Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

May 9th, 1927. Thousands of people wait at the battery in New York City. Festive boats dot the water

around the harbor. Dignitaries mingle at a grand reception.

Who are they waiting for? The arrival of two French aviators.

When their plane touches down, the pair will be the first to complete a non-stop trip

between Paris and New York.

The world was captivated by the attempt and ready to celebrate the new aviation heroes.

Night falls.

Searchlights illuminate the rainy darkness trying to spot the plane, but it never arrives.

The aviators, Charles Nungessor and Francois Koli were veterans of World War I.

Nungesser was the pilot. He supposedly taught himself to fly by stealing an aircraft in Brazil.

During the war, he shot down dozens of German aircrafts.

Legend has it that when he was wounded and lost most of his teeth, he had them replaced

with metal substitutes.

Koli was a navigator.

He was an older man who wore a patch to cover the eye he'd lost taxing an airplane into a hangar.

When the two men announced, they'd attempt to be the first to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, they became the toast of Paris.

The night before the flight, hundreds gathered at the airport in France with champagne

and picnic baskets to say farewell. Their plan was dangerous. They would fly, sitting side

by side in a seaplane. Then they would drop their heavy landing gear to land the plane in the

water near the Statue of Liberty.

They'd have about 40 hours of fuel on board, no radio, and a primitive signal light on the bottom of the fuselage

...