A DAY IN AVIATION HISTORY - 20 MAY

On this day two legends, five years apart, achieved their firsts in the history of aviation - Charles Augustus Lindbergh and Amelia Mary Earhart...

Lindbergh in 1927 began the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight in history, from New York's Long Island to Paris, which he covered in 33 and half hours...

With help from nine St. Louis investors, Lindbergh approached Ryan Aircraft Company in San Diego for the plane, which he named "Spirit of St. Louis." His effort had an incentive as well of $25,000, offered by New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig...

Lindbergh's successful landing in Paris led to the “Lindbergh boom” in the aviation industry as well as the Euro-American air travel. The Distinguished Flying Cross awardee who rose through the ranks to become a Brigadier General, Lindbergh passed away due to lymphoma on 26th August 1974 in Hawaii, aged 72...

US's record-setting aviator, an inspired 34 year-old Earhart emulated Lindbergh this day in 1932 to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. From Newfoundland, in a single-engine Lockheed 5B Vega, Earhart landed in Culmore, Northern Ireland in 15 hours time. She later set the record for the fastest flight between Honolulu and Oakland...

On June 1, 1937, adventurous Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Oakland on a twin-engine Lockheed for an eastward round-the-world flight. Reaching Lae in New Guinea flying 22,000 miles in about a month, the duo failed to reach the next refueling destination, Howland Island in the Pacific 2500 miles away, mysteriously disappearing after take off from Lae on 2nd July 1937. With all search efforts failing, the two were officially declared dead on January 5, 1939...

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