-It is the greatest challenge of the 1920s -- a flight of thousands of miles across the open Atlantic.

-Okay, here we go!

-A competition between life and death.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ May 1919.

Raymond Orteig, a New York hotelier, writes a letter that will go down in aviation history.

-"Gentlemen, as a stimulus to the courageous aviators, I desire to offer, through the auspices and regulations of the Aero Club of America, a prize of $25,000 to the first aviator of any Allied country crossing the Atlantic in one flight, from Paris to New York or New York to Paris.

All other details in your care.

Yours very sincerely, Raymond Orteig."

-A small group of pilots and engineers will take on this challenge, but it'll take almost eight years.

It is a long way to go.

The route from New York to Paris is more than 5,800 kilometers long, 3,000 kilometers of which cross the wild, open North Atlantic.

The watery expanse between Newfoundland and Ireland offers no opportunity for stopovers.

In the spring of 1919, a flight covering such a distance was considered almost impossible.

♪♪ In May of the same year, the U.S.

Navy launches a transatlantic expedition, three flying boats will fly from the USA to Europe with stops along the way, of course.

The route -- New York, Newfoundland, Azores, Portugal.

The journey takes three weeks.

Just two planes make it to the Azores.

Their crews narrowly escape death.

After 23 days, only one flying boat is able to make the water landing in Lisbon.

♪♪ Three weeks later, British pilots Alcock and Brown make the first direct flight from Newfoundland to Ireland, a sensational success, despite the crash landing.

♪♪ The U.S.

Navy has its own Air Force, in direct competition with the Army.

The war has shown that aircraft are indispensable in naval combat.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Camera shutter clicks ] A young man from a renowned East Coast family.

But just flying is not enough for him.

He dreams of great expeditions.

Richard Byrd is handsome and well-connected, intelligent and vain, in top physical shape and full of self-confidence.

He wants to step into the limelight.

-He got his flying license in Pensacola, but he was also on the crash board, so he knew a lot of the young fliers who, you know, they were young men and they were daredevils, and they didn't think anything could happen to them.

And so, he would investigate many of the crashes and deaths.

And they had a high incidence of crashes out in Pensacola.

At the same time that he could be a daredevil, there was also a side to him which was extremely careful.

After Pensacola, he would tend to test his planes over and over again.

-An outstanding officer, ambitious, but also in control.

In 1921, he proposes a solo flight across the Atlantic to the Navy.

His request is rejected.

During the war, the Frenchman Charles Nungesser had been involved in some fierce aerial battles with the enemy.

His service record shows 17 wounded and 43 kills.

He may not have the most aerial victories, but he has the most star power.

Each of his planes bears his personal lucky sign -- a black heart containing a coffin, a skull and two candles.

-[ Speaking French ] -He loved to laugh.

He loved to play jokes.

He was a man who didn't leave those he talked to indifferent.

He loved fame.

He loved to be talked about.

He loved everything.

He loved women.

He lived.

He really lived.

He was, if I may say so, a very complete man in that respect.

[ Drums playing ] -At the Bastille Day parade in Paris in 1919, attention is focused on a different pilot.

His name is René Fonck.

♪♪ -[ Speaking French ] -At the end of the First World War, René Fonck was something of a war hero.

He was the Allied pilot with the most victories.

He scored 75 recognized aerial victories and had the honor of carrying the French aerial flag at the 1919 Victory Parade.

He was the most recognized and celebrated French pilot.

♪♪ -At a small airfield in Rhinebeck, a hundred miles north of New York, the remaining planes from the mad era of aviation are lovingly cared for.

The Curtiss "Jenny" is over a hundred years old.

In the early 1920s, the U.S.

military used thousands of them to train pilots.

At the time, the United States was a developing aviation nation.

One by one, the Army is getting rid of its training planes, which will soon become obsolete.

The biplanes are cheap.

A young man borrows $800 from his father.

His name is Charles Lindbergh.

