Upon his return to France Nungesser became interested in the possibility of being the first to fly between Paris and New York non-stop. Raymond Orteig had offered $25,000 to the first to accomplish this feat. Nungesser engaged Captain Francis Coli to act as navigator and approached the Levasseur Airplane Company to build a craft capable of the voyage.
By the spring of 1927 the plane was ready. It was a re-designed version of a three-place torpedo carrier plane powered by a single Lorraine-Detriech engine of 450 hp.
The large biplane contained many watertight compartments to ensure its safety if forced down en-route. In fact, Nungesser planned to land in the waters of New York harbour since the plane’s gear was to be jettisoned immediately after takeoff to save weight.
The machine was painted pure white and sported Nungesser’s wartime insigbia on its fuselage sides. Named “L;Oiseau-Blanc: (The White Bird) it took off from Le Bourget airfield at dawn on 8 May 1927. The craft with its two man crew was last seen at 6:48am over Le Harve heading westward across the Atlantic Ocean. Nothing more was ever heard of men or machine.
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