After the end of World War I brave pilots began to think of the possibility of flying over the great expanse of water in the Atlantic Ocean, this was almost four times wider at the narrowest point than had ever been flown over water before. Granted aircraft had improved during the war but not to the point that such a risky flight seemed possible.

In 1913 Lord Northcliffe owner of "The Daily Mail" offered 10,000 pounds for first flight across the Atlantic. The shortest distance across the Atlantic is between Newfoundland and Ireland, about 1880 miles.

Even this distance was a huge challenge at the time requiring enormous gas tanks and engines that could operate flawlessly for 20 to 30 hours.

Navigation, engine reliability, and accurate weather prediction were serious challenges in the early attempts at setting records. Planes would crash never to be found. It wouldn’t be until 1919 that this prize would be won by two men flying a large twin-engine biplane (wingspan 67 feet) known as a "Vickers Vimy". The men were John Alcock (pilot) and Arthur Brown (navigator). They would overcome many problems along the flight including almost crashing in the ocean after spinning down through a cloud. Their landing in Ireland was less than smooth as they mistakenly landed in a bog, the flight had taken 16 hours and 28 minutes.

The next major hurtle was to fly the Atlantic from New York to Paris, or the opposite direction (Paris to New York), twice the distance as from Newfoundland to Ireland. Raymond Orteig hotel owner would offer a $25,000 prize for the successful flight across. It would be seven years before a serious attempt would be made. In 1925 a Frenchman Rene Fonck would travel to the United States to build a large biplane of Russian design, the Sikorsky S-35 powered by three 425-horsepower air cooled engines. With the 2380 gallons of gas needed for a crossing it would weigh 28,860 pounds about 10,000 pounds more than the plane was designed to carry. With four aboard the plane crashed after takeoff, two escaped and the other two died in the fire.

Making a successful crossing was going to be made possible by new advances in aircraft engines and aircraft design. Most aeronautical engineers came to realize that a single wing was more efficient than multiple wings. Charles Lindbergh realized these things when he began planning to make his record flight. First he knew the Wright Whirlwind engine with its lightweight, reliability, and fuel economy would be the best choice for an airplane power plant. His first choice for an aircraft was the Bellanca but he was not able to obtain this plane or other planes he pursued. It is almost in desperation that he contacted a small company known as Ryan Airlines. The Spirit of St. Louis was based on the successful M2 Ryan although larger. It is interesting to note that when Ryan’s engineer Donald Hall and Lindbergh began discussing details of the design, neither were exactly sure how far it was from New York to Paris and went to the library to stretch a string across a globe to measure the distance, 3600 miles.

Lindbergh and Max Conrad were sticklers for reducing weight and drag as much as possible. Lindbergh even resisted Hall’s suggestion that the tail surfaces be enlarged from the Ryan M2 design to improve stability. Increasing the surfaces would slightly increase drag and Lindbergh’s response was "I don’t need a very stable plane, I don’t plan on going to sleep."

There were many other efforts to build a plane to make the trans-Atlantic flight in both the United States and Europe, many would crash. Lindbergh touched in Paris May 21, 1927 after 33 hours in the air.