Lindbergh buys a Jenny and soon becomes a barnstormer, touring the country on sightseeing flights.

Then he works as a parachutist and aerialist with an aerial circus.

Daredevil is his stage name.

His quality -- he always keeps his cool, even in risky moments.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ America is also an opportunity for Charles Nungesser.

After the war, he had struggled with a flying school and a business selling old military aircraft in France and was practically broke.

Now, Captain Nungesser is one of the attractions at the U.S.

air shows.

-[ Speaking French ] -Nungesser was an international star.

In the United State, that was quite extraordinary, much more so than in Europe.

These shows were a huge success, and the crowds came to admire this great pilot and this completely new show.

I don't think anyone had ever done that before.

They simulated dogfights.

There was another plane, which was the enemy, and he was pretending to attack it, firing his machine guns with blanks.

Of course, he wasn't actually firing.

♪♪ -His image of the romantic hero is perfect for the film business at the time.

In 1925, Nungesser signed a contract with Hollywood.

For a long time, the film "The Sky Raider" was thought to be lost.

A few years ago, a fragment of the film was found.

It's a passionate story about a daring fighter pilot who goes on a manhunt to help the love of his life.

The flying ace and the young beauty -- it's just like in his movie.

Nungesser marries an American 15 years his junior, Consuelo Hatmaker, a millionaire's daughter from New York who also lived in Paris for a time.

♪♪ The life of a barnstorming and flying circus pilot is exciting and restless.

It can't go on like this for much longer.

Charles Lindbergh needs a proper job.

After a short training with the military, he joins the airmail service.

These images show the then unknown Charles Lindbergh as an airmail pilot.

It's just a small newsreel scene.

Within a year, the whole world will know him.

♪♪ In the vast and geographically diverse United States, distances between cities are enormous.

Navigation is in its infancy.

But somehow, pilots have to find their way.

Those who prove themselves in airmail are true aviation professionals.

-That's where he really built up his experience, because airmail pilots at the time, they flew in terrible weather.

They flew at night.

Airplanes didn't have radios.

They had very few instruments, so you really had to learn.

You really had to be a good pilot.

-Life-threatening breakdowns are commonplace.

-It was just black below you.

There was nowhere you could see to *land.

You don't know if you would have hit a tree or a lake or whatever.

So, pilots would bail out and then hopefully the plane would come down and they could salvage the mail from it.

-Lindbergh has to bail out four times with the rescue parachute.

[ Camera shutter clicks ] In May 1926, Richard Byrd announces a sensational achievement.

Sponsored by Ford, Rockefeller, and department store magnate Wanamaker, he has had an airplane shipped to Svalbard to be the first pilot to fly over the North Pole.

-He said that he flew over the pole, but later it turned out that he may have miscalculated and he was 150 miles short.

-But even Byrd doesn't know that.

And so almost overnight, he becomes a national hero.

♪♪ In the autumn of 1925, René Fonck leaves for America.

He had been in politics for a few years and had suffered business setbacks.

Now he is looking for a new challenge.

In New York, Fonck has a serendipitous encounter.

He meets genius aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky, who has worked for the Russian czar and had to make a new start in the United States.

Sikorsky is working on a large aircraft that would make a direct flight between New York and Paris possible.

Fonck and Sikorsky are the first to officially register for the Orteig prize, yet the $25,000 prize money is the least of the incentives.

Whoever takes on this challenge will be set for life, both as a pilot and as a designer, for the fame will bring new commissions.

30 meters wingspan, 13 meters long, almost five meters high.

Sikorsky is building an aircraft for the transatlantic flight.

The new S-35 is equipped with a state-of-the-art radio system.

Both Fonck and Sikorsky agree that this is absolutely essential.

The calculated total cost of the transatlantic project?

$100,000.

Sikorsky has American investors behind him, but still not enough money.

Now there is a French partner, and he is using his connections in France.

