Youngest Transatlantic Pilot Is on Last Leg to Paris After Delays

The high-flying 11-year-old pilot who set out last week to become the world’s youngest transatlantic aviator is expected to land at Paris’ LeBourget Airport this morning, two days later than scheduled, after several setbacks.

Christopher Lee Marshall is marking Charles Lindbergh’s historic 1927 flight, which began in San Diego, went to St. Louis and on to New York. Lindbergh then became the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic in a flight from New York to Paris that took 33 1/2 hours.

Marshall, of the Central California coastal community of Oceano, has flown only during the daytime and made landings in Texas, Canada, Iceland, Greenland and Scotland on his way to Paris.

He has been at the controls during the entire flying time, spread over seven days. His co-pilot, Randy (Duke) Cunningham, 46, is a retired Navy commander from San Diego and a former instructor at Miramar Naval Air Station’s famed Top Gun fighter-pilot school. Cunningham said he would keep his hands off the controls unless there was an emergency.

Marshall, a fifth-grader who left Montgomery Field in San Diego on Thursday planned to spend Tuesday night in Iceland or Scotland, depending on how tired he was and how far he could fly. From there his single-engine Moony 252, customized for the trip, was expected to take him into Paris and into the record books.

Chris first began flying on his dad’s lap at the age of 4 and last August became the youngest pilot to fly coast to coast and back again. Chris is prohibited by Federal Aviation Administration from flying solo until his 16th birthday.