# Without looking it up: 2nd person to solo across the Atlantic **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 16, 2007, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915 "2007-07-16T01:05:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/1 "2007-07-16T01:05:47Z")
A poll. In an episode of _From The Earth To The Moon_ there is dialog about the historical significance of being the first person to set foot on the Moon. ‘Who remembers the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic?’ As someone who was raised around aviation, I do. Without looking it up, do you know who the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic was? ---
**Author:** ![Small\_British\_Shop\_Owner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@Small\_British\_Shop\_Owner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_British_Shop_Owner)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/2 "2007-07-16T01:23:38Z")
Yes, but only because of their other acheivements. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/3 "2007-07-16T01:25:44Z")
Clarence Chamberlain. Why do I remember him?..Paul Harvey. (Groan.) ---
**Author:** ![Small\_British\_Shop\_Owner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@Small\_British\_Shop\_Owner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_British_Shop_Owner)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/4 "2007-07-16T01:28:48Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] Clarence Chamberlain. Why do I remember him?..Paul Harvey. (Groan.) [/QUOTE] Either you are wrong or I am, and I am not wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/5 "2007-07-16T01:29:30Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] Clarence Chamberlain. Why do I remember him?..Paul Harvey. (Groan.) [/QUOTE] He wasn’t solo. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/6 "2007-07-16T01:33:27Z")
I guessed, but when I looked it up my guess was right. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/7 "2007-07-16T01:33:58Z")
Wiley Post? ETA (after looking it up): :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/8 "2007-07-16T01:39:03Z")
I always wondered if Lindbergh flew back home as well. That would add a twist to the question although he wasn’t two people. How did he get the plane back? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/9 "2007-07-16T01:41:14Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] He wasn’t solo. [/QUOTE] [Cite](http://home.att.net/~vikingdrvr/printerFriendly.cfm.htm) (first paragraph edited, and emphasis added, by me): > [@](#): > > Charles Lindbergh… flew a highly-modified version of the Ryan M-2 and named it “The Spirit of Saint Louis.” > > Two weeks later, Clarence Chamberlain — who had been in a $25,000 competition with Lindbergh and others for the first person to cross the Atlantic non-stop in a plane — flew the longer distance from New York to Berlin in a Bellanca named the “Columbia” and **accompanied by a passenger: company owner at the time, Charles Levine.** ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/10 "2007-07-16T01:41:51Z")
I thought it was Amelia Earhart… ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/11 "2007-07-16T01:42:55Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] I always wondered if Lindbergh flew back home as well. That would add a twist to the question although he wasn’t two people. How did he get the plane back? [/QUOTE] IIRC he was not permitted to fly _Spirit_ back. Instead it was crfated up and shipped back. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/12 "2007-07-16T01:45:20Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] He wasn’t solo. [/QUOTE] Well, he had no copilot, just a passenger. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/13 "2007-07-16T02:14:00Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] Well, he had no copilot, just a passenger. :dubious: [/QUOTE] [FAR 61.51(d)](http://www.risingup.com/fars/info/part61-51-FAR.shtml) (emphasis mine): > [@](#): > > (d) _Logging of solo flight time._ Except for a student pilot performing the duties of pilot in command of an airship requiring more than one pilot flight crewmember, a pilot may log as solo flight time only that flight time **when the pilot is the sole occupant of the aircraft.** ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/14 "2007-07-16T02:22:24Z")
Well, yippee ha for the Federal regs. You win a beer if I ever meet you. What I don’t get is why it’s so important, historically, to _solo_ the Atlantic as opposed to _nonstopping_ it. The biggest challenge with aircraft in the 20s was range and fuel capacity, not just payload. Asking who soloed second (or even first really) is kind like asking who was the first to fly the Atlantic in street shoes or without a bag lunch. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/15 "2007-07-16T02:26:34Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] [FAR 61.51(d)](http://www.risingup.com/fars/info/part61-51-FAR.shtml) (emphasis mine): [/QUOTE] And, that was written _when?_. What was considered _solo_ in the late 20’s, early 30’s? ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/16 "2007-07-16T02:30:12Z")
I couldn’t name who it was. But then again, I couldn’t name who was the first to make it across the Atlantic by aircraft, anyways. AIUI Lindy was actually #29, or something like that. Just the first to do it solo and non-stop. I think it’s also worth noting that for a number of reasons Lindberg’s accomplishment was made into regular fodder for flag-waving for years. (Some of it his own self-promotion.) And I think that’s got as much to do with remembering his accomplishment as anything about whether the accomplishment was note-worthy in its own right. OTOH, considering how the Wright brothers are remembered after the way that so many people tried to push the myth that Langley was the first to fly (Yes, I’m looking at you, Smithsonian!) for so many years… I may be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/17 "2007-07-16T02:30:38Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] What I don’t get is why it’s so important, historically, to _solo_ the Atlantic as opposed to _nonstopping_ it. [/QUOTE] Indeed the Orteig Prize _was_ offered for the first non-stop flight between New York and Paris. Lindbergh just happened to do it solo. ---
**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/18 "2007-07-16T05:09:43Z")
Nope. I knew the first man (Lindbergh), and the first woman (Earhart). Not the second person, though. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Bow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85f322/32.png) [@Jim\_Bow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_Bow)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/19 "2014-11-30T03:26:32Z")
Bert Hinkler. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915/20 "2014-11-30T05:26:31Z")
> [@Jim\_Bow](#): > > Bert Hinkler. Who is presumably forgotten because: (1) he was Australian, and (2) his flight was not between North America and Europe. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-2nd-person-to-solo-across-the-atlantic/411915.md?page=2)