Tingmissartoq
Encyclopedia
Tingmissartoq was the name given to a Lockheed Model 8 Sirius flown by Charles
and Anne Morrow Lindbergh
in the 1930s. Tingmissartoq means "one who flies like a big bird"; the plane was thus christened by an Eskimo
boy in Godthaab, Greenland
, who painted the word on its side.
via the Great Circle Route. A low-wing monoplane
, Tingmissartoq was outfitted with Edo floats, as much of the planned route was over water.
The trip was described solely as a vacation flight, with "no start or finish, no diplomatic or commercial significance, and no records to be sought." It began in North Haven, Maine
, from which point the couple flew to Ottawa
. From there they flew to various other sites in Canada, including Moose Factory
, Churchill
, Baker Lake
, and Aklavik
, before heading to Point Barrow, Alaska. They continued on to Shismaref and Nome
, after which they crossed the Pacific Ocean
to Petropavlosk
. From here they continued over the Kuril Islands
to Tokyo
, where they were enthusiastically welcomed. The trip continued on to China
, with its final stop on Lotus Lake
near Nanking made on September 19.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh described the trip, and her impressions and experiences, in her book North to the Orient.
from the British
aircraft carrier
when it capsized accidentally. One wing hit a ship's cable and was damaged, necessitating the craft's return to the United States
for repairs.
, Deutsche Luft Hansa
, KLM, and Air France
collaborated on a study of international air routes. The assigned areas were Newfoundland
to Europe
via Greenland
; Newfoundland via the great circle route to Ireland
; Newfoundland southeast to the Azores
and Lisbon
; Miami, Bermuda
, the Azores, and Lisbon; and across the South Atlantic from Brazil, to Cape Verde
. Pan American was given the responsibility for the first of these, and sent Lindbergh, as the company's technical advisor, to survey the route. Accompanied once more by Anne, he took off from New York City
on July 9 in the rebuilt craft. The purpose of the trip was to gain as much data as possible on the area to be covered.
The plane had been fitted with a Sperry artificial horizon and a directional gyro
since its previous flight. The engine, too, was new, a Wright Cyclone SR1820-F2 of 710 hp. All possible spaces were used, including the wings and floats; these contained the gasoline
tanks. There was also plenty of emergency equipment for use in the event of a forced landing
.
To maintain radio contact with the couple, Pan American hired a Danish
ship, the Jellinge, to stay within range in the area of Labrador
, Greenland, and Iceland
. It also delivered advance supplies for them to Halifax
, St. John's
, Cartwright, Greenland, and Iceland.
Tingmissartoq flew first from New York to Hopedale, Labrador, hugging the eastern Canadian border along the way. From here the Lindberghs made the first major hop over water, flying 650 miles to Godthaab. The couple then crisscrossed Greenland to Baffin Island
and back, and then flew to Iceland. They continued the trip by flying around the world; visiting first the major cities of Europe, they continued to Moscow
, then down Africa's west coast, and across the South Atlantic to South America. Here, they flew down the Amazon River
, and then turned north through Trinidad
and Barbados
before returning to the United States. They returned to New York on December 19, having traveled 30,000 miles and visited four continents and twenty-one countries. The information they provided proved invaluable in planning transatlantic air transport routes.
Tingmissartoq was on display in the American Museum of Natural History
in New York City until 1955, when it was acquired by the National Museum of the United States Air Force
in Dayton, Ohio
. It was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution
in 1959, and is currently on display in the "Pioneers of Flight" gallery of the National Air and Space Museum
in Washington, DC.
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
and Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anne Morrow Lindbergh was an American author, aviator, and the spouse of fellow aviator Charles Lindbergh.She was an acclaimed author whose books and articles spanned the genres of poetry to non-fiction, touching upon topics as diverse as youth and age; love and marriage; peace, solitude and...
in the 1930s. Tingmissartoq means "one who flies like a big bird"; the plane was thus christened by an Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
boy in Godthaab, Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
, who painted the word on its side.
First flight
Lockheed had introduced its Sirius model in 1929; this particular craft appears to have been built to specifications sometime between then and 1931, when the Lindberghs planned to fly to the OrientOrient
The Orient means "the East." It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English it is a metonym that means various parts of Asia.- Derivation :...
via the Great Circle Route. A low-wing monoplane
Monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed wing aircraft.-Types of monoplane:...
, Tingmissartoq was outfitted with Edo floats, as much of the planned route was over water.
The trip was described solely as a vacation flight, with "no start or finish, no diplomatic or commercial significance, and no records to be sought." It began in North Haven, Maine
North Haven, Maine
North Haven is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States, in Penobscot Bay. The town is both a year-round island community and a prominent summer colony. The population was 381 at the 2000 census...
, from which point the couple flew to Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
. From there they flew to various other sites in Canada, including Moose Factory
Moose Factory, Ontario
Moose Factory is a community in the Cochrane District, Ontario, Canada. It is on Moose Factory Island, near the mouth of the Moose River, which is at the southern end of James Bay. It was the first English-speaking settlement in Ontario and the second Hudson's Bay Company post to be set up in North...
, Churchill
Churchill, Manitoba
Churchill is a town on the shore of Hudson Bay in Manitoba, Canada. It is most famous for the many polar bears that move toward the shore from inland in the autumn, leading to the nickname "Polar Bear Capital of the World" that has helped its growing tourism industry.-History:A variety of nomadic...
