ended the era of the great rigid airships.
But are the big airships coming back? The Zeppelin Company is completing work on the prototype Zeppelin LZ N07 NT (New Technology), its first airship since the Hindenburg crashed. Five more Zeppelin airships are planned.
Brochures from Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei, the Zeppelin passenger service. 1936-'37.
"And now over the North Atlantic"
American Airlines advertised connecting service with the Hindenburg in 1936-37 on this gummed baggage label.
SI 89 19707 CT
The end of the Hindenburg. Lakehurst, New Jersey, May 6, 1937.
Photograph by Arthur Cofod Jr.
USAF 12293 AC
Rev. 06/17/97, ajanus@sivm.si.edu
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