L'Oiseau Blanc

"The White Bird" redirects here. For other uses, see White Bird (disambiguation).

L'Oiseau Blanc
Faded brown postcard with a photograph of a white biplane. Two oval cameo pictures are above the aircraft, showing the faces of two men. On the left, is a clean-shaven healthy-looking man in his mid-30s, with a pilot's squint. On the right, is a slightly more heavyset man with a black eyepatch over his right eye.
1927 postcard showing L'Oiseau Blanc, with pictures of Nungesser (left) and Coli (right)
General information
TypeLevasseur PL.8
Construction numberPL.8-01
History
First flightApril 1927
FateDisappeared during transatlantic flight attempt

L'Oiseau Blanc (English: The White Bird[note 1]) was a French Levasseur PL.8 biplane that disappeared in 1927 during an attempt to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight between Paris and New York City to compete for the Orteig Prize. French World War I aviation heroes Charles Nungesser (third highest French ace with 43 air combat victories during World War I) and François Coli took off from Paris on 8 May 1927 and were last seen over Ireland. Less than two weeks later, Charles Lindbergh successfully made the New York–Paris journey and claimed the prize in the Spirit of St. Louis.

The disappearance of L'Oiseau Blanc is considered one of the great mysteries in the history of aviation.[2] Many rumors circulated about the fate of the aircraft and crew, with mainstream opinion at the time being that it was probably lost in a squall over the Atlantic. Investigations starting in the 1980s suggest that it probably reached Newfoundland and may have crashed in Maine.

The disappearance of Nungesser and Coli has an extensive legacy and is referred to in many films and museums. A street in Paris is named after them and a commemorative postage stamp was issued in 1967. A statue at the Paris Le Bourget Airport honors the flight and there is a memorial on the cliffs of Étretat, where their aircraft was last seen in France.

Period photograph shows pilots François Coli and Charles Nungesser in informal clothing; Coli on the left is in street clothes while Nugesser is in a long flight jacket.
L–R: François Coli and Charles Nungesser posed for publicity photographs prior to the flight.
A simplified map of the northern Atlantic, showing a curved great circle route from Paris to New York
Planned flight map of L'Oiseau Blanc in 1927 from Paris to New York
  1. ^ Montague 1971, pp. 102, 132.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference secret was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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