Charles Albert Levine (March 17, 1897 – December 6, 1991) was the first passenger aboard a
transatlantic flight
A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, Central America, or South America, or ''vice versa''. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing air ...
.
He was ready to cross the Atlantic to claim the
Orteig prize but a court battle over who was going to be in the airplane allowed
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...
to leave first.
Biography
Levine was born on March 17, 1897, in
North Adams, Massachusetts
North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population was 12,961 as of the 2020 census. Best known as the home of the largest contemporary ...
. He joined his father in selling scrap metal, later forming his own company buying and recycling
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
surplus brass shell casings.
[ By 1927, at age 30, he was a millionaire.
]
Columbia Air Liners, and the record flights
Levine and Giuseppe Mario Bellanca formed the Columbia Aircraft Company. Levine hired pilots Bert Acosta, Erroll Boyd, John Wycliff Isemann, Burr Leyson, and Roger Q. Williams at $200 a week to perform a series of publicity record attempts for the company.
Levine entered the competition for the Orteig prize for the first person to complete a nonstop flight from New York to Paris. His Bellanca
AviaBellanca Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft design and manufacturing company. Prior to 1983, it was known as the Bellanca Aircraft Company. The company was founded in 1927 by Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, although it was preceded by p ...
designed prototype aircraft, named ''Columbia
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...
'', was ready for weeks, The co-pilot for the effort, Lloyd W. Bertaud
Lloyd Wilson Bertaud (September 20, 1895 – September 6, 1927) was an American aviator. Bertaud was selected to be the copilot in the WB-2 Columbia attempting the transatlantic crossing for the Orteig Prize in 1927. Aircraft owner Charles ...
, was displaced to accommodate Levine and went to court to be reinstated. Levine got the order lifted just hours after Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...
, in the Spirit of St. Louis, had left Roosevelt Field
Roosevelt Field is a former airport, located east-southeast of Mineola, Long Island, New York. Originally called the Hempstead Plains Aerodrome, or sometimes Hempstead Plains field or the Garden City Aerodrome, it was a training field (Hazel ...
on Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...
. Levine's plane was still in its hangar at the same airport. Lindbergh won the prize on May 20, 1927. The following day Levine announced that his airplane would fly farther on a $15,000 transatlantic flight challenge from America to Germany and carry a passenger. The pilot was Clarence Chamberlin, and Levine would be the passenger. In an oft-repeated ploy, Levine told his wife he was just going up for a test flight. His lawyer notified her by a letter of his intentions after they took off and kept going. On June 4, 1927, the Columbia took off on its transatlantic flight from America to Berlin, Germany
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
with Levine as the first passenger to cross the Atlantic in an airplane. The Columbia landed 100 miles short of Berlin in a field at Eisleben, Germany
Eisleben is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is famous as both the hometown of the influential theologian Martin Luther and the place where he died; hence, its official name is Lutherstadt Eisleben. First mentioned in the late 10th century, ...
. The trip was 315 miles (507 km), and 9 hours 6 minutes longer than Lindbergh's transatlantic crossing.
Levine returned to the United States in September 1927, flown by Captain Walter G. R. Hinchliffe replacing Chamberlin. Before their departure, Levine and Hinchliffe appeared in a short film made at Clapham Studios
The Clapham Studios were a British film studios of the silent and early sound eras, located in Clapham in London. The studios were built at Cranmer Court under some railway arches, opening in 1913. Several companies used the studios during their ...
in London made in the DeForest Phonofilm
Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s.
Introduction
In 1919 and 1920, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film proce ...
sound-on-film system.
Bertaud separately vowed to complete a transatlantic flight without Levine. In September 1927, Bertaud's Hearst-financed Fokker
Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names. It was founded in 1912 in Berlin, Germany, and became famous for its fighter aircraft in World War I. In 1919 ...
monoplane '' Old Glory'' crashed in the Atlantic on the attempt, killing Bertaud and the other two men on the flight.
While Levine was in France following the record flight from New York, Mabel Boll
Mabel Boll (December 1, 1893 – April 11, 1949), known as the "Queen of Diamonds", was an American socialite involved in the early days of record-setting airplane flights in the 1920s. She garnered nicknames from the press, including "Broadway ...
"the Queen of Diamonds" tried to persuade him to fly her to America in the Columbia. Levine had plans to fly it back to America with a French pilot, Maurice Drouhin Maurice may refer to:
People
*Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr
*Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor
*Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and Lo ...
