1927 Charles Lindbergh Spirit of St Louis Earth Inductor Compass 2-Page Article

Description

1927 Charles Lindbergh Spirit of St Louis Earth Inductor Compass - 2-Page Vintage Article
Original, vintage magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8 1/2" x 12" (22 cm x 30 cm) each page
Condition: Good
LINDBERGH’S PARTNER
THE PLANE THAT TOOK LINDBERGH across was
the embodiment of all that has been learned about
design and construction since the war, we are told by
Frank Parker Stockbridge, writing in Popular Science Monthly
(New York, August). The war, says Mr. Stockbridge, taught
designers much about building fighters; yet no plane in existence
when the Armistice was signed, equipped -with any engine then
known, could have made Lindbergh’s
speed, maneuverability, a high ceiling
to climb to it quickly. Peace aviation
calls for safety, stability, endurance
and reliability, minor considerations
in fighting planes intended for short
flights at top speed. To quote from
the article:
flight. War demanded
and power with which
“In its elemental design, Lind-
bergh’s plane embodies one lesson
learned from war. It is a monoplane.
“To-day at least eight of the most
widely known makes of airplanes have
but one pair of wings. It was a mono-
plane, the Columbia-Bellanea, which
carried Chamberlin and Levine on
their record hop to Germany, and which
previously established a new world’s
record for sustained flight. It was in
a Fokker monoplane that Commander
Byrd crossed the north pole.
“Lindbergh’s plane is but slightly
modified from the commercial type of
the same make which is regularly used
in carrying air mail between Los
Angeles and Seattle, via San Francisco.
It is what is known as a semicanti-
lever monoplane, with the wings located
above the fuselage. In the commercial
plane of this type, the pilot’s seat is
directly behind the wings, while the compartment for mail, ex-
press matter, or passengers is under the wings.
“The first change made from the standard design was to
fill this cargo space with large tanks to hold the 300 extra gallons
of gasoline needed to cany the flyer across the Atlantic; the next,
to inclose the pilot’s cockpit, putting a roof over his head and an
entrance door on the right of the fuselage, with a corresponding
window on the left. The three regular tanks are between the
wings, over the cargo space, and inside the body of the machine,
behind the pilot.
“The new location of the tanks was chosen for two reasons:
first, to put all the weight in front of the pilot, so that he would
not be crusht between the gas tank and the engine in
case of a crash; the second,
to reduce the length from
tank to engine, thereby
lessening the danger of the
gas line becoming clogged.
The longest gas line in Lind-
bergh’s plane is barely two
feet...
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