The White Bird
Encyclopedia
The White Bird (L'Oiseau Blanc or The White Dove) was a French biplane
which disappeared in 1927
, during an attempt to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight
between Paris
and New York
. The aircraft was flown by French aviation World War I
heroes Charles Nungesser
and François Coli
, who were attempting to win the USD $25,000 Orteig Prize
for the flight, but the plane disappeared after its May 8 takeoff from Paris. Two weeks later, Charles Lindbergh
successfully made the New York–Paris journey and claimed the prize, flying The Spirit of St. Louis.
The disappearance of The White Bird is considered one of the great mysteries in the history of aviation. Many rumors circulated about the fate of the plane and crew, with mainstream opinion at the time being that the aircraft was probably lost in a squall over the Atlantic. Investigations starting in the 1980s suggest that the plane probably reached Newfoundland, and may have crashed in Maine.
The White Bird has an extensive legacy, and is referred to in many films and museums. A street in Paris is named after the aviators, and a commemorative postage stamp was issued in 1967. A statue at the Paris Le Bourget airport honors the attempted flight, and there is a memorial on the cliffs of Étretat
, from where The White Bird was last seen in France.
offered a USD $25,000 prize, the Orteig Prize
, to the first crew to make a non-stop transatlantic flight
between New York
and Paris
during the next five years. With no takers, he renewed the offer in 1924, and aviation technology had advanced enough at that point that many people tried for the prize. Most were attempting to fly from New York to Paris, but The White Bird was a French attempt, to travel from Paris to New York.
François Coli
, a World War I veteran from the French Legion of Honor, had been making historic flights across and around the Mediterranean
, and had been planning a transatlantic flight since 1923
. His original plans were to fly with his wartime comrade Paul Tarascon
, a flying ace
with 12 victories from the war. They became interested in the Orteig Prize in 1925, but in late 1926 an accident destroyed their Potez 25
biplane. Tarascon was badly burned, and relinquished his place as pilot to Charles Nungesser
, another Legion of Honor veteran and highly experienced flying ace with over 40 victories, third highest among the French.
reconnaissance aircraft. Working with Chief Engineer Emile Farret and factory manager Albert Longelot at the Pierre Levasseur Company in Paris, they removed two of the forward cockpits and replaced them with fuel tanks, as well as adding more reinforcement of the fuselage, which was shaped to allow for a water landing. The fuel tanks were enormous, three tanks holding 1,056 gallons (4,025 liters) of gasoline. The main cockpit was widened to allow Nungesser and Coli to sit side by side. The wing span was also increased to approximately 48 ft (14.6 m). A single Lorraine-Dietrich
engine was used, W-12 450 hp, with the cylinders set in three banks spaced 60° apart from one another, similar to the arrangement used in Napier
engines. The engine was tested to ensure it would last the entire flight, and was run for over 40 hours while still in the Parisian factory.
The aircraft was painted white, had the French tricolor markings, and Nungesser's personal WWI flying ace logo: a skull and crossbones
, candles, and a coffin, on a black heart. The biplane carried no radio (considered too unreliable to be worth the extra weight), and relied only on celestial navigation, a specialty of François Coli from his previous flights around the Mediterranean. Since Nungesser & Coli's plan was to make a water landing in New York, in front of the Statue of Liberty
, the landing gear was designed to be jettisoned on take-off, in order to reduce the plane's weight. As of 2008, the landing gear is the only confirmed part of the plane remaining, and is on display at the French Air and Space museum, the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace
at Le Bourget airport in Paris, the location from which The White Bird took off, and two weeks later, Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis
landed.
route, which would have taken them across the English Channel
, over the southwestern part of England and Ireland, across the Atlantic to Newfoundland, then south over Nova Scotia
, to Boston
, and finally to a water landing in New York.
Once in the air, the biplane was escorted to the French coast by five military aircraft, and sighted from the coastal town of Étretat
. A Catholic priest reported a sighting over the Irish village of Carrigaholt
, and another sighting was made off the coast of Ireland
by a British naval officer, who recorded the note in his log.
