Biography

In 1927, just prior to his historic flight, Lindbergh was nearly grounded by William P. MacCracken, Jr., a government aeronautics official. Lindbergh had been engaging in barnstorming and daredevil flights in government planes, and had actually wrecked several of them. Only after Lindbergh's supervisor promised to restrain his behavior did MacCracken relent and allow Lindbergh to make his historic flight.

His record-setting flight over the Atlantic Ocean failed to make the cover of Time Magazine in 1927. Later that year, seeking to fill in a slow news week and make up for missing the story earlier, the editors of Time created their "Man of the Year" honorific, devoting an entire issue to how influential the flight was, and making Lindy himself the first person ever to receive that title.

Had three children with German hat-maker Brigitte Hesshaimer: Dirk (born 1958), Astrid (born 1960), and David (born 1967). They managed to keep the affair secret until Astrid disclosed it in 2003, two years after both Ms. Hesshaimer and Mrs. Lindbergh had died. DNA tests have confirmed the truth of these assertions.

From the mid-1950s he was a consultant and director of Pan-American Airways.

In 1954 he was named a brigadier general in the US Air Force Reserves for his long-term service to the US government.