1927 was a big year in aviation, and nothing was bigger than the race to be the first to make the Paris to New York Atlantic crossing.
At one point, as many as a half dozen aviators were vying for the honor of being the first, but most dropped out due to mechanical or funding problems, leaving only a few genuine contenders.
Charles Lindbergh was the one who eventually pulled it off, but it was a close call as just days before he made his flight, a well-known French aviator named Charles Nungesser attempted to take the prize by flying from Paris to New York.
Unfortunately—or perhaps fortuitously from Lindbergh's standpoint—the man, along with his navigator, François Coli, disappeared somewhere over the Atlantic and were never heard from again.
