On May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off in the silver Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, heading for Paris. After about 33.5 hours and flying nearly 3,600 miles across the Atlantic, the 25-year-old pilot landed at Le Bourget Field. He won the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the flight, and it was an important aviation milestone as it demonstrated that regular commercial flights across the Atlantic were possible. A century later, a special event will mark this journey. A small group of travelers will retrace Lindbergh’s route from the United States to France from May 18 to 22, 2027, arriving at Le Bourget on May 21, exactly 100 years after his landing. The five-day event is called Spirit of St. Louis 100. Erik Lindbergh, Charles Lindbergh’s grandson, will host it. Erik is also a pilot and crossed the Atlantic solo in 2002 to mark the 75th anniversary of his grandfather’s flight. The centennial expedition will be a private journey starting in Washington, D.C. It will then go to New York before heading to Paris on a Boeing 757-200 with all-business-class seating.
About 80 travelers are expected to join the trip, which will closely follow Lindbergh’s original route across the Atlantic, as much as modern air traffic allows. The journey starts at Washington’s Waldorf Astoria. Guests will have a welcome briefing and hear a panel discussion with descendants of people involved in the original flight. It includes representatives of Raymond Orteig, who offered the prize for the crossing; Harold Bixby, who helped fund the aircraft; and Donald Hall, who helped design the Spirit of St. Louis. There will also be a private evening reception. The next day, travelers will get early access to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. They will see the original Spirit of St. Louis next to the Apollo 11 command module Columbia and other historic aircraft. They will also view the Lockheed Sirius Tingmissartoq, used by Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh during their 40,000-mile trip to help survey international air routes. After Washington, the group will go to New York and visit the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, Long Island. The museum sits on the former Mitchel Field grounds near Roosevelt Field, where Lindbergh began his journey. Its collection includes a 1928 Ryan Brougham, a sister aircraft to the Spirit of St. Louis, and exhibits showing Long Island’s role in the growth of American aviation.
Before leaving New York, the group will have lunch with aviation leaders and visit the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History. After that, they will go to John F. Kennedy International Airport to board the Boeing 757 for the overnight flight to Paris. However, the two journeys will differ significantly. He flew alone, in a tiny plane, with no radio, no parachute, just a compass and his sense of time to guide him. He couldn’t see through the fuel tank of his plane, and the flight lasted 33 hours and 30 minutes of exhaustion, cold, and fog. The 2027 trip will take the same general path but will use modern navigation tools, weather radar, satellite communications, and a full flight crew. The organizers want to keep the historical connection by following the original route as closely as possible and arriving at the same airfield a century later. The group will land at Le Bourget Airport on May 21, 2027, which marks 100 years since Lindbergh’s arrival. After resting, participants will return to the airport for special events with the French government. The program will include the Lindbergh Foundation’s International Awards and a large drone show featuring the Spirit of St. Louis. Guests will also visit the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace at Le Bourget. The museum shows the history of aviation, from early inventors to modern airplanes and spacecraft. It has a Blériot XI-2, two Concorde supersonic airliners, an Airbus A380, a Boeing 747, and a Soyuz space capsule.
The museum also highlights the story of Charles Nungesser and François Coli, the French aviators who vanished while trying to cross the Atlantic in L’Oiseau Blanc in May 1927, just two weeks before Lindbergh’s flight. The only surviving piece of their aircraft is the main landing gear that was jettisoned. The program will celebrate the original flight and support a new learning initiative. The Lindbergh Foundation is working with the XPRIZE Foundation to launch the Spirit of St. Louis Lindbergh Innovation Challenge. This nine-month initiative, inspired by the Orteig Prize, will have student teams tackle problems in aviation, aerospace, engineering, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, sustainability, entrepreneurship, and exploration. Participants will showcase their work during centennial events and join XPRIZE challenges. The main journey concludes on May 22, with travelers departing Paris for home or continuing on an optional extension to Burgundy. Hosted by Erik Lindbergh, the extension includes an evening at the 12th-century Château du Clos de Vougeot with the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin. The five-day trip offers more than just a commemorative flight across the Atlantic. Spirit of St. Louis 100 aims to connect the 1927 achievement with today’s explorers. A hundred years after Lindbergh proved a solo flight across the Atlantic was possible, the journey will revisit the airfields, aircraft, and people behind that milestone. It will also look at how the ambition behind it continues to influence aviation today. Read more about the journey at criteriontravel.com/lindbergh/.
