New Spirit of St. Louis Organization

The New Spirit of St. Louis Organization is a major sponsor of the X-Prize Foundation .

The namesake of this organization were inspired by a group that formed in 1925. A few people had come together in St. Louis to finance the design, development and construction of an airplane with which Charles Lindbergh was supposed to try to win the Orteig Prize . Two years later, Lindbergh won the $ 25,000 prize. His plane was named Spirit of St. Louis after the organization .

Members in 2004

In 2004 the organization had 75 members, with a membership limit of 100. Each member paid a minimum contribution of $ 25,000 to the X-Prize Foundation. At that time, it included the following members from St. Louis: Andy Taylor, CEO of Enterprise Rent-A-Car ; John McDonnell, Chairman of the McDonnell Douglas Foundation and William Danforth, Chancellor of Washington University .

Other supporters in 2004 were the writers Tom Clancy and Arthur C. Clarke ; Adeo Ressi, co-founder of Sophos Partners ; Richard Garriott, founder of Origin Systems ; Anousheh Ansari and Amir Ansari , founders of Telecom Technologies, Inc .; J. Barry Thompson, director of North American Architecture for UBS Warburg ; Elon Musk , CEO and co-owner of Tesla and SpaceX ; and Erik Lindbergh , the grandson of Charles Lindbergh.