Spirit of St. Louis

[napacon]

Spirit of St. Louis Reproduction Flies at Old Rhinebeck.. And it flys's BEAUTIFULLY..A Thrill to see.....However When Flying our FS9 or FSX model? ..Well I do not know.??..I wonder if there is a more realistic flying model?..As this Legend becomes more popular this summer , with the old Rhinebeck events This Model Deserves better..

 

[Bomber_12th]

It's kind of perplexing, because Ken Cassens, describing flying the Old Rhinebeck "Spirit" reproduction, has said it flies well. However, you have to realize that he has had a lifetime of experience flying aircraft of that era and earlier. (Internally, the aircraft doesn't have all of the fuel tanks the original did, and only flies with enough fuel for a regular flight time, and carries ballast in the nose to make up for the loss of weight). For those who have flown some of the other reproductions/replicas, like the EAA example (which the FS2004 "Spirit" flight dynamics were modeled off of), they describe it as behaving very much like the FS2004 model behaves. In an interview in the "One Six Right" documentary, there is an old pilot who recounts how he made a flying model of the "Spirit" as a child, and it flew awful - later, when he had the opportunity to meet Lindbergh, he told Lindbergh about the model and how terrible it flew, and Lindbergh commented that it must have been an accurate model as the real thing flew the same.

 

[napacon]

It's kind of perplexing, because Ken Cassens, describing flying the Old Rhinebeck "Spirit" reproduction, has said it flies well. However, you have to realize that he has had a lifetime of experience flying aircraft of that era and earlier. (Internally, the aircraft doesn't have all of the fuel tanks the original did, and only flies with enough fuel for a regular flight time, and carries ballast in the nose to make up for the loss of weight). For those who have flown some of the other reproductions/replicas, like the EAA example (which the FS2004 "Spirit" flight dynamics were modeled off of), they describe it as behaving very much like the FS2004 model behaves. In an interview in the "One Six Right" documentary, there is an old pilot who recounts how he made a flying model of the "Spirit" as a child, and it flew awful - later, when he had the opportunity to meet Lindbergh, he told Lindbergh about the model and how terrible it flew, and Lindbergh commented that it must have been an accurate model as the real thing flew the same.

Great story!..However define terrible!...It did what it had to do....Even got off he ground..Barely...and even being half asleep..he got there..landed in the dark...Me Thinks Lindbergh loved this plane..and was very modest. 3,600 miles in 33.5 hours.His vehicle for eternal fame and accomplishment//..Not sure if he visited his plane at the Smithsonian....But One thing he had And we do not....he had a prayer....and That may Have Served him well...."PSALM 139-If I Take The Wings Of Morning And Dwell In The Uttermost Parts Of The Sea.." This still on his grave stone....Thnx My Friend!

 

[jtrandttr]

. . .Not sure if he visited his plane at the Smithsonian....

Apparently he did . . . more than once

From Barry Schiff, The Spirit Flies On: Remembering the flight that changed the course of history

“In her book, Slim, Slim Keith — wife of motion picture producer Leland Hayward — observed Lindbergh sitting in the cockpit of the Spirit in the Smithsonian prior to filming Hayward's movie, The Spirit of St. Louis. "Lindbergh had noticed that the primer was out of place, said to himself that 'it shouldn't be this way,' and pushed the knob in with a noticeably tender caress of a gesture."
​

From Charles Hillinger, Old Man and His Collection at the Air and Space Museum (Los Angeles Times July 1, 1990)
(Recollections of Paul E. Garber, then Historian Emeritus, National Air and Space Museum)

I knew everybody in the world would be after the Spirit of St. Louis. I wired Lindbergh that the Smithsonian wanted the airplane when he was finished with it. After Lindbergh flew all over the U.S., Mexico and South America immediately following the Atlantic flight, he called me one day from an airfield in the Midwest and said: 'Paul, I'm flying the Spirit to Washington. You can have it.' "

Garber recalled the time years later when Lindbergh phoned to ask if he could come over and "sit in the Spirit." At the time, the plane was on exhibit in the Smithsonian Arts and Industry Building.
"It was near closing time when Lindbergh arrived. I suggested he wait until all the visitors left the museum. Then I got a tall double ladder and he climbed it to get into the airplane hanging from the ceiling," said Garber.

"I knew he wanted to be alone with his thoughts, so I went off and sat in a corner. Here was Lindbergh in his airplane and I with him, alone. What a moving experience. After about a half-hour, he leaned out the cockpit and called down: 'Hey, Paul. Will you hold onto the ladder for me. I'm ready to come down.' He thanked me for taking good care of his airplane."
​

Tom

 

[napacon]

Just wonderful Jtrandttr....Was why i mentioned it..may have been in some dim memory of mine...but for Him?,Suspended in the air?...sitting in his plane?...I would think his memory's were vivid and real..."LUCKY LINDY...."THE LONE EAGLE "...Thnks for this ,will save it...

 

[SSI01]

There is no doubt Lindbergh held great affection for the Spirit. To him, he and his airplane were always "we." I wonder if its difficult flying attributes were actually something Lindbergh may have planned for since it would help keep him awake during that long, lonely, intensely boring crossing, 33 hours alone in the air with the constant note of the engine and essentially unchanging posture he had to endure for that period. I have seen, however, in at least two biographies of him that he had little thought of the eternal and believed his survival could be assured if everything he attempted was thought through carefully and planned to the nth degree. Remember he carefully weighed each and every component of the aircraft prior to assembly, then did the same with what he planned to carry with him during the crossing - even weighing a comb and discarding it eventually as wasted weight. One of the biographies states his children saw the film "Spirit of St Louis" and said the scene at the end where Lindbergh/Stewart comes close to collapsing from exhaustion prior to landing and says, "God, help me," would never have happened with him - he just wasn't that way.

One of my father's great memories of the late 1920s was being at an airfield in metro Detroit shortly after Lindbergh's crossing of the Atlantic when he was making the nationwide tour of the US with the Spirit. Lindbergh and the Spirit were at the airfield and had been escorted there by some Army fighters. One of the fighters crashed and the pilot was killed. Dad remembered Lindbergh later dropping a wreath from the Spirit onto the train that was carrying the flier's body home for burial.

Lindbergh's mother was living in Detroit at the time of the flight. He was born there and not in Minnesota, however, he considered Minnesota his home. His later life was full of even more eventful activity. Just some fascinating facts about this most interesting man.

 

[napacon]

Thank you for the Story's..always Fascinating about this complex man...The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome is getting ready for an other great summer there..Many will come to see THE SPIRIT OF ST.LOUIS FLY AGAIN...interesting hints of its flight Characteristics in the attached..




http://www.flyingmag.com/news/old-rhinebeck-aerodromes-spirit-st-louis-replica-flies

 

[napacon]

GREAT PIC! ITS 1927 Again