Crowds of people gathered in New York to witness the historic arrival, with tens of thousands of people crowding Battery Park
in Manhattan to have a good view of the Statue of Liberty, where the plane was scheduled to touch down. Rumors circulated that the plane had been sighted along its route, in Newfoundland, or over Long Island
. In France, some newspapers even reported that Nungesser & Coli had arrived safely in New York, evoking a wave of French patriotism. But the plane did not arrive on schedule, and after days had gone by with no word from the plane, hope faded. The White Bird had been carrying a sizable load of fuel, 4000 litres (1,056.7 US gal), which would have given them approximately 42 hours of flight time. After this time had passed, with no word as to the plane's fate, it was realized that the plane had been lost. In France, the public was scandalized by the newspapers such as La Presse
which had printed false reports about the plane's arrival, and outrage was generated against the companies involved, with demonstrations in the streets.
An international search was launched. Aviation Digest sponsored Floyd Bennett
to search the area between New York and Newfoundland for nine days. The Canadian Ministry of Lands and Forests sent out two search planes (one of which crashed). Searchers including the French Navy, the U.S. Navy, and the Canadian Navy scoured the route, including Labrador
, the northeast coast of the U.S., and the area around the St. Lawrence River. But there was no sign of The White Bird.
Twelve days after Nungesser & Coli's departure, Charles Lindbergh
, flying solo, left New York on his own famous journey aboard the Spirit of Saint Louis. After a flight of 33 hours, 30 minutes, he received a hero's welcome when he arrived in Paris, even as the French mourned for the loss of Nungesser and Coli.
. But 12 witnesses in Newfoundland and Maine claimed to have heard the aircraft as it passed. If these stories were true, they would have meant that the flight was far behind schedule, as they would have been in the 40th hour of flight. This delay may have been explained, however, by the fact that The White Bird was flying against the prevailing weather pattern. Fishermen off the coast of Newfoundland reported that the weather had turned cold and foul, which might have caused the delay.
Many rumors swirled around the plane's disappearance: Perhaps The White Bird had been shot down by rum-runners with tommy guns; maybe Nungesser and Coli were still alive and living with Indians in Canada. In 1930, claims circulated that the Birds engine had been located in Maine, but nothing was confirmed. Later stories emerged in 1948, from reports that caribou hunters and fur trappers had found an aircraft wreck in Great Gull Pond.
A fresh round of interest in The White Bird began in the 1980s, after freelance writer Gunnar Hansen
of Northeast Harbor, Maine
, researched and published an article in the June 1980 issue of Yankee Magazine, titled "The Unfinished Flight of the White Bird". Hansen revealed how Anson Berry (d. 1936), a hermit living near Machias, Maine, claimed to have heard a sputtering aircraft fly over his isolated camp at Round Lake, Maine, late in the afternoon of May 9, 1927. Berry had not been able to see the aircraft because of fog and low clouds, but had heard what sounded like a crash or forced landing in the distance. Hansen and others did a great deal of research during the 1980s, and located multiple other witnesses who reported memories of the aircraft in a line from Nova Scotia
down to eastern Maine on that date.
In 1984, the French government made an official investigation, concluding that it was possible that the plane had reached Newfoundland. In 1989, the NBC
television series Unsolved Mysteries
advanced the theory that the two aviators made it across the ocean, but crashed and perished in the woods of Maine. One of Nungesser's relatives, William Nungesser, made several trips to Maine to search, focusing his energies around the north slope of Round Lake Hills in Washington County, Maine
, as well as the area around Lake Winnipesaukee
.
Famed author Clive Cussler
and his NUMA
organization also attempted to solve the mystery, searching for the plane in Maine and in Newfoundland. They made multiple visits in the 1980s, and interviewed dozens of elderly witnesses: hunters, fishermen and others who said they had seen or heard the plane pass by in 1927. The NUMA expedition was named "Midnight Ghost", after Lindbergh's quote in his book The Spirit of St. Louis, where he said that Nungesser and Coli had "vanished like midnight ghosts". In 1992, divers traveled to Newfoundland and attempted to locate and search Great Gull Pond for a wreck, but found nothing, and were not even sure that they had located the right lake. Other lakes were also searched, from Machias, Maine, to Chesterfield.
