Transatlantic triumph followed by thrilling international Goodwill Tour

Few chapters in aviation history can rival the thrilling 9,500 journey known as Charles Lindbergh’s Goodwill Tour, which took place between December 1927 and February 1928.

Flying his famous custom-built Ryan single-engine plane — the same Spirit of St. Louis in which, in May of 1927, he flew solo nonstop across the Atlantic — Lindbergh flew from Washington, D.C., to Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba.

Crowds and a hero’s welcome at every stop

On each leg of the journey, the famous 25-year-old aviator was greeted by jubilant crowds who gave him a hero’s reception. National holidays were declared. When Lindbergh’s expected arrival in Mexico City was delayed by several hours after he temporarily lost his way, the U.S. Stock Market plunged. Banquets were thrown in his honor, bullfights arranged. Lindbergh’s mother was flown to Mexico to join him there over Christmas. In Nicaragua, where a civil war was being fought and U.S. Marines were on the ground, political opponents ceased hostilities long enough to mix and mingle at events honoring the famous aviator. At many stops, Lindbergh took his hosts–presidents and political leaders–for spins in the Spirit of St. Louis.

Direction of things to come

For Florida aviation history, the tour has another, special significance. The attached chart shows the route encompassed in the tour, the “Lindbergh Circle.” It can also be recognized as much the same route structure subsequently followed by Pan American Airways during its first few years of operations from Miami, with Lindbergh acting as the airline’s Technical Advisor. Even at the time, Lindbergh’s Goodwill Tour was recognized as the direction of things to come — the opening chapter of a new era linking the Americas by air.

A “route of good will”

The journey took Lindbergh across jungles and vast stretches of open water. He was the second man to cross the towering Andes (between Cartagena and Bogota) by air. Fittingly, Lindbergh’s final stop before heading back home to St. Louis was Havana Cuba, where 21 countries, including the United States, were attending the Sixth Pan-American Conference. Charles Evans Hughes, chief of the American delegation, said, “Lindbergh is tracing the route that future commerce will follow. The best part is that it is a route of good will and what he is doing is of first importance in the development of Pan-Americanism.”

If at first you don’t succeed….

Miami Mayor Everest Sewell endeavored to get Lindbergh to stop in Miami on his way back to St. Louis from Havana but the aviator declined, saying that he had promised that his flight home would be non-stop. He arrived back in St. Louis on February 13, 1928.

A year later, though, Lindbergh would travel to Miami, to inaugurate regularly scheduled airline service between Miami and Cristobal, Panama. Lindbergh’s Miami-Cristobal flight was made on behalf of Pan American Airways. Together, Pan Am and Lindbergh were ensuring that the vision of an international route between the Americas would become a reality.

At left: Charles Lindbergh – Image courtesy 1928 Aircraft Year Book