Spirit of St. Louis

[Mike Griffin]

This is the cockpit in which Charles Lindbergh sat while piloting the first aircraft to make a solo non-stop transatlantic flight, the Spirit of Saint Louis, in May of 1927. Note the periscope used instead of a forward window. The Spirit was designed and built in San Diego to compete for the $25,000 Orteig Prize, which was offered by New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig to the first aviator to cross the Atlantic non-stop, either from New York to Paris or vice versa.

#Lindbergh, a U.S. Air Mail pilot, believed that a single-engine, single-seat, high-wing monoplane would provide him with the best chance of success. Under his close supervision, the Spirit was designed and constructed in just 60 days.

To enhance the center of gravity and minimize the risk of being crushed in case of a crash, Lindbergh had the large main and forward fuel tanks placed in the front section of the fuselage, ahead of the pilot, with the oil tank acting as a firewall. As a result of this design choice, there was no front windshield, and forward visibility was limited to the side windows. However, this arrangement didn't bother Lindbergh, as he was accustomed to flying in the rear cockpit of mail planes with mail bags in the front. When he needed to see forward, he would simply look out the sides.

To address the need for some forward vision, Lindbergh enlisted the help of a former submarine serviceman to design and install a periscope. Inside the cramped cockpit, measuring 94 cm wide, 81 cm long, and 130 cm high, Lindbergh couldn't even stretch his legs.

[M Spencer]

wood it do it .



saw another copy of the thick Lindberg  Bio. in op shop yesterday . Read it again recently . Twice .
Belive someones done a stunt one way back . He made it uncomfortable so he wouldnt nod off .
And the idiot paid to guard the door , the night before , kept waking him up .

[Dan McEntee]

   Lindbergh was used to flying with limited forward visibility. It couldn't have been much better from the seat of the DE Havilland DH-4s that they used for flying the mail. It is a long way from the seat to the nose on those airplanes, so looking from side to side, and side slipping for better visibility into a landing was second nature to him. The Spirit was based on the airframe of the Ryan mail planes, the M-1 Brougham being the closest to it I think. the late Mike Gretz, of SIG Mfg and Twister fame, was researching all things Lindbergh up until his untimely passing, and we used to talk about the flight, the airplane, and the other aspects of Lambert Field at the time of the flight. Many spokes persons for Ryan state that the entire plane was built from scratch in less than 60 days, steel tube fuselage and all. But when you look at the common photos presented since then  of the fuselage sitting on saw horses outside the factory, you can tell that a the tail was extended the required amount to offset the fuel tank location by just grafting on a longer tail to an existing M-1 fuselage. This would be a tremendous time saver, and you can tell , even in a black and white photo, that the tails section is a different color than the rest of the fuselage. It had not been painted yet. The real give away, is that the M-1 had a bungee cord dampened landing gear that was different from the NYP. The brackets that are welded to the fuselage bottom to anchor the bungee cord are present in the photograph. Mike was selected to go to Washington DC as one of the very few people to be present when they lowered the Spirit to the floor for some  preservation work, and he was allowed to look in and all over the airplane, and one of the things he looked for first was those bungee cord mounts, and they are there!! Mike emailed me some photos that he took, and gave me some descriptions of what he saw, such as the pair of pliers that some mechanic had left in the section in front of the instrument panel. It wasn't very long after this trip that Mike fell ill and succumbed to brain cancer, I think it was, and I don't think he ever finished him. manuscript for the book he intended to write. I sure would like to have read what he had compiled up to that point. He knew more about the Robertson family at that time than anyone else did, including the Robertson family!
  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Trostle]

Among the remarkable things about Lindburg, the airplane and the flight is that his navigation system for the NYP flight was based on a compass and a clock.  After some increment of time, he would change his compass heading to maintain the great circle flight path between New York and Paris.

Keith

[De Hill]

I have read that Lindberg was the first " rock star ".

[Brett Buck]

I have read that Lindberg was the first " rock star ".

  Absolutely. He was the prototype for various international celebrities, like John Glenn and Neil Armstrong. Lindberg also made aviation "the next big thing", and that lasted until the late 50s (Sputnik). One thing for dead certain, *model aviation* would never have been anything like what it is without Lindberg, he started it when every kid in the world wanted to be like him.

   Not surprisingly, he (and no one else) was prepared for this kind of celebrity life, and it cost him.

    Brett

p.s. the model aviation boom for kids went only for a few years, at which point it was replaced by the first modern "technology booms" - radio, the boom to end all booms. Afterwards, all those kids grew up and it was still fun, and largely an adult activity ever since. "Do You Speak Model Airplane?" describes all this in great detail.

[Lauri Malila]

.

[Dan McEntee]

I have read that Lindberg was the first " rock star ".

