In 1931, Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne, took a Lockheed Sirius aircraft on a trip she wrote about in her best-selling novel, North to the Orient. The trip was a global interest story.
This trip was planned to take a great circle route to China which took them north-west from New York, NY, over northern Canada and Alaska, down the Russian and Japanese island chain to Tokyo, then west to Shanghai, China. It took them a month to get there and approx. 20 flights. The trip ended when the plane was damaged in a launching accident. The plane was shipped back to California for repairs. It is not known (at least by me) what their intended path was after China . They picked up the story after repairs and flew east through Greenland to Europe, south to Africa, across the South Atlantic to South America, up the Amazon and back to the US, 33,000 miles.
My project goal is to build a replica of the aircraft and fly the route taken by the Lindbergh's to China. Then, since I don't plan to damage the plane, I would continue on south through the South China Sea to Australia and then across the South Pacific to South America on my return home.
I believe
the public interest in this trip would be very high and wide. Examples of
similar reenactments have garnered a lot of interest.
I would like to share the history of the Sirius with the country as well. It would be a big hit at air shows around the country. A documentary of the construction and the trip would likely draw interest as well.
North to the Orient Route - First Half
North to the Orient Route - Second Half
