Lindbergh's Solo Flight

In early May 1923 at Souther Field, Charles Lindbergh made his first solo flight after coming to Americus to buy a surplus aircraft from the World War I training center. He selected a Curtiss JN4 "Jenny" equipped with a brand-new OX-5 engine, a fresh coat of olive drab dope, and an extra 20 gallon fuel tank, and purchased it for $500. With less than 20 hours of instruction, he spent a week practicing take-offs and landings, then filled the plane with forty gallons of gas and headed for Montgomery, Alabama, to begin his barnstorming career. Four years later, flying alone in the "Spirit of St. Louis," he went from New York to Paris and entered aviation history.

Americus, Georgia · United States