Certain pieces were found which, though not conclusive, did suggest that the Bird made it to the continent. Little of the plane would have remained, since The White Bird was created primarily from plywood and canvas. The parts most likely to endure would have been the engine and the aluminum fuel tanks. In Maine though, bits and pieces of struts were found, and wood similar to the kind used to build the biplane. Engine metal was also found near the town of Machias, that was not typical to the United States or Canada. Two local residents described a large metal object, a "really big motor" which had been dragged out of the woods for salvage, along a path allegedly made by a logging operation.
There is a also report that the Bird may have crashed near Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Currently, an unofficial French team is focusing on theories that the plane crashed off the coast of Canada after flying over Newfoundland.
of aviation mysteries". TIGHAR, The Interest Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, has called the Bird "History's Most Important Missing Airplane". If the plane had successfully completed its journey, Lindbergh would probably not have made his own historic flight, and might instead have set his sights on crossing the Pacific, which might have prevented Amelia Earhart
from attempting her own journey. When Lindbergh did succeed with his own flight across the Atlantic, the international attention on his achievement was probably enhanced because of the disappearance of The White Bird just days earlier. It is also suggested that it was Lindbergh's historic success which gave a major boost to the American aviation industry, without which the course of America's military and industrial accomplishments might have been quite different.
A monument was erected in Étretat in 1927, to mark the last place from which L'Oiseau Blanc was seen in France, but it was destroyed in 1942 by the occupying German army. A new 24 m (78.7 ft) high monument, the "Monument Nungesser et Coli", was erected in 1963 atop one of the cliffs. There is also a nearby museum.
Another monument in France was erected in 1929, at Le Bourget airport. Honoring Lindbergh, Nungesser, and Coli, it is inscribed, "A ceux qui tentèrent et celui qui accomplit" (trans: "To those who tried and one who succeeded"). The French issued a commemorative postage stamp in 1967, forty years after the Bird's departure, to honor Nungesser and Coli's attempt. A street, "Rue Nungesser et Coli" is named after the aviators, along the Stade Jean Bouin in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
In 1928, the Ontario Surveyor General named a number of lakes in the northwest of the province to honour aviators who had perished during 1927, mainly in attempting oceanic flights. Amongst these are Coli Lake (51.32°N 93.59°W) and Nungesser Lake (51.49°N 93.52°W).
The fate of The White Bird is occasionally mentioned in films. The 1999 made-for-TV Canadian film Restless Spirits, a children's film with the alternate title Dead Aviators, uses the mystery of The White Birds disappearance as the key plot device. A young girl, who struggles with her pilot father's death in a plane crash years before, visits her grandmother in Newfoundland. While there, she encounters the ghosts of Nungesser and Coli, whose restless spirits constantly relive their own unheralded 1927 crash in a nearby pond. The girl decides to help the pair move on to the afterlife by assisting them in rebuilding their airplane and completing their flight so they may be released and, by doing so, works through her own emotional distress over her father's test flight death. And in the opening montage of the 2005 film Sahara
, based on Cussler's novel, a French newspaper article is displayed reporting a fictional story of NUMA
finding the airplane.
Biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...
which disappeared in 1927
1927 in aviation
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1927:-Events:* The United States Navys becomes the first aircraft carrier to operate a multi-engine aircraft, the twin-engine Douglas T2D-1....
, during an attempt to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight
Transatlantic flight
Transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. A transatlantic flight may proceed east-to-west, originating in Europe or Africa and terminating in North America or South America, or it may go in the reverse direction, west-to-east...
between Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. The aircraft was flown by French aviation World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
heroes Charles Nungesser
Charles Nungesser
Charles Eugène Jules Marie Nungesser, MC was a French ace pilot and adventurer, best remembered as a rival of Charles Lindbergh...
and François Coli
François Coli
François Coli was a French pilot and navigator best known as the flying partner of Charles Nungesser in the doomed attempt to fly the Atlantic Ocean on the aircraft known as The White Bird....
, who were attempting to win the USD $25,000 Orteig Prize
Orteig Prize
The Orteig Prize was a $25,000 reward offered on May 19, 1919, by New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig to the first allied aviator to fly non-stop from New York City to Paris or vice-versa. On offer for five years, it attracted no competitors...
for the flight, but the plane disappeared after its May 8 takeoff from Paris. Two weeks later, Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
successfully made the New York–Paris journey and claimed the prize, flying The Spirit of St. Louis.
