Posted by tourdemars to General News at October 11, 2005 11:59 PM

When Peter H. Diamandis needed the inspiration to finish earning his pilot's license, a friend gave him a copy of The Spirit of St. Louis, Charles Lindbergh's memoir about flying across the Atlantic Ocean. “"I read it at my parents" house,” says Diamandis, “"and it gave me a great idea." ”Just a few pages into the book, a young Lindbergh describes going on a mail flight and thinking about what role he might play in the future of air travel: "Possibly—-my mind is startled at the thought—- I could fly nonstop between New York and Paris." The notion of flying between these two cities did not enter his head at random. It was not even his own idea. Instead, it was the idea of a philanthropist—- a man who motivated not only Lindbergh in his time, but also Diamandis in ours. The result with respect to Lindbergh is well known: He became the most famous pilot in the history of aviation. Diamandis, by contrast, isn't a household name. Yet he has become one of the most innovative and successful philanthropists at work today. As the co-founder, chairman, and president of the nonprofit X Prize Foundation, he is the mastermind behind one of the most thrilling aeronautical achievements of the last quarter century: the amazing flight of SpaceShipOne. When it soared 100 kilometers (nearly 70 miles) above the earth's surface last fall, it became the first privately financed vehicle to enter suborbital space. The ship's designers captured the X Prize, including its purse of $10 million.