In 1927, crossing the Atlantic Ocean by airplane was one of the most dangerous things a person could attempt. Several pilots had already died trying. The distance from New York to Paris is about 3,600 miles, and in the 1920s, airplane engines were unreliable, navigation tools were basic, and there was no way to communicate once over the ocean. A wealthy hotel owner named Raymond Orteig offered a $25,000 prize to the first pilot to fly nonstop between New York and Paris. Charles Lindbergh, a 25-year-old airmail pilot from Minnesota, decided to try. He helped design a special plane called the Spirit of St. Louis. To save weight, Lindbergh carried no radio, no parachute, and only a few sandwiches. He packed a compass and star charts for navigation. On May 20, 1927, Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in New York. The heavily loaded plane barely cleared the telephone wires at the end of the runway. He flew for 33 hours and 30 minutes through fog, rain, and exhaustion. Several times he nearly fell asleep at the controls. When he spotted the coast of Ireland, he knew he would make it. He landed at Le Bourget Field near Paris on May 21 to a crowd of over 100,000 people. Overnight, Lindbergh became the most celebrated person on Earth. His achievement proved that aviation could conquer any distance and launched the modern age of transatlantic air travel.