Spirit of St. Louis

The Spirit of St. Louis (formally the Ryan NYP, registration: N-X-211) is the custom-built, single-engine, single-seat, high-wing <a href="/facts/Monoplane/2fLoovyH">monoplane</a> that <a href="/facts/Charles_Lindbergh/Hd2ve764">Charles Lindbergh</a> flew on May 20–21, 1927, on the <a href="/facts/Charles_Lindbergh/Hd2ve764">first solo nonstop</a> <a href="/facts/Transatlantic_flight/g9QekA7u">transatlantic flight</a> from <a href="/facts/Long_Island/u42NF647">Long Island</a>, New York, to <a href="/facts/Paris/DrNHpwnA">Paris</a>, France, for which Lindbergh won the $25,000 <a href="/facts/Orteig_Prize/MkmdmsYI">Orteig Prize</a>.
Lindbergh took off in the Spirit from <a href="/facts/Roosevelt_Airfield/SabBdFeH">Roosevelt Airfield</a> in <a href="/facts/Garden_City%2c_New_York/V1ykBhVk">Garden City, New York</a>, and landed 33 hours, 30 minutes later at <a href="/facts/Paris%25E2%2580%2593Le_Bourget_Airport/ulUI6gfy">Aéroport Le Bourget</a> in Paris, a distance of approximately 3,600 miles (5,800 km). He also flew this aircraft on numerous occasions, delivering mail in and out of the United States. One of the best-known aircraft in the world, the Spirit was built by <a href="/facts/Ryan_Airline_Company/e9wBAmzL">Ryan Airlines</a> in <a href="/facts/San_Diego/YFUP7gB9">San Diego</a>, California, owned and operated at the time by Benjamin Franklin Mahoney, who had purchased it from its founder, <a href="/facts/T._Claude_Ryan/HP0IPrKf">T. Claude Ryan</a>, in 1926. The Spirit is on permanent display at the <a href="/facts/Smithsonian_Institution/pqC74ta9">Smithsonian Institution</a>'s <a href="/facts/National_Air_and_Space_Museum/CSDNqoSA">National Air and Space Museum</a> in <a href="/facts/Washington%2c_D.C./enXPK156">Washington, D.C.</a>. The exhibit, Pioneers of Flight, is closed for renovations until Spring 2025.

Spirit of St. Louis open-in-new

Spirit of St. Louis