ash_274 t1_ir0u7pz wrote on October 4, 2022 at 2:55 PM

Reply to comment by Cold_Situation_7803 in TIL that Charles Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis" aircraft had no front window due to fuel tank placement. The only forward vision was by a periscope. by p38-lightning

The one-crew, one-engine thing is what made it special.

Consensus at the time was that it was dumb/impossible to cross that distance with a single-engine plane, but Lindbergh pointed out that none of the multi-engine aircraft of the day, with that range, could fly any significant distance without all engines functioning; so multiple engines were just multiple potential points of failure.