Charles Albert Levine
Encyclopedia
Charles Albert Levine was the first passenger aboard a transatlantic flight
.
. He joined his father in selling scrap metal, later forming his own company buying and recycling World War I
surplus brass shell casings. By 1927, at age 30, he was a millionaire.
formed the Columbia Aircraft Company
. Levine hired pilots Bert Acosta
, Eroll 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 a Orteig prize
for the first person to complete a nonstop flight from New York to Paris. His Bellanca designed prototype aircraft, named Columbia, was ready for weeks, The co-pilot for the effort, Lloyd W. Bertaud
, was displaced to accommodate Levine and went to court to be reinstated. Levine got the order lifted, but it was hours after Charles Lindbergh
, in the Spirit of St. Louis
, had left Roosevelt Field on Long Island
. 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 situation, 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 with Levine, as the first passenger to cross the Atlantic in an airplane. The Columbia did not reach Berlin, but landed 100 miles short in a field at Eisleben, Germany. The trip was 315 miles (507 km) and 9 hours and 6 minutes longer than Lindbergh's transatlantic crossing Bertaud separately vowed to complete a transatlantic flight without Levine. In September 1927, Bertaud's Hearst-financed Fokker
monoplane "the Old Glory" crashed in the Atlantic on the attempt.
While Levine was in Europe, Mabel Boll
"the Queen of Diamonds" attempted to get Levine to fly her to America in the Columbia, which was in France following the record flight from New York. Levine had plans to fly it back to America with a French pilot, Maurice Drouhin. The flight to America was cancelled, Droughin was owed a $4,000 cancellation fee, and had the Columbia gaurded from leaving as a precaution. The inexperienced pilot Levine took off to England, claiming to the guards he was just testing the engine. Boll followed Levine to England by boat, talking Levine into letting her be a passenger. Just before the flight, Levine's new pilot Capt. Hinchcliffe, publicly refused to let Boll fly along. Boll was invited to try a East-west flight from America, and she set out for New York by boat in January 1928.
In the summer of 1928 Levine purchased a customized long-range Junkers W 33
for US$ 50,000, emblazoned "Queen of the Air" across the sides, for Mabel Boll
. 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.
of 1929; the federal government sued Levine for half a million dollars in back taxes. In 1930, his Columbia Air Liners Inc. built the "Uncle Sam", a large aircraft with 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 alledging he had stolen stock.
Levine was arrested in 1932 on a charge of violating the Workmen's Compensation Law, and he received a suspended sentence
but was arrested again in 1933 on a counterfeiting charge that was later dismissed. In 1934, after his release he was charged with smuggling an illegal German-Jewish alien into the United States from Mexico and spent 150 days in jail. That same year, he attempted suicide with a gas range. He was the father of two children: Eloyse Levine; and Ardith Levine Polley, and he divorced their mother in 1935. In 1937 he was charged with smuggling 2,000 pounds of tungsten
powder from Canada, and he served two years in federal prison, and was fined $5,000. In 1944, $209.56 was paid with the rest of the money still being owed to the court. The Assistant United States Attorney on November 18, 1958, deemed that the debt was not collectible, and the case was closed.
On December 6, 1991, Levine died at Sibley Memorial Hospital
in Washington, D.C.
age 94.
Transatlantic flight
Transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. A transatlantic flight may proceed east-to-west, originating in Europe or Africa and terminating in North America or South America, or it may go in the reverse direction, west-to-east...
.
Biography
Levine was born on March 17, 1897, in North Adams, MassachusettsNorth Adams, Massachusetts
North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,708 as of the 2010 census, making it the least populous city in the state...
. He joined his father in selling scrap metal, later forming his own company buying and recycling World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
surplus brass shell casings. By 1927, at age 30, he was a millionaire.
Columbia Air Liners, and the record flights
Levine and Giuseppe Mario BellancaGiuseppe Mario Bellanca
Giuseppe Mario Bellanca was an Italian-American airplane designer and builder who created the first enclosed cabin monoplane in the United States in 1922. This aircraft is now on display at the National Air & Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.-Biography:He was born on March 19, 1886 in...
formed the Columbia Aircraft Company
Columbia Aircraft Corp
The Columbia Aircraft Corp was a United States aircraft manufacturer, which was active between 1927 and 1947.-Formation and operations:Columbia Aircraft was founded in December 1927 by Charles A. Levine as chairman and the aircraft designer Giuseppe Mario Bellanca as president. The initial name...
. Levine hired pilots Bert Acosta
Bert Acosta
Bertrand Blanchard Acosta was a record setting aviator. With Clarence D. Chamberlin they set an endurance record of 51 hours, 11 minutes, and 25 seconds in the air. He later flew in the Spanish Civil War in the Yankee Squadron. He was known as the Bad Boy of the Air...
, Eroll Boyd, John Wycliff Isemann, Burr Leyson, and Roger Q. Williams
Roger Q. Williams
Roger Quincy Williams was an American aviator, born in Brooklyn, New York.In July 1929 Williams, with Lewis Yancey, broke the over-water flying record by making a non-stop flight from Old Orchard Beach, Maine to Santander, Spain. The 3,400 mile flight took 31 hours and 30 minutes...
at $200 a week to perform a series of publicity record attempts for the company.
