Customer Reviews

The Untold Story of the Spirit of St. Louis

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The title of Ev Cassagneres' "The Untold Story of the Spirit of St. Louis" sounds presumptuous. What on earth could be written, new and enlightening, about one of history's most famous planes? Well, simply put, Cassagneres delivers on his boast. Within the 168 pages of this book are a treasure-trove of photographs, along with a highly detailed text which describes every aspect of the Spirit of St. Louis' career -- from construction to first flight, to record-setting flight, to world tour, to delivery at the Smithsonian, and then up to the present day. This book will answer every single question you ever had about the "Spirit", from the materials used to construct it, to the exact number of miles it flew prior to being stored at the NASM. Cassagneres, who spent over thirty-five years conducting interviews (with Lindbergh and others), examining the actual aircraft (the Smithsonian let him in the cockpit!), gathering photos (many never published before) and finding lost materials, deserves to be applauded for what amounts to THE definitive guide to one of history's great aircraft. Bravo! This book is a must-have if you are interested in the "Spirit", and makes a wonderful companion to Scott Berg's Pulitzer Prize winning book. It's also a terrific find if you are a modeler trying to find the most detailed description of the plane (at various stages of its career) in existence. I would also recommend it to anyone who is a student of history, not just simply because the book paints such a detailed portrait of both pilot and plane, but because it demonstrates so thoroughly the fact that complex historical items, such as the Spirit of St. Louis aircraft or the Enola Gay B-29, are constantly subject to change and modification -- not only during their useful lives but for many years thereafter. What is truly "authentic" about the "Spirit" hanging in the NASM, and what is not? It is a question which, thanks to Cassagneres' diligent effort, future generations will be able to answer.

Even today, almost 80 years afterwards, few do not know the legend of Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis, but the details of how the airplane was designed, built, tested and finally displayed in The Smithsonian are harder to find. Ev Cassagneres tells the story well, with enough technical background to satisfy the deeply interested, and with enough style to hold the attention of almost everyone else. The photographs and drawings, some rarely seen, are alone worth the price. The stories of some of the people involved add something missing in most other accounts.

Highly recommended to anyone interested in the story behind the story, and a true value in card covers.

I was fortunate to have personally known Oscar Jenkins, a photographer that was there at Roosevelt Field in 1927. He was there to photograph Byrd and the America Transoceanic Company airplane. But, he noticed this fellow off my himself in a hangar that turned out to be Charles Lindbergh. Oscar allowed me to make copy negatives of all of his Byrd and Lindbergh photos. Ev Cassagneres included some of them in this book along with a little known story concerning the spinner on the Spirit of St. Louis. One of Oscar's photos showed the original spinner as it came from the Ryan factory. That one developed a crack and Glenn Curtiss made him a replacement of a slightly different shape.

This is an excellent book for the history buff!