♪♪ Fonck is able to procure engines from France at a special price.

At the end of August, the Sikorsky S-35, "New York to Paris," is ready for its maiden flight.

Expectations are high.

-[ Speaking French ] -Fonck's financial backers are mainly American.

They are keen to show that it is possible to participate in this aerial race and to carry out commercial flights with a huge aircraft of the appropriate proportions.

-Tests show the S-35 to be a reliable aircraft, but the summer of 1926 is drawing to a close.

Autumn storms are approaching, and the PR machine is running.

The window of opportunity for Fonck and Sikorsky is closing.

In early September, New York's high society flocks to Roosevelt Field on Long Island.

In the spotlight -- René Fonck and the Sikorsky team.

It's the official christening of the "super aircraft," but time is precious.

Autumn is just around the corner, bringing with it bad weather.

The newspapers report on the imminent launch.

During the tests, the plane has not yet been flown, with the full load of fuel needed for the 40-hour Atlantic crossing.

Igor Sikorsky remembers.

♪♪ -I felt that the ship was under-tested, and that there was no possibility of properly making all the necessary tests.

But our little group, which by extreme effort had produced the fine ship, was not powerful enough to put off the flight.

-Four men are ready to cross the Atlantic.

René Fonck as captain, U.S.

Navy officer Lawrence Curtin as navigator, Russian Jacob Islamov, an employee of Sikorsky, as flight engineer, and French radio operator Charles Clavier.

Every day, newspaper reporters visit the airfield.

One of their biggest topics -- the luxury the team is living in.

-To add to this publicity around luxury, there is also talk of the best caterer in New York having prepared a hot meal for René Fonck to take with him on his trip and possibly eat when he arrives in Paris.

-The big day.

During the night, 9,000 liters of fuel were pumped into the S-35's huge tanks.

The aircraft weighs 12.5 tons, one and a half tons more than calculated.

The engines roar to life.

Fonck opens the throttle.

On to Paris!

♪♪ ♪♪ The overloaded aircraft was not fast enough to take off.

Fonck and Curtin escape the flames.

The two other crew members inside die in the fire.

Igor Sikorsky remembers.

-Few people realize how many serious aircraft accidents of that character were caused by similar circumstances, by the pressure of commitments and publicity, which make postponement impossible.

-Newsreels broadcast the drama across the country.

Almost everyone sees the horrific images, including Charles Lindbergh.

♪♪ ♪♪ The crash of the giant aircraft, the images of the dead crew.

They trigger Lindbergh's own very special plan -- alone, all alone, he must dare the perilous flight.

Wherever Richard Byrd goes, the press is not far behind.

Even when he is not there in person, his fame is everywhere.

In the department stores of his sponsor, Rodman Wanamaker, Byrd's polar airplane is displayed like a relic.

-Richard Byrd was probably one of the best known of the transatlantic competitors, and he was a household name, and he was able to raise money and purchase a Fokker.

-Byrd has not yet officially applied for the Orteig prize.

At a dinner, his sponsor, the department store magnate Rodman Wanamaker confronts him.

-Wanamaker said, well, "Why don't you fly across the Atlantic?

You know, I challenge you to fly across the Atlantic."

And he challenged him publicly.

-America could hardly imagine a more perfect hero than Richard Byrd.

The Commander, as he likes to be called, is brave, level-headed, and good looking.

A family man without scandal.

♪♪ But there is growing public doubt that he actually made it to the North Pole in his plane.

Byrd is feeling the pressure.

-People were already starting to say, well, maybe he lied about the pole, but if he flew across the Atlantic, people couldn't challenge his courage.

-In March 1927, rumor becomes fact.

Byrd enters the transatlantic race.

His budget -- $100,000.

The money comes from Rodman Wanamaker, among others.

-Flying was also a high society type of gig.

And so, if you're giving money to these, you know, these rock stars of the air, then you're seen and you're known and you're progressive.

I mean, it's just all of this stuff all together.

