Spirit of St. Louis

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The Spirit of St. Louis is a custom-built airplane flown by Charles Lindbergh that made the first non-stop solo transatlantic flight on 20 May and 21 May 1927. This was also the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris, for which Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize.

Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Airfield in Long Island, New York and made a successful touchdown at the Le Bourget Aerodrome in Paris, France. The flight lasted 33 hours, 30 minutes and 29.8 seconds. Lindbergh was the 104th person to fly the Atlantic.

Design and development

Officially known as the Ryan NYP, the aircraft was designed by Donald A. Hall of the aircraft manufacturer Ryan Airlines, a short-lived company that was located in San Diego, California. The plane was loosely based on the Ryan M-2, a mail-carrier built in 1926, to cut design time. However the Spirit represented a "new design" considering the Ryan M-2 could not be redesigned to make the 3,600 mile flight. Hall elaborated on his original 1927 published facts in the "Engineering Data on the Spirit of St. Louis" (prepared for the US NACA, and included as an appendix in his book The Spirit of St. Louis by Charles Lindbergh).

At the time, the company was owned by Benjamin Franklin Mahoney, who had founded the company as an airline in 1925 with T. Claude Ryan and retained him as manager after buying out his interest in 1926. There is dispute as to how involved T. Claude Ryan may have been with the company after selling his share to Benjamin Franklin Mahoney. It is known that Hawley Bowlus was the factory manager and oversaw the production of the aircraft. However B.F. Mahoney was the sole owner at the time of Donald A. Hall's hiring. Although designed for the New York to Paris flight and although the "Spirit" was built in San Diego, it was named after the city of St. Louis, Missouri because Lindbergh's financial investors lived in that city. The flight was inspired by the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the first non-stop flight between New York and Paris. On 21 May, the plane touched down in Le Bourget, Paris, France, thus qualifying to win the prize.

Hall and the Ryan Airlines staff worked closely with Lindbergh to design and build the single-seat, single-engine monoplane in just 60 days, for a cost of just over $10,000 (though the actual cost isn't clear, since Mahoney offered the plane "at cost"). In the spring of 1927, several other pilots and aircrew were also preparing to make the transatlantic flight to compete for the Orteig Prize.

Design

Lindbergh believed that the more engines a plane had, the greater the possibility of engine failure. He was of the opinion that single-engine planes traveled farther, and thus decided to purchase one. To increase fuel efficiency, the Spirit of St. Louis was one of the most streamlined aircraft of its era.

Lindbergh believed that a flight in a small airplane, designed around the dependable Wright J-5C, stood the best chance of completion. The Ryan NYP was very different from others since it had extra fuel tanks, in order to travel a much greater distance non-stop. The large main fuel tank was placed in the forward section of the fuselage, in front of the pilot, which improved the center of gravity of the aircraft. Locating fuel tanks at the front of the aircraft reduced the risk of the pilot being crushed to death in crash, thus there was no front windshield, and the pilot's view was limited to the side windows. A periscope was installed and fastened to the plane's left side to provide a forward view, as a precaution against hitting ship masts, trees, or structures while flying at low altitude; however, it is unclear whether the periscope was used during the flight. Lindbergh also used special navigation instruments such as the Earth Inductor Compass, which was the plane's main instrument, allowing Lindbergh to navigate while taking account of the magnetic deviation of the earth.

Lindbergh sat in a cramped cockpit which was 94 centimeters wide by 81 centimeters long and 130 centimeters high. The cockpit was so small, Lindbergh could not stretch his legs. The Spirit of St. Louis was powered by a 223-horsepower, air-cooled, 9-cylinder Wright J-5C "Whirlwind" radial engine. The engine was rated for a maximum operating time of 9,000 hours (more than one year if operated continuously), and had a special mechanism that could keep it clean the whole New York-to-Paris flight.

The race to win the trophy required timesaving design compromises. The original wingspan of the Ryan M2 was increased by 10 feet and redesigned to create a surface area large enough to lift 450 gallons (1,703 liters) of fuel (carried in five fuel tanks: left wing, right wing, mid wing, nose and in available payload space) along with the lone pilot and minimum necessary gear.

However, Donald A. Hall decided that the tail and control surfaces of the aircraft would not be altered from his original Ryan M2 design, thus minimizing redesign time that was not available without delaying the flight. The result was a less stable aircraft which the experienced Lindbergh nevertheless approved. There is dispute regarding whether Hall and Lindbergh also preferred this design since the estimated 40-hour flight would be very challenging in terms of pilot fatigue. More than likely, Hall and Lindbergh together weighed the advantages and disadvantages of this setup, determining that an unstable aircraft would help keep Lindbergh awake. This indeed resulted in a plane with unstable flight characteristics, with a tendency to curve, dip, and bank at random times. The stiff wicker seat in the cockpit was also purposely uncomfortable, though custom fitted to Lindbergh's tall and lanky frame. Lindbergh later wrote in his account (The Spirit of St. Louis) about how the aircraft's movements woke him various times during the flight.

