takair Posted July 1, 2019 Report Posted July 1, 2019 Ok, not Mooney related, but I’m a big fan of the Spirit of St Louis....another great cross country plane... I was at the old Air and Space museum this weekend. Had not been in years. In looking up at the plane, I noticed these two oddities. I couldn’t remember seeing them in historical photos or reproductions. In a Google search, they only seem to appear in museum images, but can’t find any description. Anybody know the answer? No prizes beyond Mooneyspace fame and glory. Quote
1964-M20E Posted July 1, 2019 Report Posted July 1, 2019 on board bathroom facilities #1 and #2 1 Quote
Runway37 Posted July 1, 2019 Report Posted July 1, 2019 Near or directly under the stowed inflatable life raft? Quote
takair Posted July 1, 2019 Author Report Posted July 1, 2019 31 minutes ago, Runway37 said: Near or directly under the stowed inflatable life raft? Yes, but I don’t see these exterior protrusions in original pictures of the aircraft. Seems draggy...even for the era. Quote
PTK Posted July 1, 2019 Report Posted July 1, 2019 After Lindbergh's historic flight to Paris he also flew back about a month later! This may or may not be trivia since we are focused on the flight to Paris. After he flew back from Paris he landed at Lambert Field. He then flew a tour of Latin America. These tubes were not original to the plane but were added for the Latin America tour and were used to store flares. They were dropped by the pilot to aid in night landings. 2 Quote
N201MKTurbo Posted July 1, 2019 Report Posted July 1, 2019 They are flare tubes. https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/stories-inside-spirit-st-louis 1 Quote
carusoam Posted July 1, 2019 Report Posted July 1, 2019 https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/multimedia/vr?passthrough=/sites/default/files/images/panoramas/files/360/interior/A19280021000_1 Great link, Rich! The link I copied has an older style 3D view around the inside of the aircraft... I found this while looking around Rich’s link... I found it interesting that it has a retractable periscope mounted at the instrument panel... with a slide / knob... to retract it... Would have been an opportunity for Rob’s first Servo driven retract devices... The plane has a wind powered generator... Great learning tool for how things really were... School books always seam to over simplify the good stuff. Best regards, -a- 1 Quote
BKlott Posted July 6, 2019 Report Posted July 6, 2019 On this topic I remember reading that Lindbergh’s granddaughter spoke of him traveling to the museum incognito to see his airplane a number of times. He even made arrangements for an “after hours” visit where they made provisions for him to sit in the cockpit again, later in life. 1 Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.