The disappearance of The White Bird is considered one of the great mysteries in the history of aviation. Many rumors circulated about the fate of the plane and crew, with mainstream opinion at the time being that the aircraft was probably lost in a squall over the Atlantic. Investigations starting in the 1980s suggest that the plane probably reached Newfoundland, and may have crashed in Maine.
The White Bird has an extensive legacy, and is referred to in many films and museums. A street in Paris is named after the aviators, and a commemorative postage stamp was issued in 1967. A statue at the Paris Le Bourget airport honors the attempted flight, and there is a memorial on the cliffs of Étretat
Étretat
Étretat is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France. It is a tourist and farming town situated c. 32 km northeast of Le Havre, at the junction of the D940, D11 and D139 roads. It's located on the coast of the Pays de Caux area.-The...
, from where The White Bird was last seen in France.
Background
In 1919, New York hotel owner Raymond OrteigRaymond Orteig
Raymond Orteig was the New York City hotel owner who offered the Orteig Prize for the first non-stop transatlantic flight between New York and Paris....
offered a USD $25,000 prize, the Orteig Prize
Orteig Prize
The Orteig Prize was a $25,000 reward offered on May 19, 1919, by New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig to the first allied aviator to fly non-stop from New York City to Paris or vice-versa. On offer for five years, it attracted no competitors...
, to the first crew to make a non-stop transatlantic flight
Transatlantic flight
Transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. A transatlantic flight may proceed east-to-west, originating in Europe or Africa and terminating in North America or South America, or it may go in the reverse direction, west-to-east...
between New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
during the next five years. With no takers, he renewed the offer in 1924, and aviation technology had advanced enough at that point that many people tried for the prize. Most were attempting to fly from New York to Paris, but The White Bird was a French attempt, to travel from Paris to New York.
François Coli
François Coli
François Coli was a French pilot and navigator best known as the flying partner of Charles Nungesser in the doomed attempt to fly the Atlantic Ocean on the aircraft known as The White Bird....
, a World War I veteran from the French Legion of Honor, had been making historic flights across and around the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
, and had been planning a transatlantic flight since 1923
1923 in aviation
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1923:- Events :* The Gallaudet Aircraft Corporation is absorbed by the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation.-January:...
. His original plans were to fly with his wartime comrade Paul Tarascon
Paul Tarascon
Lieutenant Paul Albert Pierre Tarascon was a World War I flying ace. Despite the handicap of an amputated foot, he was credited with twelve confirmed and ten probable victories in aerial combat...
, a flying ace
Flying ace
A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down several enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The actual number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an "ace" has varied, but is usually considered to be five or more...
with 12 victories from the war. They became interested in the Orteig Prize in 1925, but in late 1926 an accident destroyed their Potez 25
Potez 25
|-See also:*Aerial operations in the Chaco War-References:Heinonen, Timo Heinonen: Thulinista Hornetiin, Keski-Suomen ilmailumuseon julkaisuja 3, 1992. ISBN 951-95688-2-4.-External links:* *...
biplane. Tarascon was badly burned, and relinquished his place as pilot to Charles Nungesser
Charles Nungesser
Charles Eugène Jules Marie Nungesser, MC was a French ace pilot and adventurer, best remembered as a rival of Charles Lindbergh...
, another Legion of Honor veteran and highly experienced flying ace with over 40 victories, third highest among the French.
Construction
Nungesser, age 35, and Coli, 45, participated in the design of a new biplane, a Levasseur PL.8, based on the PL.4Levasseur PL.4
|-References:*...
reconnaissance aircraft. Working with Chief Engineer Emile Farret and factory manager Albert Longelot at the Pierre Levasseur Company in Paris, they removed two of the forward cockpits and replaced them with fuel tanks, as well as adding more reinforcement of the fuselage, which was shaped to allow for a water landing. The fuel tanks were enormous, three tanks holding 1,056 gallons (4,025 liters) of gasoline. The main cockpit was widened to allow Nungesser and Coli to sit side by side. The wing span was also increased to approximately 48 ft (14.6 m). A single Lorraine-Dietrich
Lorraine-Dietrich
Lorraine-Dietrich was a French automobile and aircraft engine manufacturer from 1896 until 1935, created when railway locomotive manufacturer Société Lorraine des Anciens Etablissments de Dietrich and Cie branched into the manufacture of automobiles...
engine was used, W-12 450 hp, with the cylinders set in three banks spaced 60° apart from one another, similar to the arrangement used in Napier
Napier & Son
D. Napier & Son Limited was a British engine and pre-Great War automobile manufacturer and one of the most important aircraft engine manufacturers in the early to mid-20th century...
engines. The engine was tested to ensure it would last the entire flight, and was run for over 40 hours while still in the Parisian factory.