-Charles Nungesser's Hollywood career is short-lived, and when it comes to his love life, things are not going as well as hoped.

Three years after their spectacular wedding, his marriage to Consuelo, the daughter of the New York millionaire, is on the rocks.

♪♪ In Paris, Charles Nungesser is looking for new business opportunities and flying challenges.

Like so many top pilots, he is very interested in the Orteig prize.

But as a proud Frenchman, he, of course, wants to take off from Paris and fly to New York.

-[ Speaking French ] -Nungesser wanted to fly the other way round.

He wanted to go north.

It was a project he'd been thinking about for a long time.

He just needed to find a partner.

And when they met, he naturally thought of carrying out their project.

-Nungesser's plane has a kind of boat fuselage.

The landing gear is jettisoned after takeoff.

After that, only a water landing is possible.

Charles Nungesser wants to fly the almost 6,000 kilometers by himself, but his engineer, Levasseur, is adamantly against it, and they settle on Francois Coli, an experienced long-distance pilot as navigator.

♪♪ New York.

These are the years of jazz and easy money.

Newspapers and glossy magazines celebrate the famous and the would-be famous.

Charles Levine got rich very quickly.

He is 30 years old.

He races cars and is interested in flying.

A dollar adventurer who made his first million from scrap ammunition.

In the mid-1920s, he enters the aircraft business.

-There was a lot of antisemitism at the time, and I think because he was Jewish, most of the other people wouldn't have anything to do with him.

He was also kind of aggressive and kind of personally grating.

-Levine was a strange guy and wanted to get into aviation and wasn't a very good pilot.

He tried to learn, and people thought he was awful, but he owned the best plane in the world at that time.

-"Bellanca."

That's the name of the aircraft company that Levine now owns.

He hires professional pilots who, backed by his money, are supposed to fly a Bellanca aircraft to Paris to win Orteig's prize.

One of them is Clarence Chamberlin, a consummate professional.

Unfortunately, he's also a bit of a bore, which bothers Levine.

-Chamberlin was one of these mechanical geniuses who never went to school.

I mean, he could figure things out, but he was not particularly good on camera.

And so, he was never really a star.

But he was probably the best flier of the bunch.

-Dress rehearsal for the transatlantic flight.

On the ground, the pilots' wives wait in the crowd.

Above them, the plane circles over Long Island.

A mattress has been placed in the fuselage of the plane, where the crew can catch some sleep.

A dozen chicken sandwiches satisfy the hunger.

Landing, after 51 hours.

But the team is at odds.

Levine is not only a shrewd businessman, but also a difficult character.

Contracts with him usually end badly for his partners.

Levine promised the pilots more than he is prepared to deliver.

The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome owns an exact replica of the plane in which Charles Lindbergh made history.

Lindbergh's sponsors, St.

Louis businessmen, gave $15,000, a paltry sum compared to the other teams.

The aircraft is a model made by the small Californian company Ryan.

Lindbergh christens it "Spirit of St.

Louis."

Lindbergh actually wanted a Bellanca for his transatlantic flight, but Levine's terms of sale were unaffordable.

The Ryan, however, is very similar to the Bellanca.

♪♪ -In going around to the different manufacturers to determine who could provide the aircraft that could meet the specs that Lindbergh wanted for the trip, he approached Ryan.

And in discussion with them, they realized they could take an existing design and modify it.

-The equipment is spartan, just as Lindbergh wanted it.

Every superfluous instrument is omitted.

There is no radio, no sextant.

The idea is to save as much weight as possible in order to carry as much fuel as possible, and the Wright engine is supposed to last at least 40 hours.

♪♪ ♪♪ There is one other team that uses the Wright engine.

At a military airfield in Virginia, 500 kilometers south of New York, Navy pilots Stanton Wooster and Noel Davis are preparing for their transatlantic flight.

It is sponsored by the veterans' organization American Legion.

