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When he was a little boy in the early 1900s, Charles Lindbergh used to lie on the grass and stare up at the sky.

He would watch stunt pilots, also known as barnstormers, perform their death-defying acts and he found his calling in life.

Charles Lindbergh wanted to fly.

After getting his pilot's license in the mid-1920s, that's exactly what he did.

Charles spent two years wowing audiences with stunt such as wingwalking and changing planes in mid-air.

He began doing even more complicated maneuvers, such as killing the engine at 3,000 feet and gliding to the ground.

And he became one of America's top stunt pilots.

Although Charles was known as Slim, a reference to his lengthy form, he spent much of the 1920s performing under the name Daredevil Lindbergh.

This was the beginning of a long line of nicknames by which the public identified Charles.

After serving in the U.S. Army and test piloting experimental planes, Charles became an airmail pilot.

He survived four airplane crashes by bailing out of the planes mid-air and parachuting to safety.

He became skilled at flying at night and extreme weather conditions.

This would all benefit him when he accomplished one of his greatest feats, flying the first non-stop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris.

On May 20th, 1927, Lindbergh began the journey that would take him 33 and a half hours and 3600 miles.

Against the odds, he completed the first non-stop flight between two major cities and the first solo transatlantic flight, earning him yet another nickname, the Lone Eagle.

A crowd of 150,000 people was on hand to greet Charles when he landed in Paris.

They dragged him from the cockpit and he became an international hero.

According to the Smithsonian Air and Space magazine, quote,

quote, he was fortunate that the winds over the Atlantic canceled each other out, giving him zero wind drift and thus accurate navigation during the long flight over the ocean.

He named the name that stuck with Charles for a long time. But Charles hated the nickname. He felt it was not luck that helped him cross the Atlantic and made him an international superstar.

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