Levine entered the competition for a Orteig prize
Orteig Prize
The Orteig Prize was a $25,000 reward offered on May 19, 1919, by New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig to the first allied aviator to fly non-stop from New York City to Paris or vice-versa. On offer for five years, it attracted no competitors...
for the first person to complete a nonstop flight from New York to Paris. His Bellanca designed prototype aircraft, named Columbia, was ready for weeks, The co-pilot for the effort, Lloyd W. Bertaud
Lloyd W. Bertaud
Lloyd W. Bertaud 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 Levine wanted to fly in his place, and a injunction by Bertaud against Levine prevented the flight...
, was displaced to accommodate Levine and went to court to be reinstated. Levine got the order lifted, but it was hours after Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
, in the Spirit of St. Louis
Spirit of St. Louis
The Spirit of St. Louis is the custom-built, single engine, single-seat monoplane that was flown solo by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris for which Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize.Lindbergh took off in the Spirit from Roosevelt...
, had left Roosevelt Field on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
. 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 situation, 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 with Levine, as the first passenger to cross the Atlantic in an airplane. The Columbia did not reach Berlin, but landed 100 miles short in a field at Eisleben, Germany. The trip was 315 miles (507 km) and 9 hours and 6 minutes longer than Lindbergh's transatlantic crossing Bertaud separately vowed to complete a transatlantic flight without Levine. In September 1927, Bertaud's Hearst-financed Fokker
Fokker
Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names, starting out in 1912 in Schwerin, Germany, moving to the Netherlands in 1919....
monoplane "the Old Glory" crashed in the Atlantic on the attempt.
While Levine was in Europe, Mabel Boll
Mabel Boll
Mabel Boll , known as the "Queen of Diamonds", was an American socialite involved in the early days of record-setting flights in the 1920s. She garnered nicknames from the press, including "Broadway’s most beautiful blonde" and "$250,000-a-day bride".- Early life :Mabel Boll was short, dark-eyed,...
"the Queen of Diamonds" attempted to get Levine to fly her to America in the Columbia, which was in France following the record flight from New York. Levine had plans to fly it back to America with a French pilot, Maurice Drouhin. The flight to America was cancelled, Droughin was owed a $4,000 cancellation fee, and had the Columbia gaurded from leaving as a precaution. The inexperienced pilot Levine took off to England, claiming to the guards he was just testing the engine. Boll followed Levine to England by boat, talking Levine into letting her be a passenger. Just before the flight, Levine's new pilot Capt. Hinchcliffe, publicly refused to let Boll fly along. Boll was invited to try a East-west flight from America, and she set out for New York by boat in January 1928.
In the summer of 1928 Levine purchased a customized long-range Junkers W 33
Junkers W 33
The Junkers W 33 was a German-built singled-engine transport aircraft. It was aerodynamically and structurally advanced for its time , a clean, low-wing all metal cantilever monoplane. Almost 200 were produced...
for US$ 50,000, emblazoned "Queen of the Air" across the sides, for Mabel Boll
Mabel Boll
Mabel Boll , known as the "Queen of Diamonds", was an American socialite involved in the early days of record-setting flights in the 1920s. She garnered nicknames from the press, including "Broadway’s most beautiful blonde" and "$250,000-a-day bride".- Early life :Mabel Boll was short, dark-eyed,...
. Plans were made for Bert Acosta
Bert Acosta
Bertrand Blanchard Acosta was a record setting aviator. With Clarence D. Chamberlin they set an endurance record of 51 hours, 11 minutes, and 25 seconds in the air. He later flew in the Spanish Civil War in the Yankee Squadron. He was known as the Bad Boy of the Air...
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 crashStock market crash
A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a significant cross-section of a stock market, resulting in a significant loss of paper wealth. Crashes are driven by panic as much as by underlying economic factors...
of 1929; the federal government sued Levine for half a million dollars in back taxes. In 1930, his Columbia Air Liners Inc. built the "Uncle Sam", a large aircraft with 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 alledging he had stolen stock.
Levine was arrested in 1932 on a charge of violating the Workmen's Compensation Law, and he received a suspended sentence
Suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a legal term for a judge's delaying of a defendant's serving of a sentence after they have been found guilty, in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation...
but was arrested again in 1933 on a counterfeiting charge that was later dismissed. In 1934, after his release he was charged with smuggling an illegal German-Jewish alien into the United States from Mexico and spent 150 days in jail. That same year, he attempted suicide with a gas range. He was the father of two children: Eloyse Levine; and Ardith Levine Polley, and he divorced their mother in 1935. In 1937 he was charged with smuggling 2,000 pounds of tungsten
Tungsten
Tungsten , also known as wolfram , is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74.A hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as...
powder from Canada, and he served two years in federal prison, and was fined $5,000. In 1944, $209.56 was paid with the rest of the money still being owed to the court. The Assistant United States Attorney on November 18, 1958, deemed that the debt was not collectible, and the case was closed.
On December 6, 1991, Levine died at Sibley Memorial Hospital
Sibley Memorial Hospital
Sibley Memorial Hospital is a non-profit hospital located in NW Washington D.C.. It is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and is licensed by the District of Columbia Department of Health and Human Services. The hospital specializes in surgery,...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
age 94.
Further reading
- Short film made in the DeForest PhonofilmPhonofilmIn 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. These parallel lines photographically recorded electrical waveforms from a microphone, which were translated back...
sound-on-filmSound-on-filmSound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog sound track or digital sound track,...
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
- Washington Post; ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, 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 TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
; 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.