The budget -- $100,000.

Their plane is a modified bomber.

It is similar in size to the Sikorsky in which Fonck had crashed the previous autumn.

But the tests are promising.

René Fonck also wants to try again in the spring of 1927.

Sikorsky is working on a new aircraft, but in the end, no investors can be persuaded.

For Fonck, the dream of a transatlantic flight is over.

♪♪ ♪♪ Tension is rising on Long Island.

The gladiators enter the arena.

Richard Byrd has invested the most money in logistics.

He is the favorite at Roosevelt Field.

On the maiden flight of Byrd's plane, his engineer, Anthony Fokker himself, is at the controls.

Also on board are Byrd and two other crew members.

Upon landing -- a crash.

♪♪ The passengers survive with fractures and other injuries.

The aircraft is damaged but can be repaired.

Giving up?

Not an option for Byrd.

♪♪ Eight days later, the next big day for Team Levine.

Eloise, Levine's 9-year-old daughter, has the honor of naming the plane "Columbia."

As a reward, Eloise and her friend are treated to a short flight with Clarence Chamberlin at the controls.

The Sunday outing almost ends in disaster.

-All of a sudden, the wheel fell off his plane.

We're going to see these two little girls get killed.

It's a very tense situation.

And he came down and he kind of, like, landed so very gently.

And he landed on the one wheel, and he kind of like slowed down until the plane just kind of tipped over on its wing.

♪♪ -Chamberlin's masterpiece.

-Those are hard planes to fly, and that was exceptional skill.

I don't think that Lindbergh or Byrd or any of those other guys could have done that.

He was just very good.

-But Levine's team, now comprising three experienced pilots, is in crisis.

At the same time, at Langley Field in Virginia, Wooster and Davis gradually increased the payload of their aircraft.

Four tons of fuel are added to the tanks.

The pilots attempt the first takeoff with the maximum weight.

It ends with a crash.

Wooster and Davis are dead.

Some had already forgotten -- flying across the ocean is a truly perilous undertaking.

-These two Navy fliers, who were very scientific, they died.

Byrd, the front runner, he could have died.

And all of a sudden, it was elevated in the press and in the public's mind to a real, you know, a real kind of metaphor of life and death, and that's when it became big.

-The competitors are staying at the Garden City Hotel, not far from Roosevelt Field.

And the fans know that their heroes can be found there when they are not at the airfield.

Richard Byrd has received hundreds of letters, many from women desperate to fly across the Atlantic with him.

♪♪ -There was a certain groupie content to it.

The pilots, they were young, they were handsome, and there were always a lot of young women around them.

Byrd, especially, since he had a bigger plane.

Byrd was getting all of these letters saying, "Why don't you take me across?

You know, why don't you take a woman across?"

-Byrd's fame extends as far as Hollywood.

♪♪ It is springtime in Paris.

The newspapers announce that Charles Nungesser, the pilot, and Francois Coli, the navigator, are about to take off.

In the cafés, their preparations are the talk of the town.

The nation's honor is at stake.

The aircraft is painted in the French national colors and bears Nungesser's lucky sign.

The engine has been tested for 40 consecutive hours without any problems.

Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli have carefully calculated their flight.

The east-west route across the Atlantic is the more difficult because of headwinds, but the great white bird inspires confidence in all concerned.

Nungesser has a grandiose plan -- to take off from Paris and land spectacularly on the Hudson River next to the Statue of Liberty the next day.

New York would be at his feet.

And maybe Consuelo will be waiting on the shore as well.

At dawn on the 8th of May, 1927, hundreds of Parisians gather at the airfield to watch Nungesser take off.

-[ Speaking French ] -All sorts of famous people were there.

Actors, artists, journalists, and, of course, the famous Josephine Baker.

And because he flew early, they came early, too, from all over Paris.

They saw him take off, and then adieu, goodbye.

Nobody thought of it as a farewell forever.

Everyone believed they would arrive safely on the other side.

