Satisfaction

Ever since the Atlantic fouled the gallant aviators, Francis Coli & Charles Nungesser, in their attempted flight over the ocean, France has grieved. Grief was tinged with resentment for robbing the nation of glory, two heroes of their lives. When, at the time Ruth Elder took off for Paris, two other brave Frenchmen, Dieudonne Costes & Joseph Le Brix, challenged the Atlantic, to another conflict, the hearts of all Frenchmen went with them. Their ship, the Nungesser-Coli, was to pick up the foil of the dead heroes, was to continue the duel on behalf of the entire nation.

They renewed the feud by slapping their plane in the face of the winds that fly from the Atlantic over Europe and Africa. From Paris to St. Louis, Senegal, the powerful Hispano-Suiza motor flaunted a 2700-mile defiance.

From Senegal they pointed the bright tip of the Nungesser-Coli at the heart of the ocean, determined to pierce it from St. Louis, Bengal, to Port Natal, Brazil. Deftly they parried sly thrusts of gusty wind. Persistently they pointed their rapier at the mark. After an 18-hour battle, the Atlantic had been run through. The bright tip of the Nnngesser-Coli emerged over the night-shrouded field at Natal. France had had satisfaction.

This was the first time the South Atlantic had ever been flown from east to west without stopover. Colonel de Pinedo, Italian aviator, de Beires and Vabral had alighted on islands between the continents. St. Roman, Mouneyres and Petit, like Nungesser & Coli, had flown away and never again been seen.

M. Costes, in the same Brequet plane that vanquished the Atlantic, had made non-stop flights from Paris to Siberia, and again from Paris to Persia. So ably did his ship perform on every occasion (it averaged 110 miles to the hour over the Atlantic), many people thought that, if the weather had been possible this summer, he would have succeeded in a proposed flight from Paris to Manhattan.