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went after a battleship the battleship would certainly be
destroyed. It was not so much what Colonel Lindbergh said that was
important as the fact that, for the first time, the gospel of aviation
was preached by a national hero to whose words the country was ready to
listen. (Since the Colonel's return, aviation recruiting centers have
been swamped by applicants for the flying service.) From a passenger-carrying standpoint, at least, the U. S. is far behind Europe in
aviation—last year, for example, thousands airplaned across the
English Channel in a regular airline service. U. S. aviation
enthusiasts saw in the Lindbergh flight an opportunity for aviation to
catch the popular imagination.
