![]() ![]() When I drive in unfamiliar areas, I use my GPS, and around town, there are plenty of landmarks. Imagine flying all that way across the ocean and keeping your bearings. This was a fabric covered, single seat, high-wing monoplane named the Spirit of St. To accomplish the trans-Atlantic feat, he flew a Ryan NYP, which he helped design (a repetitive theme). Louisįor his accomplishment, Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize, which had gone unclaimed since its initial 1919 offering and claimed the lives of several pilots with its allure. Not only did he do the seemingly impossible, but he united the continents, and life was never to be the same. Even with the absence of paparazzi, 24-hr news and the internet, the media zoo descended on the Lindberghs and would later go into a frenzy with the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, but for now, Charles Lindbergh was the celebrative man-of-the-hour. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh left Roosevelt Field in Long Island, NY and landed at Le Bourget Field in Paris, France to become an international sensation, a true celebrity. ![]() When Lindbergh flew his famed non-stop, solo Atlantic crossing, Longines timed the event total time was 33 hours and 30 minutes. The rise of general aviation meant a growing need for navigational accuracy, which led to Longines’ horological advances.īeing the official timer of the Olympics, Longines was a well-respected time keeper and a name that people knew. Crop dusting, aerial surveying and corporate aviation all came into being in the mid-1920s. Veterans became barnstormers, daredevil stunt pilots who toured the country, providing the first airshows and offering the public a ride. 25-year old Lindbergh served as a US Mail Pilot, running the route between St. Planes delivered the mail via Airmail, and the US Postal Service employed a bevy of pilots. Famed Lindbergh, the media’s darling, and Longines would partner to design a navigational watch, the Hour Angle Watch.ĭuring this time between the wars, flying was no longer news it was commonplace. When aviation emerged from its pioneering development (led by pilots Alberto Santos-Dumont and Louis Blériot) into its Golden Age between the two World Wars, flying became a household topic and Longines was aviation’s associated partner primarily due to one man: Charles Lindbergh. So what comes to mind when you hear Longines? Aviation? If so, some might think you need to get your head examined, but there was a time when Longines was the ready answer. Common pairings, however, emerge when they are a part of the cultural lingo: hear Volkswagen/think Beetle hear Babe Ruth/think home run hear Caesar/think Rome – you get the idea. For example, when I hear the word ocean, I think of the Caribbean. Wells’ time travel and an active imagination, maybe even some psychotherapy. When psychologists use a word association test, they ask you to name the first word that comes to mind. Recreating the ubiquitous association between Longines and aviation that existed at the close of the 1920s requires a dash of H.G. ![]()
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