Gasoline Wing Tank Food Engine Storage Rack Wind Wheel for Compass Raft Periscope Gasoline Tank By means of donations a loan and all his savings he scrapes up enough money for commissioning Ryan Aeronautical a smaller aircraft manufactur er based in San Diego to build a single engine air plane Designing and building the Spirit of St Louis takes only two months and by naming the aircraft after St Louis Lindbergh expresses his gratitude to his investors who hail from the city on the Mississippi river The aircraft consists of tubu lar steel and wood lined with fabric Its technical equipment includes bearings from the subsequent Schaeffl er brand FAG There s only one engine on board because Lindbergh feels that the risk of en gine failure increases with multiple engines No radio no sextant On May 20th 1927 at 7 54 am Lindbergh takes off for his record attempt albeit not without having done a thorough purging job beforehand in oth er words relentlessly sorting out things Lindbergh was obsessed with weight reduction author Dan Hampton a retired Air Force pilot will subsequent ly explain in his report titled The Flight Charles Lindbergh s Daring and Immortal 1927 Transatlan tic Crossing To take the maximum amount of fuel on board he not only enlarges the wings but even sacrifi ces presumably lightweight devices and po tential life savers like a parachute a fuel gauge a radio and a sextant for navigation Instead he fl ies only with his wristwatch maps and a compass Even so he reaches Ireland only a few miles off the planned course Neither does the Spirit of St Louis have a for ward windshield because what for An addition al fuel tank installed in the cockpit obstructs his vision anyway Only a small periscope he devel oped provides him with a forward view Instead of in a plump spring mounted pilot s seat he spends nearly 34 hours sitting in a lightweight willow basked He even leaves an additional set of clothes for the potential victory celebration at home and just a single bottle of water is planned to quench his thirst He forgets to eat the few sand wiches he s taken along due to the mental strain he s under during his daring adventure because that is not without complications According to Hampton s account Lindbergh at times is fl ying only a few meters above the waves of the Atlantic in order to circumvent heavy snow Technical data of the Spirit of St Louis Length 8 56 meters 28 feet Wing span 14 03 meters 46 feet Height 3 04 meters 10 feet Wing area 29 64 m 319 sq ft Empty weight 974 kg 2 147 lbs Takeoff weight 2 330 kg 5 137 lbs Top speed 220 km h 137 mph Engine 9 cylinder Wright J 5C Whirl wind radial engine 223 hp 166 kW The press called Lindbergh s plane a fl ying orange crate 25 PIONEERS

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