Nungesser and Coli's transatlantic flight attempt

Nungesser and Coli’s transatlantic flight attempt was a 1927 bid to make the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris. Its brief account in the book’s Eighth Book notes turns an ambitious aviation contest into a failed crossing: the pilots took off in L’Oiseau Blanc and crashed.

Background and Stakes

A New York hotelier had offered a prize of $25,000 for the first nonstop flight between New York and Paris. The reward set the stakes for the attempt, which involved Charles Nungesser, a flamboyant French fighter pilot from the First World War, and François Coli.

The Attempt and Its Outcome

In 1927, one week before Charles Lindbergh’s flight, Nungesser and Coli took off in a Levasseur aircraft named L’Oiseau Blanc. The account gives the outcome plainly: the aircraft crashed. It does not provide further details about the crash or the pilots’ fate.

Place in the Book

The event appears as a compact historical note rather than a narrated flight scene. Its few particulars—the prize, the timing, the named aircraft, and the crash—preserve the attempt’s concrete outline while leaving its drama largely outside the narrative.