Lindbergh also insisted that unnecessary weight be eliminated. For example, he carried no radio in order to save weight. Radios were quite unreliable at the time in any case. Also, although he was an airmail pilot, he refused to carry souvenir letters on the transatlantic journey, insisting that every spare ounce be devoted to fuel. The aircraft fuselage was made of treated fabric over a metal-tube frame. The wings were made of fabric over a wood frame.

A swastika was painted on the inside of the nosecone of the Spirit of St. Louis along with the names of all the Ryan Aircraft Co. employees that built the airplane. It was a message of good luck prior to Lindbergh's solo Atlantic crossing as the swastika was a popular good luck charm and symbol with early aviators. The inside of the nosecone can be viewed on the original Spirit of St. Louis at the National Air and Space Museum.

Legacy

Lindbergh's transatlantic flight made him an instant celebrity and media star. In successfully winning the Orteig Prize, his solitary flight seemed to stir the public's imagination. He wrote: "I was astonished at the effect my successful landing in France had on the nations of the world. It was like a match lighting a bonfire" .

He subsequently flew the Spirit of St. Louis to Belgium and England before President Calvin Coolidge sent a Navy cruiser to bring Lindbergh and his airplane back to the United States. Lindbergh then flew the Spirit of St. Louis on promotional and goodwill tours across the United States and Latin America. The final flight of the Spirit of St. Louis took place on 30 April 1928, when Lindbergh flew from St. Louis to Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., where he presented the historic aircraft to the Smithsonian Institution.

Charles Lindbergh wrote the book WE about his 1927 epic transatlantic journey from New York to Paris only weeks after the flight. The title "WE" refers to Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis being together and the only two on the flight. In 1953, he wrote The Spirit of St. Louis which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954.

Aftermath

Although Ryan Airlines (its company name at the time) capitalized on the notoriety of the NYP special, an offshoot, the Ryan B-1 Brougham emerged as a five-seater with the same J-5 engine but modified with a conventional cockpit layout and a shorter wingspan. Under the newly restructured B.F. Mahoney Company, further development continued with the six-place Model B-7 with a 420 hp engne and the Model C-1 with 220 hp. In 1928, Mahoney built a DeLuxe B-2 as a gift for Charles Lindbergh.

While these further developments were only superficially comparable to the "Spirit of St. Louis," an exact duplicate was built 45 days after the transatlantic flight, the NYP-2, ordered by the Japanese newspaper Mainichi. The NYP-2 carrying serial number 29 was registered as J-BACC and achieved a number of record-breaking flights early in 1928 before a crash ended its career.

The original Spirit of St. Louis is currently on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, in the main atrium on the same side as the Bell X-1 and SpaceShipOne. The aircraft was presented to the Smithsonian Institution by Lindbergh in 1928.

Many replicas have been made — both static and flying. Three replicas of the Spirit of St. Louis were converted from Ryan B-1s for the 1957 film The Spirit of St. Louis starring James Stewart. One replica is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan while a second movie model is at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Another aircraft also used in the film is located at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, in Garden City, New York. This aircraft was built in 1928 by Ryan as a "Brougham," along identical lines as the "Spirit of St.Louis." It is one of two surviving original sister ships of the "Spirit of St.Louis." This aircraft was once flown by Lindbergh.

The Experimental Aircraft Association owns two Spirit of St. Louis replicas, both of which were registered under the original's NX211. Other examples are found at the Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport, the Missouri History Museum, the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, San Diego Aerospace Museum and San Diego International Airport.

Specifications (Ryan NYP)

References

Notes

Bibliography

Bowers, Peter. "The Many Splendid Spirits of St. Louis." Air Progress, vOume 20, No. 6, June 1967.
Hall, Donald A. Technical Preparation of the Airplane "Spirit of St. Louis" N.A.C.A. Technical Note #257. Washington: National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, July 1927. Spirit Access date: 18 May 2007.
Hall, Nova S. Spirit and Creator: The Mysterious Man Behind Lindbergh's Flight to Paris. Sheffield, MA: ATN Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0-97029644-4.
Hardwick, Jack and Schnepf, Ed. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies." The Making of the Great Aviation Films. General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
Lindbergh, Charles A. We. New York: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, 1927.
Nevin, David, ed. The Pathfinders (The Epic of Flight, v. 2). Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1980. ISBN 0-8094-3256-0.
Schiff, Barry. "The Spirit Flies On: Remembering the Flight that Changed the Course of History." AOPA Pilot, May 2002. Spirit of St. Louis Access date: 18 May 2007.

External links

Spirit of St. Louis at the National Air and Space Museum
The Spirit of St. Louis
Lindbergh's Transatlantic Flight: New York to Paris Timeline, May 20-21, 1927
Photo Archive by [[Donald A. Hall]: Designer of the Spirit of St. Louis]