   I went to a lecture by the author of "Lindbergh", A. Scott Berg, who wrote this autobiography and published it in 1998. It is largely about Lindbergh and his family, with very little about the flight in it. I'm a little foggy on the time lime now, but I think this was before all the other "scandals" about Lindbergh and his other secret families and such came to light. He only wrote the book after getting the blessing of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and granted access to her archives and personal papers. She had never  granted any interviews before this. I forget how many boxes of papers he went through, I'm thinking it was hundreds of file boxes, because Lindbergh saved everything, and if he wrote a note or letter to ANYONE, even a note for the dry cleaners, he kept a dated copy of that also! The only other collection of Lindbergh memorabilia is the History Museum here in St. Louis' Forest Park. That's where Mike Gretz did most of his research. With all the hoopla around the flight and all the gifts that he was presented, Lindy kept them ALL. They had just laid the Trans-Atlantic communications cable a year or two before the flight, so this fact made Lindbergh's flight the first major event in the history of man, that people could keep track of as it was happening, and that is what helped fan the flames of celebrity worship on him. When he landed in Paris, it was still daylight in New York and they got the news just minutes after he landed and it spread like wildfire. I never got all the way through that book, so will have to start over again. Lindbergh definitely was his own man, and marched to his own tune. He was an early supporter of the work of Robert Goddard and his vision of the future of modern rocketry.  He was invited by the Nazi Party to go to Germany and inspect their growing Luftwaffe, and was impressed by what he saw, but was vilified because he actually went . I remember reading somewhere that he was the only person outside the German Luftwaffe to fly the ME-109 before the war. I think they had to custom fit a cockpit for him if that happened!! He returned to the US in opposition to US involvement in the war because he knew that the Germans were far ahead of the rest of the world at that time. This turned a lot of former admirers against him, and public opinion  of him only turned around again after he went to the South Pacific as an advisor and instructor. His work helped US Army Air Corp pilots to significantly increase the range of their fighters and bombers through better propeller and fuel mixture control. He is "rumored" to have flown at least 50 missions in P-38 Lightnings and reportedly shot down at least one enemy aircraft. His life after the war was no less interesting, and if I could pick one person as "The Most Interesting Person In The World" I think he would be at the top of the list!

  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[GallopingGhostler]

This is the cockpit in which Charles Lindbergh sat while piloting the first aircraft to make a solo non-stop transatlantic flight, the Spirit of Saint Louis, in May of 1927. Note the periscope used instead of a forward window. The Spirit was designed and built in San Diego to compete for the $25,000 Orteig Prize, which was offered by New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig to the first aviator to cross the Atlantic non-stop, either from New York to Paris or vice versa.

I am simply amazed at the spartan cockpit layout with simple thin ply instrument panel, and the plumbing to control the various fuel tanks, the flight controls, etc. (The plys now appear to be deteriorating due to the aged glue.)

Charles was definitely a master navigator, probably considered then as sensational as that of Captain Bligh of the HMS Bounty, who in 1789 was forced to navigate 3,600 miles on an overloaded 23 foot open launch with 19 men for 48 days and with 1 week's rations starting.

[Mike Griffin]

I am guessing that the wicker chair in which he sat was to save weight.

Mike

[Ted Fancher]

Wow!

Thanks to all who contributed to this thread!  I was just about to go to bed when I came across it and couldn't put it down...as it were.  The pictures were a great delight as well.

Thanks again to all who contributed.

Ted Fancher

[Dan McEntee]

I am guessing that the wicker chair in which he sat was to save weight.

Mike

    Yes it was, but it was also a common feature on a lot of airplanes in the 20's. There is nothing on the airplane that doesn't absolutely have to be there. Even the color silver is just the base coat commonly applied to fabric covered aircraft as a UV blocker, since a lot of airplanes back then spent a lot of time in the sun. Any color dope would have added un-necessary weight. It had a fairly light weight, simple construction. It was really just a big model airplane!! Even the wing tip blocks were balsa wood!
   If you want to build a stunt model of the NYP, Popular Mechanics published plans for a semi scale model that really looks pretty good. I think Jim Lee and Keith Trostle both have built examples of it, and I think I have the plans and article. I've seen Jim fly his at least once, at the SIG contest I believe years ago, and he did a great job of flying the short nose and short coupled sin of a gun!!
  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Paul Smith]

  celebrities, like John Glenn and Neil Armstrong. Lindberg also made aviation,,,,,, One thing for dead certain, *model aviation* would never have been anything like what it is without Lindberg,,,,,,

   N
    Brett

p.s. the model aviation boom for kids went only for a few years, at which point it was replaced by the first modern "technology booms" - radio, the boom to end all booms.