♪♪ -Nungesser and Coli climb aboard the Oiseau Blanc.

The undercarriage, which will be jettisoned after takeoff, is checked one last time.

U.S.

reporter William Shirer watches the takeoff.

-Nungesser and Coli were in a jubilant mood, wisecracking to their friends.

The engine was started, revved up, and in a moment, they were off into the early dawn.

The heavily weighted plane seemed to gather speed so slowly that for a moment, I was in agony.

Halfway across the field, it lifted half a dozen feet and then hit the ground again.

We all gasped.

But Nungesser kept going at full throttle.

Toward the end of the field, the plane finally rose and just cleared the trees.

In a moment, it disappeared toward the northwest.

-Nungesser sets course for the Normandy coast.

The famous cliffs of Étretat are the last navigation point on the French mainland.

This is where the escort planes turn back.

♪♪ -[ Speaking French ] -He takes off.

He passes Étretat.

You see the plane take off, and that's it.

No one would ever see the white bird again.

[ Camera shutter clicks ] -One last photo.

In Paris, people are waiting for the latest news from the transatlantic aviators.

The newspapers report a sighting over England.

a sighting over Ireland, and then the next day, after 36 hours, the success story.

They have made it.

♪♪ They have been spotted over Newfoundland.

Nungesser and coli will be in New York in five hours, the newspapers announce.

-Everyone started toasting the success of this historic flight in champagne.

Parisian snake-danced through the streets.

Offices and stores shut down.

To have watched those two brave Frenchmen set off so confidently on so hazardous a flight, and then to know they had succeeded, filled you with pride in men.

♪♪ -Fake news.

[ Speaking French ] -Fake news, because the journalists had prepared not only headlines, but also texts for publication.

Some of them were printed, and after a while, you had to say, "Bah non, they didn't arrive.

We don't know where they are."

-[ Speaking French ] -At 2:00 p.m.

New York time on the 9th of May, Nungesser was due to land on the water off Manhattan.

Search planes are launched a few hours later, but to no avail.

The white bird remained lost.

The French press is forced to retract its false reports.

The pilots' fate remains unknown, and speculation is rife.

Mourning mixes with feelings of nationalism.

-The Paris newspapers began to publish dark rumors, no matter how unfounded.

It was reported that the U.S.

Weather Bureau had declined to furnish the French aviators with the latest weather reports over the North Atlantic.

One newspaper claimed that the reports had been furnished, but that they were deliberately falsified.

American wire services were blamed for broadcasting the fake report that the French plane had been sighted over Newfoundland.

It was branded as a cruel hoax.

-Now we know that the French didn't have weather reports from the western side of the Atlantic, only the eastern side.

And what they didn't know was there was a fairly strong headwind in the western Atlantic that day, when Nungesser and Coli were flying.

So, they just didn't have enough fuel to reach New York and probably not even reach Canada.

So, they came up probably a couple hundred miles short.

-To this day, no one knows where the white bird crashed -- in the sea, over Newfoundland, over the United States?

All that remains of the Oiseau Blanc is its landing gear.

It was jettisoned after takeoff, as planned.

♪♪ The fate of the French pilots hangs in the air like the many storm clouds over Long Island.

♪♪ Byrd's plane has been repaired.

It is technically ready to take off, but the Commander wants to be on the safe side.

The accidents of the other participants make him even more cautious.

The press follows his every move.

The newsreel uses the newly invented sound film technology, but Byrd simply won't make his start.

-This became an issue.

Even his backers would get really impatient with him because he would test and test and test, and he wouldn't act, you know.

They would call him.

You know, sometimes they'd call him a coward or something like that.

-Finally, Byrd is ready to set off.

-Yeah, this plane has come up to our highest expectations, and we think it is one of the greatest planes in the world.

-But now Byrd's financers are prohibiting the start.

First, they want to know what has become of Nungesser and Coli.

