05/20/2026
May 20 – 21, 1927
Spirit of St Louis
33hours and 30 minutes
3610 miles
New York to Bourget Field near Paris, France
Greeted by 100,000
Budget of $15,000
The Spirit of St. Louis (formally the Ryan NYP, registration: N-X-211) is the custom-built, single-engine, single-seat, high-wing monoplane that was flown by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight from Long Island, New York, to Paris, France, for which Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize.
Lindbergh's airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, was unique. Dubbed a "flying gas tank," the plane could hold more than 450 gallons of fuel. It had a 223 HP radial engine, a 45-foot wingspan and got about 10 miles to a gallon, giving it a range of 4,200 miles. The plane, engine and pilot weighed only 2,500 pounds, but a full load of gas weighed 2,700 pounds, more than doubling the weight of the plane. To keep the weight down, Lindbergh left off the radios, the brakes, the pilot's parachute and even the front window (which he replaced with another gas tank).