. The flight to America was cancelled. Drouhin was owed a $4,000 cancellation fee and had the Columbia guarded against leaving as a precaution. The inexperienced pilot Levine took off for England, claiming to the guards he was just testing the engine. Boll followed Levine to England by boat, talking Levine into letting her be a passenger. Just before the flight, Levine's new pilot Capt. Hinchcliffe, publicly refused to let Boll fly along. Boll was invited to try an east-west flight from America, and she set out for New York by boat in January 1928.
In the summer of 1928 Levine purchased a customized long-range Junkers W 33 for US$50,000, emblazoned "Queen of the Air" across the sides, for Boll's nickname. Plans were made for Bert Acosta to fly Boll and Levine from Paris to New York for a new record, which was changed to a London–New York attempt. The flight was never made. "The Queen of the Air" Junkers was transported back to America, damaged, and resold to William Rody for another transatlantic attempt.
Decline
After a series of bad business investments and losses in the stock market crash
A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a major cross-section of a stock market, resulting in a significant loss of paper wealth. Crashes are driven by panic selling and underlying economic factors. They often foll ...
of 1929, Levine was sued by the federal government for a half-million dollars in back taxes. In 1930, his Columbia Air Liners Inc. built the "Uncle Sam," a large aircraft having range to fly around the globe. It performed poorly, logging only twelve flights. The "Uncle Sam" and two other company planes were auctioned off in 1931 for $3000 for back hangar rent. It was destroyed days later in a hangar fire with the instruments and engine removed beforehand.[ Levine was already missing at the time of the auction with a warrant for his arrest alleging he had stolen stock.
In 1930, Levine was arrested in the company of Mabel Boll for attempting to purchase dies to produce counterfeit 2-]franc
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...
coins.
Levine was arrested in 1932 on a charge of violating the Workmen's Compensation Law, and he received a suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...
but was arrested again in 1933 on a counterfeiting charge that was later dismissed. In 1934, after his release, he was charged with illegally smuggling a German-Jewish refugee from a Nazi concentration camp
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as con ...
into the United States[ and spent 150 days in jail. That same year, he attempted suicide using a gas range.][''Rochester Evening Journal''. September 12, 1934] He was the father of two children: Eloyse Levine and Ardith Levine Polley. He divorced their mother in 1935. In 1937 Levine was charged with smuggling 2,000 pounds of tungsten
Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...
powder from Canada. He served two years in federal prison and was fined $5,000. In 1944, $209.56 was paid with the rest of the fine still owed to the court. The Assistant United States Attorney
An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal go ...
on November 18, 1958, deemed the debt to be uncollectible, and the case was closed.
On December 6, 1991, Levine died at Sibley Memorial Hospital
Sibley Memorial Hospital is a non-profit hospital located in The Palisades neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and is licensed by the District of Columbia De ...
in Washington, D.C. age 94.[
]
See also
* Arthur Whitten Brown
*Transatlantic flight
A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, Central America, or South America, or ''vice versa''. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing air ...
Further reading
*Short film made in the DeForest Phonofilm
Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s.
Introduction
In 1919 and 1920, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film proce ...
sound-on-film
Sound-on-film is a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying a picture is recorded on photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog ...
process in which Capt. W. G. R. Hinchliffe (1894–1928) and Charles A. Levine (1897–1991) are interviewed at the Clapham Studios in London just before their return flight to the U.S.
''Farewell Address by Mr. Levine and Capt. Hinchliffe Just Before Their Return Trip to America'' (1927) at the Internet Movie Database
*The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
; Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
, August 28, 1927 (Associated Press) The strain of the long wait at Le Bourget for good weather is beginning to have an effect on the nerves of the transatlantic fliers. A heated discussion between the French flier Drouhin and Charles Levine occurred today, and at one time it looked as if there would be another pugilistic encounter, which would have made Levine's record two on consecutive days.
*Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
; December 18, 1938; Levine Convicted in Smuggling Case. New York, December 17, 1938. Charles A. Levine, first trans-Atlantic airplane passenger, was convicted today in Federal court of conspiracy and smuggling and concealing tungsten powder brought into this country from Canada. The maximum penalty is seven years' imprisonment and $15,000 fine. Judge Goddard granted a motion from Levine's release in bail of $2500 until Monday, when he will be sentenced.
References
External links
Charles Albert Levine bibliography
Yiddish Radio Project: Charles Levine
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levine, Charles Albert
American Jews
People from North Adams, Massachusetts
1897 births
1991 deaths
American businesspeople convicted of crimes
Businesspeople from Massachusetts
20th-century American businesspeople