neat history: Spirit of St. Louis technical prep documents

[krautfed]

http://www.charleslindbergh.com/plane/naca-tn-257.pdf

Written by Chief Engineer of Ryan Airlines, Donald Hall in 1927

I was just doing some nerdy aircraft research while I'm going through weight & balance, fueling, and design considerations in my flight training. I came across this document, and it amazes me that this was written in 1927

 

[Ersatz]

I've got to admit that I too am taken aback by the technical detail. Thanks for the post; education is its own reward.

 

[JimG]

I've seen this before, and heard all the stories...over and over and over again....lol.

Ed Morrow, who was in charge of the fittings was my grandfather in-law (ex-wife's grandfather) until he died several years ago.

I used to spend hours at the SDiego Aerospace museum with him hearing all the stories and going through all of the memorabilia.

Even spent an afternoon with "Wrongway" Corrigan once. Unfortunately Doug was very old at that time and his mind slipping. He kept repeating himself the whole time.

If you go to see Spirit III that sits in the routunda of the museum, the 10' photo behind the plane was Ed's personal one. (One trademark of his photos was that he wrote all over the faces of his pictures, instead of on the back).

Surprisingly, he could still fly an airplane long after he could drive a car. I used to take him up in my old 172 and let him sit in the left seat and fly. He was well into his late 80's the last flight we ever made together and he handled it quite nicely.

My only "problem" with him was that he was just as interested in geology as he was flying and spent too much time looking down on the ground instead of where we were headed.