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You’ll find dozens of ways to participate in TIGHAR’s work here, from memberships to t-shirts.
Proceeds from all sales go to support the research and the field work we have done for over 40 years.
TIGHAR is a 501(c)(3) public charity. All donations are
tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Project Midnight Ghost
“Step by step newspaper headlines have followed Nungesser and Coli … only to have them vanish like midnight ghosts.” --Charles Lindbergh The Spirit of St. Louis French aviators Charles Nungesser and François Coli were attempting to win the $25,000 Ortieg Prize for the first nonstop Atlantic crossing between New York and Paris in either direction. They departed Paris on May 8, 1927 aboard their giant white biplane L’Oiseau Blanc (The White Bird). When they failed to arrive in New York, Lindbergh decided to make his attempt. Eleven days later he took off from New York and landed in Paris thirty-three and a half hours later. Had Nungesser and Coli won the prize, Lindbergh would not have flown the Atlantic and the tremendous boost his triumph gave to the American aviation industry would not have happened. L’Oiseau Blanc is arguably history’s most important lost aircraft. After more than forty years of research and more than two dozen search expeditions, TIGHAR has pieced together what happened to L’Oiseau Blanc. Nungesser and Coli reached Newfoundland only to experience an engine coolant failure that forced them to make an emergency landing. The aircraft could land on water and they decided to set down on Great Gull Pond, but they struck a small rocky island and the aircraft exploded. At least one of the crew survived the crash and died more than a mile away. The scenario uncovered by TIGHAR is supported by contemporary archival documents and recovered physical evidence that, while compelling, is not conclusive. TIGHAR’s continuing mission is to finally prove the case by finding further artifacts that are unquestionably from L’Oiseau Blanc.L'Oiseau Blanc