The aircraft was painted white, had the French tricolor markings, and Nungesser's personal WWI flying ace logo: a skull and crossbones
Skull and crossbones
A skull and crossbones is a symbol consisting of a human skull and two long bones crossed together under the skull. It is generally used as a warning of danger, usually in regard to poisonous substances, such as deadly chemicals.-History of the symbol:...
, candles, and a coffin, on a black heart. The biplane carried no radio (considered too unreliable to be worth the extra weight), and relied only on celestial navigation, a specialty of François Coli from his previous flights around the Mediterranean. Since Nungesser & Coli's plan was to make a water landing in New York, in front of the Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
, the landing gear was designed to be jettisoned on take-off, in order to reduce the plane's weight. As of 2008, the landing gear is the only confirmed part of the plane remaining, and is on display at the French Air and Space museum, the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace
Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace
The French Air and Space Museum is a French museum, located in the south-eastern edge of Le Bourget Airport, north of Paris, and in the commune of Le Bourget. It was created in 1919 from a proposition of Albert Caquot .-Description:Occupying over of land and hangars, it is one of the oldest...
at Le Bourget airport in Paris, the location from which The White Bird took off, and two weeks later, Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis
Spirit of St. Louis
The Spirit of St. Louis is the custom-built, single engine, single-seat monoplane that was flown solo by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris for which Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize.Lindbergh took off in the Spirit from Roosevelt...
landed.
Flight
The White Bird took off at 5:17 a.m. May 8, 1927 from Le Bourget Field in Paris, heading for New York. The biplane weighed 11000 lb (4,989.5 kg) on takeoff, extremely heavy for a single-engined plane. The intended flight path was a great circleGreat circle
A great circle, also known as a Riemannian circle, of a sphere is the intersection of the sphere and a plane which passes through the center point of the sphere, as opposed to a general circle of a sphere where the plane is not required to pass through the center...
route, which would have taken them across the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
, over the southwestern part of England and Ireland, across the Atlantic to Newfoundland, then south over Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, and finally to a water landing in New York.
Once in the air, the biplane was escorted to the French coast by five military aircraft, and sighted from the coastal town of Étretat
Étretat
Étretat is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France. It is a tourist and farming town situated c. 32 km northeast of Le Havre, at the junction of the D940, D11 and D139 roads. It's located on the coast of the Pays de Caux area.-The...
. A Catholic priest reported a sighting over the Irish village of Carrigaholt
Carrigaholt
Carrigaholt is a small fishing village in County Clare, Ireland. It lies at the mouth of the Moyarta river, which flows into the estuary of the River Shannon about 15 km from the tip of the Loop Head peninsula and about 10 km from the resort town of Kilkee on the north coast of the...
, and another sighting was made off the coast of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
by a British naval officer, who recorded the note in his log.
Crowds of people gathered in New York to witness the historic arrival, with tens of thousands of people crowding Battery Park
Battery Park
Battery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city's early years in order to protect the settlement behind them...
in Manhattan to have a good view of the Statue of Liberty, where the plane was scheduled to touch down. Rumors circulated that the plane had been sighted along its route, in Newfoundland, or over Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
. In France, some newspapers even reported that Nungesser & Coli had arrived safely in New York, evoking a wave of French patriotism. But the plane did not arrive on schedule, and after days had gone by with no word from the plane, hope faded. The White Bird had been carrying a sizable load of fuel, 4000 litres (1,056.7 US gal), which would have given them approximately 42 hours of flight time. After this time had passed, with no word as to the plane's fate, it was realized that the plane had been lost. In France, the public was scandalized by the newspapers such as La Presse
La Presse (France)
-Overview:La Presse was founded on 16 June 1836 by Émile de Girardin as a popular conservative enterprise. While contemporary newspapers depended heavily on subscription and tight party affiliation, La Presse was sold by street vendors. Girardin wanted the paper to support the government, without...
which had printed false reports about the plane's arrival, and outrage was generated against the companies involved, with demonstrations in the streets.
