http://www.airportappraisals.com/ Win Perkins, a real estate appraiser who specializes in airport properties, has posted on his Web site a video he created of Charles Lindberghs famous and risky takeoff in the Spirit of St. Louis. According to Perkins, this is unlike any other presentation of the takeoff footage. Perkins said he painstakingly assembled news footage from five cameras that filmed Lindberghs takeoff from Roosevelt Field, Long Island and mixed it with enhanced audio from the same newsreel sources. After you watch the "Takeoff Video (Part #3)", be sure to 'click' on "Contact" on the Left side on the web page each time to view all of the Videos "Parts #1 thru #4".
I have read his books and have seen all the footage that was taken of his take off in years past. He did a marvelous job of getting the over loaded airplane off a muddy field when the wheels were equipped with narrow tires that dug deep into the muck. Previous tests were done in California on hard dry surfaces and were negated by the conditions in New York. Switches
I always thought The Spirit was one of the most beautiful machines every to fly. And, when I was a kid, I was fascinated with Jimmy Stewart's movie of Lindbergh's flight. I still can't pass up watching it again when it comes on TCM. Thank heavens there was no CGI in when it was made. Just like the movie "Apollo 13", you already know what happens in the end but you still get excited about it anyway. Thanks for posting!
You are correct in saying that it was one of the handsomest or beautiful airplanes. It followed the adage, " Form follows function." It was designed to do one thing, cruise as far as it could with the least amount of airframe weight and drag and carry the biggest fuel load possible. Lindbergh had a lot to do with it by insisting that he sat behind the main fuselage fuel tank thus eliminating a windshield and its drag ( and also lessening the chance of being crushed by the tank in case of a crash). The airplane was a derivation of the Ryan M-1 Mailplane that provided the basic airframe design. Hall added one more bay to the aft fuselage, added 5 feet more span to each wing and cleaned up the tips, put a 450 gallon fuel tank at the center of gravity, re-designed and modernized the landing gear to cope with the weight, and cleaned up the nose. Lindbergh insisted on leaving an empennage of the M-1 which was too small but with less drag ( debatable here) and would require constant flying (to keep him awake, he said). According to him, when he did fall asleep the airplane went into a spiral descent. It used the Clark Y wing section, that is still a good airfoil. Indeed it is a beautiful airplane. Switches
My painting of the Ryan M-1, the progenitor of the Spirit of St. Louis. Image Unavailable, Please Login
God bless you Bob. Truly beautiful work. It's too bad so few people have any idea what the early years of aviation looked like.
Thanks, I remember a lot of things from my childhood, most of which had a strong human element in them. I try to show that. I have had more than one old timer look at the M-1 painting and say, " I have done that many times." ( pour fuel through a chamois filter). Switches
Terrific take-off footage. Great painting. I get cold just from looking at it! I'm not sure it's true, but someone once told me that if the weather had been bad in Paris, Lindbergh had enough fuel to get to Rome.