Of the three names you mentioned, Glenn was by far, the least.  As a passive passenger in a government vehicle, he achieved no more than Leika, Able, Shepard, and Grissiom.  As depicted in the Hollywood film "The Right Stuff", Mercury astronauts were a dime a dozen.  It was all about PR talent and having one each from the Navy, USAF and marines.

If I made a Top Three list I would strike Glenn in favor of Chuck Yeager.

Charles Lindberg organized the group that designed and built a unique airplane that did something that had never been done.

Neil Armstrong successfully built a Scientific Beech Staggerwing, a feat the has been achieved by fewer men than the number who walked on the moon (Luna).

It's all about Control Line.  Everything else is a day job.

[Steve Dwyer]

Mike,

What Lindberg accomplished in his day has been said would be compared to a moon shot by todays standards. I read while a mechanic was changing a plug he nicked one of the cylinder heads breaking off part of a fin. Lindberg insisted on replacing the head before to flight...I wouldn't blame him, that broken fin would probably haunted him throughout the flight.

Steve

[Brett Buck]

Of the three names you mentioned, Glenn was by far, the least.  As a passive passenger in a government vehicle, he achieved no more than Leika, Able, Shepard, and Grissiom.  As depicted in the Hollywood film "The Right Stuff", Mercury astronauts were a dime a dozen.  It was all about PR talent and having one each from the Navy, USAF and marines.

  Forgot about Ham, did we? And if you are using "The Right Stuff" as a reference, I feel sad for the history of aerospace. Please read "Carrying the Fire" by Michael Collins, it is the only astronaut book worth reading.

     That is an interesting take, but misses my  point completely - it was not about what they did, it was about the celebrity they achieved.

    Brett

[Ty Marcucci]

His book, "WE" had a big influence on me and my buddy, Hugh.  We together built a Veco Brave and did every thing to keep it light including using minimum amount of glue. Duco to be exact.  Power was an O&R .29 blue head.  Fishing line and a modified 1 X 2 wooden stake for a handle.. Off it went, and it stayed together for the first two flights, then on the third parts started coming off..Hugh landed it and it never flew again.  I think he still has it out in the gramps barn.  Ah, those were the days.

[Joe Gilbert]

What Charles did in that airplane is and was unfathomable , to fly across the ocean with a whiskey compass and watch and very early needle and ball and a wind driven gyro compass of some making most likely made by Sperry co. Outstanding feat. He didn’t really need to look outside much lots of hours in dark and over ocean and to land like Dan said just do turn to final with slight slip to landing.
  The book Brett mentioned Lindbergh wrote the forward for it if I remember right in 1974 same year he died. It is a good read PS you won’t read it in one evening.

Regards.

Joe Gilbert

[Mark Mc]

A few years ago my wife and I went to Maui.  We rented a car and took the long and grueling “Road to Hana”.  It was a great day trip, and lots of beautiful sights.  But it was a pain.  When we got to the end, I was very tired ready to head back.  At the end of the "Road" there was a little concession stand, and a small road going uphill.  My wife suggested we take the little road up and see if there was anything up there, but I wanted to head back as it was going to be a tiring drive and very late when we got back to the hotel.  So my wife asked the woman at the concession stand if there was anything up the road to see.  She asked if we were interested in aviation, and my wife said I was.  The woman told us that if we drive up the road a couple of miles and turn left at the (blue?) post in the road we would come to Charles Lindbergh’s home!  So naturally I hopped in the car and drove up.  Lovely little property that was open to visitors.  I saw his home, the chapel, and his grave site.  I was amazed that there is no fence or railings around Lindbergh’s grave.

Mark

[dale gleason]

Don Hutchinson gave me this Charles Lindberg photo, which I cherish.

Reads..."KEEP OUT...of the water...HE DID!"

(Click on pic to upright pic)


dg

[Gordon Tarbell]

While in Maui several years ago the wife and I made the trip to the same site . After walking past the chapel and through a small opening in a hedge we proceeded on to find the grave site, then turning around all that can be seen is a table lawn of green looking out over into blue sky and ocean, what a sight.

[dave siegler]

There was an article by astronaut Charlie Precut and EAA director Sean Eliot.  While the Spirit of St Louis looks like a stable aircraft, it is not

If I remember, it had a ruder and elevator both were too small and made the airplane negatively stable.  It would divert on its own in yaw pitch and roll So he had to hand-fly it the whole time.

Its handling characteristics at empty weight are poor, imagine how bad it was with a full load of fuel.   

[De Hill]

I read that Lindberg requested that the aircraft be made unstable so that he wouldn't go to sleep while flying it.

[Miotch]

Neil Armstrong successfully built a Scientific Beech Staggerwing, a feat the has been achieved by fewer men than the number who walked on the moon (Luna).

Best one I've heard in years !!!! Great line