An international search was launched. Aviation Digest sponsored Floyd Bennett
Floyd Bennett
Floyd Bennett was an American aviator who piloted Richard E. Byrd on his attempt to reach the North Pole in 1926.-Biography:...
to search the area between New York and Newfoundland for nine days. The Canadian Ministry of Lands and Forests sent out two search planes (one of which crashed). Searchers including the French Navy, the U.S. Navy, and the Canadian Navy scoured the route, including Labrador
Labrador
Labrador is the distinct, northerly region of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It comprises the mainland portion of the province, separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle...
, the northeast coast of the U.S., and the area around the St. Lawrence River. But there was no sign of The White Bird.
Twelve days after Nungesser & Coli's departure, Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
, flying solo, left New York on his own famous journey aboard the Spirit of Saint Louis. After a flight of 33 hours, 30 minutes, he received a hero's welcome when he arrived in Paris, even as the French mourned for the loss of Nungesser and Coli.
Mystery
The mainstream view was that the Bird crashed over the Atlantic due to a squallSquall
A squall is a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed which is usually associated with active weather, such as rain showers, thunderstorms, or heavy snow. Squalls refer to an increase in the sustained winds over a short time interval, as there may be higher gusts during a squall event...
. But 12 witnesses in Newfoundland and Maine claimed to have heard the aircraft as it passed. If these stories were true, they would have meant that the flight was far behind schedule, as they would have been in the 40th hour of flight. This delay may have been explained, however, by the fact that The White Bird was flying against the prevailing weather pattern. Fishermen off the coast of Newfoundland reported that the weather had turned cold and foul, which might have caused the delay.
Many rumors swirled around the plane's disappearance: Perhaps The White Bird had been shot down by rum-runners with tommy guns; maybe Nungesser and Coli were still alive and living with Indians in Canada. In 1930, claims circulated that the Birds engine had been located in Maine, but nothing was confirmed. Later stories emerged in 1948, from reports that caribou hunters and fur trappers had found an aircraft wreck in Great Gull Pond.
Gunnar Hansen
Gunnar Milton Hansen is an Icelandic-born actor and author best known for playing Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre .- Early life:Hansen was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, and moved to the United States when he was five...
of Northeast Harbor, Maine
Northeast Harbor, Maine
Northeast Harbor is a village on Mount Desert Island, located in the town of Mount Desert in Hancock County, Maine, United States. The village has a significant summer population, and has long been a quiet enclave of the rich and famous. Summer residents include the Rockefeller family, as well as...
, researched and published an article in the June 1980 issue of Yankee Magazine, titled "The Unfinished Flight of the White Bird". Hansen revealed how Anson Berry (d. 1936), a hermit living near Machias, Maine, claimed to have heard a sputtering aircraft fly over his isolated camp at Round Lake, Maine, late in the afternoon of May 9, 1927. Berry had not been able to see the aircraft because of fog and low clouds, but had heard what sounded like a crash or forced landing in the distance. Hansen and others did a great deal of research during the 1980s, and located multiple other witnesses who reported memories of the aircraft in a line from Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
down to eastern Maine on that date.
In 1984, the French government made an official investigation, concluding that it was possible that the plane had reached Newfoundland. In 1989, the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television series Unsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries is an American television program, hosted by Robert Stack, from 1987 until 2002, and later by Dennis Farina, starting in 2008...
advanced the theory that the two aviators made it across the ocean, but crashed and perished in the woods of Maine. One of Nungesser's relatives, William Nungesser, made several trips to Maine to search, focusing his energies around the north slope of Round Lake Hills in Washington County, Maine
Washington County, Maine
Washington County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. In 2010, its population was 32,856. Its county seat is Machias.Sometimes referred to as "Sunrise County" because it is the easternmost county in the United States, and it is often where the rising sun first shines on the 48...
