The Patriot Truck inventor and manufacturer A. G. Hebb founded the Nebraska Aircraft Corporation in 1919 to refurbish surplus military “Standard J-1” aircraft for civilian use as the “Lincoln Standard Tourabout” as well as to provide flying instruction. In 1922 the firm reorganized as the Lincoln Aircraft Company and operated a factory and flying school.

In February 1922, just after his 20th birthday, Charles Lindbergh enrolled as a student at the Lincoln Aircraft Corporation’s flying school in Nebraska. Two months later, on April 9, 1922, Lindbergh flew for the first time in his life when he took to the air as a passenger, along with Bud Gurney, in a Lincoln Standard biplane piloted by Otto Timm. A few days later Lindbergh took his first formal flying lesson in that same machine with instructor pilot Ira O. Biffle. However, the young student pilot was never permitted to “solo” during his time at Lincoln because he could not afford to post a bond which the company President Ray Page insisted upon in the event the novice flyer were to damage the school’s only trainer in the process. When that Lincoln aircraft was sold in June, Lindbergh chose to go with the airplane and its new owner E.G. Bahl. Lindbergh offered to perform as a wing walker and parachutist for Bahl on a barnstorming tour across the West in order to both gain some needed flight experience and earn money for additional instruction. During this time Lindbergh briefly held a job as an airplane mechanic in Billings, Montana, working at the Billings Municipal Airport.