SAN DIEGO – Photos tucked away for 90 years in a California newspaper’s archives portray Charles Lindbergh just weeks before he made the first-ever nonstop solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
The San Diego Union-Tribune on Sunday released never-before-published shots of Lindbergh from April 28, 1927.
Harry Bishop, chief photographer for what was then the Union and Evening Tribune, shot the 25-year-old as he climbed for the first time into the cockpit of the Spirit of St. Louis, the plane custom-built in San Diego by Ryan Airlines.
The newspaper published a few photos from the test flight. The rest were archived for nearly a century.
Three weeks after they were taken, Lindbergh and his aircraft made history by flying from New York to Paris, 3,610 miles in 33 hours.
