Build a movie plot around this: What does the Spirit of St Louis barely clear the top of? treetops
Answer:
On May 19, 1927, after waiting for a week for the rain to stop, pilot Charles A. "Slim" Lindbergh (James Stewart) tries to rest in a hotel near Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, prior to a transatlantic flight from New York to Paris. His friend Frank Mahoney (Bartlett Robinson) guards his hotel room door from reporters. Unable to sleep, Lindbergh reminisces about his time as an airmail pilot.Flying to Chicago in winter, Lindbergh lands his old de Havilland biplane in a small airfield to refuel. Despite the bad weather, he takes off, unaware the Chicago landing field has closed due to snow. After running out of fuel, Lindbergh bails out. Recovering mail from the crashed DH-4, he continues his journey by train and meets a suspender salesman who tells Lindbergh that two airmen just died competing for the Orteig Prize awarded to the first to fly nonstop from New York City to Paris. [N 1]From a diner, Lindbergh calls Columbia Aircraft Corporation in New York, pretending to represent a group of prominent businessmen. Quoted the price of $15,000 (equal to $204,339 today) for a Bellanca aircraft, Lindbergh lobbies St. Louis financiers, with a plan to fly 40 hours in a stripped-down, single-engine aircraft. Excited by his vision, the backers dub it Spirit of St. Louis.The Bellanca deal falls apart when the company demands their own pilot will fly the aircraft. Lindbergh then approaches Ryan Aeronautical Company in San Diego, California. Mahoney, the president of the company, promises to build him an aircraft in just 90 days. With Ryan's chief engineer Donald Hall (Arthur Space), a design is begun. To decrease weight, Lindbergh refuses to install radios or heavy equipment, even a parachute, and plans to navigate by "dead reckoning". [N 2]. Workers at the factory agree to work 24-hour shifts to complete the aircraft on time.Lindbergh flies his new aircraft to St. Louis, and on to New York. Unable to sleep, he prepares his aircraft at Roosevelt Field, ensuring a full load of 450 gallons of fuel is taken on....