Customer Reviews

Explorer's Air Yacht: The Sikorsky S-38 Flying Boat

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I've been reading and re-reading this book numerous time since I first got hold of a copy. It tells the story of how Igor Sikorsky, America's great golden age aircraft designer developed the S-38 amphibian after a long series of "One-of" aircraft. This was during the 1920s, and the S-38 was the first to enter series production. Numerous airlines bought the aircraft for use all over the world; hawaii, china, Brazil. A number of explorers made highly publicised, but mostly ill-fated attempts to cross the atlantic using the S-38. There was Gast and Cramer who were publiised by The Chicago Tribune and their airplane "The untin bowler" ended up being crushed in an ice flow in Labrador. There was some looney showbiz family that bought an S-38 for the first crossing of the Atlantic by a family. And there were the Johnson's who bought two S-38s and had them decorated in leopard motif and flew them all over the Serengetti plane chasing giraffes and zebras. Models o their aircraft were featured prominently last year in one of the airplane model magazines. I think anybody who enjoys reading about aviation and likes getting a little off the beaten path will love this book!