The year was 1927. Several aspiring aviators had died in pursuit of the Orteig Prize, being the first to cross the Atlantic non-stop. A young, American pilot named Charles Lindbergh was the next pilot up to the challenge. He was sporting a snug, single-engine piston Ryan NYP airplane dubbed the Spirit of St. Louis. The weighed down airplane barely cleared telephone lines when taking off of the muddy runway. Over the next 33.5 hours in the cramped cockpit of the Spirit of St. Louis, Lindbergh battled storms, icing, fog, and navigated by the stars to arrive exhausted but safely at Le Bourget Airport in France. Eighty years from this monumental feat, we have come a long way in making oceanic air travel safer and much more comfortable.