Charles Lindbergh was not the first pilot to cross the Atlantic
One of the interesting facts about Charles Lindberg is that he was not the first pilot to cross the Atlantic. The journey crossings of the Atlantic were accomplished by scores of other pioneering pilots in the years before to Charles Lindbergh's journey from New York to Paris.
Eight years previously, British pilots John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown accomplished the first nonstop transatlantic flight in a modified Vickers Vimy IV bomber (1,890 miles or 3,040 kilometers, which is much less than Lindbergh's 3,600 miles or 5,800 kilometers voyage). On June 14, 1919, they departed St. John's, Newfoundland, and they arrived in Ireland the following day. In the same period, Augustus Post, secretary of the Aero Club of America, approached Raymond Orteig, a French-born hotelier in New York, and persuaded him to offer a $25,000 prize for the first successful nonstop transatlantic flight specifically between New York City and Paris (in either direction) within five years of the club's founding.
Most traveled in stages or with lighter-than-air dirigibles. However, the fact that Charles Lindbergh accomplished this feat alone and between two important international cities was more significant than he was the first person to fly over the Atlantic.