Charles Lindbergh arrives from the West coast.

His route -- San Diego, St.

Louis, New York.

It took him 22 hours to fly from coast to coast.

That, too, is a record.

His Ryan is brand new from the factory.

Lindbergh and his plane are surrounded by the public and the press.

The young outsider becomes the secret star.

He patiently endures the hype.

♪♪ Rivals Byrd and Chamberlin greet the underdog.

Lindbergh's mother has come by train.

♪♪ The Levine team next door is keeping its feet on the ground for the time being.

The landing gear problems have been resolved.

Now there is a dispute over the pilots' contracts, and Levine, the team manager, still hasn't decided who should fly.

This gives Chamberlin a better chance to win the race.

So, who should be in the co-pilot seat?

Levine remains tight-lipped.

♪♪ At the Garden City Hotel, reporters and fans are constantly coming and going, besieging the pilots.

More and more attention is now being paid to the handsome young man, just 25 years old -- Charles Lindbergh, the loner.

-One person against the elements.

One person planning the flight and flying himself and fighting against the bad weather and getting to where he wanted to go, on time, on course.

Uh, it was just amazing.

People just couldn't believe that one person could do this.

And just the way he spoke and the way he looked.

He was a rock star.

-And then, the big day.

-Where that white building is in the corner, that's where Hangar 16 was, where the Spirit of St.

Louis was kept for the week before the flight, where Lindbergh worked on the airplane and tested it.

And then the morning on May 20th, the rainy morning, it was the eastern half of the field -- there was a gully dividing the eastern half, and this is the western half.

But the eastern half had a much longer runway.

So, that rainy morning they towed the plane behind a car, and they towed it down the gully and up to the eastern half of the field, because that had a mile-long runway.

-The Byrd and Levine teams are stuck.

Lindbergh sees his chance.

1,700 liters of aviation fuel are pumped into the five tanks of the Spirit of St.

Louis, but Lindbergh has to wait.

Byrd, as the owner of the runway, wants to do a few more tests with his Fokker.

Finally, at 7:51 a.m.

on the 20th of May, 1927, Lindbergh revs the engine to full speed.

♪♪ ♪♪ -This road we're turning on is almost exactly where the runway was in 1927.

So looking down, you're actually this way.

You're actually kind of looking down the runway.

It extended much further, but it's pretty much right here toward the tree line.

-A UPI reporter describes the momentous occasion.

-Gradually, the machine picked up speed and rolled away.

Nearly half a mile down the runway, it bumped and bounced.

"He can't make it," men who ought to know gasped.

"He's going too slow.

For God's sake, why don't he speed up?"

"God be with him," murmured Commander Byrd.

"He's off!"

shouted the crowd.

♪♪ -Accompanied by several planes full of reporters, photographers, and cameramen, Lindbergh briefly steers the plane eastwards toward Long Island Sound.

♪♪ ♪♪ From here, the plan is to fly in a straight line up the east coast of the USA, across Newfoundland, and out over the open Atlantic.

Lindbergh has marked the route on a simple nautical chart.

After 15 hours over the sea, he would reach Ireland.

From there, it's only a short hop to Paris.

Lindbergh estimates the total flight time at 36 hours.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Lindbergh couldn't sleep the night before the flight, so he was actually awake for something like 68 hours straight, which is incredible.

While he was on the flight, he was so exhausted at one point, he was having hallucinations from sleep deprivation, and he was almost seeing things or hearing things.

♪♪ That's one of the reasons the Spirit of St.

Louis had windows on the side, but he took them out for the flight because he wanted cold, fresh air blowing in the whole time to keep him awake.

-28 hours after takeoff, Lindbergh sets his sights on the Irish coast.

♪♪ In Paris, word spreads of the lone transatlantic flier's imminent arrival.

The reporter takes a taxi -- and gets stuck in traffic outside the airport.

-By the time we got to the terminal, the largest crowd I had ever seen surrounded it and spilled off on the field beyond.

