Anne Lindbergh flying a plane over Sweden

She was a record-breaking aviator—but her husband overshadowed her feats

Anne Morrow Lindbergh—wife of Charles Lindbergh—was a pilot, radio operator, environmentalist, and bestselling author.

Taking a break from operating the flight radio, Anne Lindbergh pilots the Tingmissartoq, as she and her husband, Charles, fly over Sweden. The pair were crossing the northern Atlantic Ocean in 1933.

Photograph by Charles and Anne Lindbergh, Nat Geo Image Collection
This is part of a weekly series for Women's History Month that tells the behind-the-scenes stories of trailblazing women at National Geographic. Read more profiles in the March 2020 issue.

Anne Morrow’s first date with Charles Lindbergh was in an airplane over Long Island in 1928. Her suitor had just made the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight and was arguably the most famous man in the world. They had met the year before in Mexico City, where her father was ambassador, while Lindbergh was passing through on a tour of Latin America. He had offered to take her family on a ride in his five-passenger plane.

“Suddenly I felt the real sensation of going up—a great lift, like a bird, like one’s dreams of flying—we soared in layers. That lift that took your breath away—there it was again!” she wrote in her diary. “I will not be happy till it

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