Early on the morning of May 20, 1927, the 25-year old airmail pilot from Minnesota climbed into his specially designed Ryan NYP monoplane, dubbed the Spirit of St. Louis. The plane lurched and bounded down the unpaved runway at Roosevelt Field, Long Island. Loaded with fuel weighing 25 percent more than the airplane itself, Charles Augustus Lindbergh bounced, dropped, then lifted off slowly at 7:52 a.m., vanishing in a light drizzle.

It was the beginning of a grand adventure with no turning back. Thirty-three hours and thirty minutes later he would arrive at Le Bourget Field, Paris, a world hero. With only a few instruments and no radio or electronic navigation gear, he flew 3,600 miles—solo and nonstop—one of the great feats in aviation history! The airframe, the engine, and the pilot had performed flawlessly. This historic flight, more than any other, inspired confidence in the airplane as a practical means of transportation—a confidence that has never wavered.

This commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Lindbergh’s historic trans-Atlantic crossing was the 46th painting in the Heritage of the Air Collection and the first addition to the series by artist Merv Corning in almost 30 years. It depicts Lindbergh crossing the shores of Newfoundland—his last sight of land until he reached the coast of Ireland.