It must have numbered more than 100,000.

By 10:00 it had grown quite dark.

Still no sign or sound of Lindbergh.

I was just approaching the landing lights when I heard a plane above the field.

A small searchlight picked it up.

The tide of people surged forward to the field.

There was no doubt this time.

-The people surround Lindbergh and his plane.

They tear shreds from the covering until the military puts a stop to it.

At the same time, a ceremony is taking place at Roosevelt Field.

Byrd's Fokker is being christened "America."

Byrd has prepared a speech, but then he receives the news of Lindbergh's landing in Paris.

-Ladies and gentlemen.

That was certainly very wonderful news that we heard about Lindbergh a little while ago.

And my only thought now is about him and his wonderful victory.

-Yeah, he was greatly disappointed.

I mean, of course, I mean, you know, when you're in a competition and you're not the winner but you have tried so hard, I mean, everybody, you know, anybody would be disappointed, but the frontrunner, the golden boy is the big loser.

And he was starting to get a lot of mail saying, "You're just a loser.

Why don't you just go jump in a lake?"

-Paris celebrates Lindbergh.

David has defeated the Goliaths.

In 33.5 hours, he has achieved the impossible.

But amidst the jubilation, there is a moment of pause.

-[ Speaking French ] -When Lindbergh arrived in Paris, the first person he went to see was Madame Nungesser, Nungesser's mother.

He tried to comfort her.

What do you say to a mother?

"He'll arrive"?

But he never did.

-The world is gripped by transatlantic fever, Levine has come up with a very special solution to the dispute in his team.

He himself will accompany the pilot, Chamberlin, as the first ever passenger on a transatlantic flight.

His wife, Grace Levine, theatrically faints when she hears about it.

But nothing can stop the pilots.

Their destination -- Berlin, which is further than Lindbergh's flight.

But Chamberlin and Levine get lost over Germany.

They land in Berlin more than a day late, but still receive a jubilant welcome.

♪♪ On the other side of the Atlantic, in New York, Richard Byrd is resigned to his fate.

For the Commander, the transatlantic project is essentially over.

But Byrd has a contract with his sponsor, department store magnate Wanamaker.

-After Lindbergh made it over, he said, "Well, why don't we fly to Hawaii?

Nobody has ever done that."

And Wanamaker said, "Well, you could do that someday, but right now you're going to fly, you know, this -- my airplane over to Paris.

-Byrd is honoring his contract.

He takes off for Europe with a crew of three other passengers and a mail bag on board.

He has had a hill specially built as a launch pad for the large Fokker.

♪♪ The flight is marred by mental breakdowns and arguments within the team.

There is fog over France.

The crew of the America cannot find Paris.

In Normandy, Byrd's team makes an emergency landing in the water.

As the low tide reveals the aircraft, dozens of onlookers descend on the wreckage, hoping to find a souvenir.

♪♪ At least Byrd saved the mailbag.

The Commander is now the first person to have carried transatlantic air mail.

Lindbergh's return to America is marked by a series of parades, the likes of which the country has never seen.

More than 30 million people pay their respects.

-Our national hero, Charles Lindbergh.

[ Cheers and applause ] -At a reception, a proud Raymond Orteig presents him with a check for $25,000.

But Lindbergh doesn't have much time.

He has to leave immediately.

It will be another 30 years before the first commercial non-stop flight between New York and Paris takes place.

But this leap across the ocean will come to symbolize an entire era.

17 men tried.

Six died.

Almost all the others are forgotten today.

One became world famous.

Two became legends.

Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli may have disappeared, but they are not forgotten.

On the cliffs of Étretat, where they were last seen, the French erected a monumental memorial to their heroes in 1928.

It was destroyed by the German occupiers during the war, but has since been rebuilt in a modern style.

♪♪ And to this day, expeditions still set out to find the white bird across the Atlantic, somewhere in the wilds of Newfoundland.

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