Boy Lands in Paris but He’s Outgunned

An 11-year-old pilot from California tracing the transatlantic route of Charles Lindbergh landed at the same Paris airport Thursday morning as the American pioneer flier did in 1927.

But the boy’s feat of becoming the youngest transatlantic pilot ever was overshadowed in France by a display of French aviation power prompted by Bastille Day.

A dangerous bout with bad weather and an overheated engine over Greenland had delayed the flight by a day, forcing Christopher Lee Marshall, of the small California coastal town of Oceano, to arrive in Paris while the attention of almost everyone was diverted by Bastille Day, the anniversary of the French Revolution.

France usually shows off its military power in a parade on this day. The French air force, for the first time, allowed a dozen of its newest, nuclear-armed Mirage-2000 jets to swoop low over the Arc de Triomphe and thousands of gawking spectators on the Avenue des Champs Elysees.

France had taken Lindbergh to its heart 61 years ago and had planned to show at least a measure of warmth as well for young Christopher, who carried a teddy bear called “Charles Lindbear” on the back seat of his single-engine plane. The government television channel Antenne 2, for example, had promised viewers a report on the boy’s arrival during its main lunchtime news show. But the military display, including the new Mirages, 50 other modern planes, nuclear missiles and an enormous procession of tanks, crowded Christopher out of the limelight.

Although Christopher had to relinquish control of his Mooney 252 plane to his adult co-pilot for a spell over Greenland, aviation buffs will still rank him as the youngest pilot ever to fly across the Atlantic.

When he stepped from the plane wearing a deep blue flight suit and a baseball cap proclaiming “Chris Marshall Tour,” the fifth-grader was handed a small American flag that he waved at cameramen. Grinning but weary, he told the group of well-wishers at Le Bour1734702112it.”

He hugged and kissed his mother, Gail, and took a glass of Champagne that he hoisted high but did not drink.

Retired Navy Cmdr. Randy Cunningham, 46, a flight instructor and former fighter pilot who accompanied Christopher, told reporters that he had been forced to take the controls of the plane from the youngster Wednesday and return the aircraft 50 miles to Greenland after oil pressure dropped sharply, overheating the engine.

Cunningham said that poor visibility, caused by bad weather, had made the situation dangerous, even critical, as he failed repeatedly to find the airfield at the island of Kulusuk, just off Greenland’s southeast coast. Cunningham said he even feared, for some moments, that they would have to ditch at sea because of their failure to find the field.

But Cunningham said that this brief spell over Greenland marked the only time during the seven days of flying that he had taken the controls from Christopher.

Began Flying Lessons at 4

Christopher was 4 when he took his first flying lessons from his father, Lee, a commercial airline pilot. Formal training with a flight instructor began when the boy was 7.

Lindbergh, the first pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic, made his flight aboard the Spirit of St. Louis from Long Island to Paris in 33 hours and 39 minutes.

Christopher began his flight from San Diego in another single-engine plane on July 7. He picked up the new Mooney 252 at the company’s headquarters in Kerrville, Tex., and then stopped in St. Louis, New York, Montreal, Reykjavik, Kulusuk and Glasgow before reaching Paris a week later.

“I didn’t want to take an 11-year-old boy and make him fly for 20 hours straight,” Cunningham said. “I had a hard enough time having him fly eight hours a day and keeping him awake. You know an 11-year-old boy wants to go to sleep when he gets tired.”

Christopher’s mother and friends who helped plan the trip said they did not know who the previous youngest pilot to fly the Atlantic might have been, but they were confident no one younger had done it.

Last year, Christopher, at age 10, became the youngest pilot to fly across the United States. That record has already been broken by 9-year-old Tony Aliengena of San Juan Capistrano.