Lindbergh’s historic flight, and what led to it

It was a contest. Be the first to fly from New York to Paris. Win the $25,000 Orteig Prize, named for a French shepherd turned Manhattan hotelier. Gain celebrity beyond measure. Pilot yourself into history, and mythology. We know who won that contest, of course. But the winning was only part of the story. The competition may be the most compelling chapter.

That’s the topic of Richard Bak’s latest book, “The Big Jump,’’ which sets out how and why the westerly winds were won by magnificent men in their flying machines, a phrase invented for an earlier time (1910) for an earlier prize (set by Lord Rawnsley) and an easier task (just London to Paris) but oddly appropriate for the characters crowding this volume.

This was no simple feat, especially for Americans, for US aviation at the time was primitive, especially when compared with that of Europe. There was no regularly scheduled commercial traffic, no aeronautical schools, no licensing policies or agencies, no tables to place in an upright, locked position. There was also no policy on carry-ons. More on that later.

The romance (and technology) resided mainly in France, where les chevaliers de l’air and what Bak calls the “cult of the poet-pilot’’ prevailed. But even there, aviation was the province of dreamers of great daring . . . on the precipice of inevitable disaster.

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