The F-100 Super Sabre

One of the Academy’s best, and mostly unknown, historical artifacts is located on the campus of the Air Force Academy Preparatory School.  The North American F-100 Super Sabre aircraft on static display here has an amazing history.

First, some background:  On May twenty-first, 1927, aviator Charles Lindbergh landed his aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic.  The flight brought worldwide attention to the capabilities of airplanes, improving the prospects of an Air Force Academy.  Now, fast-forward thirty years.  To commemorate Lindbergh’s achievement, on May twenty-first, 1957, Major Robinson Risner flew this plane, appropriately named the Spirit of St. Louis II, on the same New York-to-Paris route . . . but a little faster.  Risner’s flight took 6 hours and 37 minutes, one-fifth of Lindbergh’s time, and set a new trans-Atlantic record.  The plane has been on display here since 1983.  Incidentally, Major Risner went on to become Brigadier General Risner, best known for his leadership and heroism while a prisoner of war in Vietnam for seven years.  He is the exemplar for the Class of 2021.  A Risner statue, funded by Ross Perot, stands nine feet tall in the Air Garden on the Terrazzo.

 

 

The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation

 

 

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