Way back in the early period of flight, my wife's great great uncle, Eugene Pitney, made a tidy fortune selling flooring material to home owners in the Appalachian region. Those folks, having lived for decades with dirt floors in their homes, were eager to have something clean and stable to walk on, and Eugene provided them with quality wood flooring at prices that could not be beat. One of his first lavash purchases as a rich man was a mahogany hulled motor boat that he commissioned through the Chriscraft Boat Company...a full 48 foot motor yatch that he kept on Lake Erie. A few years later, he came up with the idea of expanding his business into new areas of the Appalachian Region and decided that the fastest way to get into and out of these areas was by plane. So Uncle Eugene went to flight school, got his pilot's certifications, and bought a used airplane. A couple years later, he decided that he wanted a brand new airplane and set his sights on the Sikorsky S-39 flying boat. He was not content to have the run of the mill S-39, so he contacted the Chriscraft Boat Company and asked them to work with Sikorsky in producing a one-of-a-kind flying boat....Chriscraft fashioned the hull from mahogany to match the 48 foot yatch that Eugene was so proud of.
Using the Sikorsky, Eugene flew into and out of more and more parts of the Appalachians, often spending the winters in the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama. This proved to be his downfall.....those warm humid environments are known for having tremendous termite problems and Uncle Eugene's mahogany hulled S-39 soon became dinner for a sizable herd of termites. While flying along at 5000 feet over a Georgia swamp, the bottom of the hull...weakened by termites...failed and Uncle Eugene fell to his death. Having landed in an alligator infested swamp, very little of Eugene's body was recovered....just his left hand and part of his right buttocks. The buttocks portion was buried in the family cemetary and his left hand was preserved in a jar of pickling brine and placed on the hearth of the family home.
Very few photographs of Uncle Eugene's Mahogany S-39 exist to this day, but his well preserved left hand now adorns a space in my wife's curio cabinet, along side her great, great, great, great, great grandmother's wedding china.
I have done as faithful representation of Uncle Eugene's Mahogany hulled S-39 as I was able to do, working of those few stained and scratched black and white photographs. I have a few areas that still need touched up, but once done will upload so that you all can recreate Uncle Eugene's flooring sells flights across the great Appalachian Region.
OBIO
Using the Sikorsky, Eugene flew into and out of more and more parts of the Appalachians, often spending the winters in the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama. This proved to be his downfall.....those warm humid environments are known for having tremendous termite problems and Uncle Eugene's mahogany hulled S-39 soon became dinner for a sizable herd of termites. While flying along at 5000 feet over a Georgia swamp, the bottom of the hull...weakened by termites...failed and Uncle Eugene fell to his death. Having landed in an alligator infested swamp, very little of Eugene's body was recovered....just his left hand and part of his right buttocks. The buttocks portion was buried in the family cemetary and his left hand was preserved in a jar of pickling brine and placed on the hearth of the family home.
Very few photographs of Uncle Eugene's Mahogany S-39 exist to this day, but his well preserved left hand now adorns a space in my wife's curio cabinet, along side her great, great, great, great, great grandmother's wedding china.
I have done as faithful representation of Uncle Eugene's Mahogany hulled S-39 as I was able to do, working of those few stained and scratched black and white photographs. I have a few areas that still need touched up, but once done will upload so that you all can recreate Uncle Eugene's flooring sells flights across the great Appalachian Region.
OBIO
