Back in 1919, patron Raymond Ortaig announced that he was establishing a $25,000 prize for the first transatlantic flight. There were applicants, but talks went nowhere. And then, on May 20 1927, pilot Charles Lindbergh climbed into his pompously named Spirit of St. Louis and took off from New York City on 7:40 AM on a course across the Atlantic. Newspapers called Lindbergh a “flying fool” for departing on a 6,000 kilometer long flight on a single-engine plane without a radio transmitter, with navigational instruments limited to a compass and a map. But fools are known to be lucky, and after 33 hours and 29 minutes Lindberg landed safely in Paris. The desperate pilot became a national hero of the United States, the first “Man of the Year” in the poll held by the Time magazine, and the owners of the airfield where he landed decided to showcase the achievements of aviation every two years. The airfield is known as Le Bourget. Air shows are still held there every two years.