, as well as the area around Lake Winnipesaukee
Lake Winnipesaukee
Lake Winnipesaukee is the largest lake in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. It is approximately long and from wide , covering — when Paugus Bay is included—with a maximum depth of ....
.
Famed author Clive Cussler
Clive Cussler
Clive Eric Cussler is an American adventure novelist and marine archaeologist. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than seventeen times...
and his NUMA
National Underwater and Marine Agency
The National Underwater and Marine Agency , originally an organization within the fiction of author Clive Cussler, is a private non-profit organization in the United States...
organization also attempted to solve the mystery, searching for the plane in Maine and in Newfoundland. They made multiple visits in the 1980s, and interviewed dozens of elderly witnesses: hunters, fishermen and others who said they had seen or heard the plane pass by in 1927. The NUMA expedition was named "Midnight Ghost", after Lindbergh's quote in his book The Spirit of St. Louis, where he said that Nungesser and Coli had "vanished like midnight ghosts". In 1992, divers traveled to Newfoundland and attempted to locate and search Great Gull Pond for a wreck, but found nothing, and were not even sure that they had located the right lake. Other lakes were also searched, from Machias, Maine, to Chesterfield.
Certain pieces were found which, though not conclusive, did suggest that the Bird made it to the continent. Little of the plane would have remained, since The White Bird was created primarily from plywood and canvas. The parts most likely to endure would have been the engine and the aluminum fuel tanks. In Maine though, bits and pieces of struts were found, and wood similar to the kind used to build the biplane. Engine metal was also found near the town of Machias, that was not typical to the United States or Canada. Two local residents described a large metal object, a "really big motor" which had been dragged out of the woods for salvage, along a path allegedly made by a logging operation.
There is a also report that the Bird may have crashed near Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Currently, an unofficial French team is focusing on theories that the plane crashed off the coast of Canada after flying over Newfoundland.
Legacy
The disappearance of The White Bird has been called "the EverestMount Everest
Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
of aviation mysteries". TIGHAR, The Interest Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, has called the Bird "History's Most Important Missing Airplane". If the plane had successfully completed its journey, Lindbergh would probably not have made his own historic flight, and might instead have set his sights on crossing the Pacific, which might have prevented Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
from attempting her own journey. When Lindbergh did succeed with his own flight across the Atlantic, the international attention on his achievement was probably enhanced because of the disappearance of The White Bird just days earlier. It is also suggested that it was Lindbergh's historic success which gave a major boost to the American aviation industry, without which the course of America's military and industrial accomplishments might have been quite different.
A monument was erected in Étretat in 1927, to mark the last place from which L'Oiseau Blanc was seen in France, but it was destroyed in 1942 by the occupying German army. A new 24 m (78.7 ft) high monument, the "Monument Nungesser et Coli", was erected in 1963 atop one of the cliffs. There is also a nearby museum.
In 1928, the Ontario Surveyor General named a number of lakes in the northwest of the province to honour aviators who had perished during 1927, mainly in attempting oceanic flights. Amongst these are Coli Lake (51.32°N 93.59°W) and Nungesser Lake (51.49°N 93.52°W).
The fate of The White Bird is occasionally mentioned in films. The 1999 made-for-TV Canadian film Restless Spirits, a children's film with the alternate title Dead Aviators, uses the mystery of The White Birds disappearance as the key plot device. A young girl, who struggles with her pilot father's death in a plane crash years before, visits her grandmother in Newfoundland. While there, she encounters the ghosts of Nungesser and Coli, whose restless spirits constantly relive their own unheralded 1927 crash in a nearby pond. The girl decides to help the pair move on to the afterlife by assisting them in rebuilding their airplane and completing their flight so they may be released and, by doing so, works through her own emotional distress over her father's test flight death. And in the opening montage of the 2005 film Sahara
Sahara (2005 film)
Sahara is a 2005 action-comedy adventure film directed by Breck Eisner and based on the best-selling book of the same name by Clive Cussler...
, based on Cussler's novel, a French newspaper article is displayed reporting a fictional story of NUMA
National Underwater and Marine Agency
The National Underwater and Marine Agency , originally an organization within the fiction of author Clive Cussler, is a private non-profit organization in the United States...
finding the airplane.