Originally Posted by
evansb
All things considered, the Vimy was a mechanical piece of crap. Lindbergh's aircraft was mechanically and aerodynamically superior to the Vimy and Lindbergh also flew a longer distance. I have also concluded that the French Levasseur PL.8, piloted by Nungesser & Coli was inferior to Lindbergh's efficient Ryan NYP high-wing monoplane, which was powered by a single air-cooled Wright radial engine. Simplicity. It works, sometimes.
Note that I am NOT an American citizen, nor do I idolise Charles Lindbergh, even though I have a first edition of his 1927 book "We", and a second edition of his book "North to the Orient", published in 1935. Solving the tragic disappearance of Nungesser & Coli is intriguing. Did they crash somewhere in Maine perhaps?
you are right in ways, but what you have not acknowledged is the fact that the Vimy was WW1 postwar bomber technology, Spirit of St Louis had the benefit of 7 years of rapid aeronautical engineering development. For example, Alcock’s disorientation in thick cloud was inevitable because he had no horizon. Sperry patented their artificial horizon in 1924.