, Baker Lake
Baker Lake, Nunavut
Baker Lake , is a hamlet in the Kivalliq Region, in Nunavut on mainland Canada. Located inland from Hudson Bay, it is near the nation's geographical centre, and is notable for being the Canadian Arctic's sole inland community...
, and Aklavik
Aklavik, Northwest Territories
Aklavik is a hamlet located in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. Until 1961, the community served as the regional administrative centre for the territorial government...
, before heading to Point Barrow, Alaska. They continued on to Shismaref and Nome
Nome, Alaska
Nome is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska, located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. According to the 2010 Census, the city population was 3,598. Nome was incorporated on April 9, 1901, and was once the...
, after which they crossed the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
to Petropavlosk
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is the main city and the administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultural center of Kamchatka Krai, Russia. Population: .-History:It was founded by Danish navigator Vitus Bering, in the service of the Russian Navy...
. From here they continued over the Kuril Islands
Kuril Islands
The Kuril Islands , in Russia's Sakhalin Oblast region, form a volcanic archipelago that stretches approximately northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many more minor rocks. It consists of Greater...
to Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, where they were enthusiastically welcomed. The trip continued on to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, with its final stop on Lotus Lake
Lotus Lake
Lotus Lake is a man-made lake and popular tourist destination on the east side of Zuoying District in Kaohsiung City in southern Taiwan. Opened in 1951, it is famous for the lotus plants on the lake and the numerous temples around the lake, including the Spring and Autumn Pavilions , the Dragon...
near Nanking made on September 19.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh described the trip, and her impressions and experiences, in her book North to the Orient.
Accident at Hankow
While at Hankow, the plane, with the Lindberghs aboard, was being lowered into the Yangtze RiverYangtze River
The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...
from the British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
when it capsized accidentally. One wing hit a ship's cable and was damaged, necessitating the craft's return to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for repairs.
Second journey
Tingmissartoq was to see action again in 1933 as a result of international interest in the development of commercial air transport. Pan American Airways, Imperial AirwaysImperial Airways
Imperial Airways was the early British commercial long range air transport company, operating from 1924 to 1939 and serving parts of Europe but especially the Empire routes to South Africa, India and the Far East...
, Deutsche Luft Hansa
Deutsche Luft Hansa
Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G. was a German airline, serving as flag carrier of the country during the later years of the Weimar Republic and throughout the Third Reich.-1920s:Deutsche Luft Hansa was founded on 6 January 1926 in Berlin...
, KLM, and Air France
Air France
Air France , stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...
collaborated on a study of international air routes. The assigned areas were Newfoundland
Dominion of Newfoundland
The Dominion of Newfoundland was a British Dominion from 1907 to 1949 . The Dominion of Newfoundland was situated in northeastern North America along the Atlantic coast and comprised the island of Newfoundland and Labrador on the continental mainland...
to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
via Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
; Newfoundland via the great circle route to Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
; Newfoundland southeast to the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
and Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
; Miami, Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
, the Azores, and Lisbon; and across the South Atlantic from Brazil, to Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
. Pan American was given the responsibility for the first of these, and sent Lindbergh, as the company's technical advisor, to survey the route. Accompanied once more by Anne, he took off from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on July 9 in the rebuilt craft. The purpose of the trip was to gain as much data as possible on the area to be covered.
The plane had been fitted with a Sperry artificial horizon and a directional gyro
Gyro
- Science and technology :* An abbreviation for gyroscope, an orientation-stabilizing device* An abbreviation for autogyro, a type of rotary-wing aircraft* The casually used brand name of a detangler mechanism, part of a stunt-adapted BMX bicycle...
since its previous flight. The engine, too, was new, a Wright Cyclone SR1820-F2 of 710 hp. All possible spaces were used, including the wings and floats; these contained the gasoline
Gasoline
Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...
tanks. There was also plenty of emergency equipment for use in the event of a forced landing
Forced landing
A forced landing is a landing by an aircraft made under factors outside the pilot's control, such as the failure of engines, systems, components or weather which makes continued flight impossible. For a full description of these, see article on Emergency landing...
.
To maintain radio contact with the couple, Pan American hired a Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
ship, the Jellinge, to stay within range in the area of Labrador
Labrador
Labrador is the distinct, northerly region of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It comprises the mainland portion of the province, separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle...
, Greenland, and Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
. It also delivered advance supplies for them to Halifax
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
, St. John's
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...
, Cartwright, Greenland, and Iceland.
Tingmissartoq flew first from New York to Hopedale, Labrador, hugging the eastern Canadian border along the way. From here the Lindberghs made the first major hop over water, flying 650 miles to Godthaab. The couple then crisscrossed Greenland to Baffin Island
Baffin Island
Baffin Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut is the largest island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world. Its area is and its population is about 11,000...
and back, and then flew to Iceland. They continued the trip by flying around the world; visiting first the major cities of Europe, they continued to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, then down Africa's west coast, and across the South Atlantic to South America. Here, they flew down the Amazon River
Amazon River
The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...
, and then turned north through Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
and Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
before returning to the United States. They returned to New York on December 19, having traveled 30,000 miles and visited four continents and twenty-one countries. The information they provided proved invaluable in planning transatlantic air transport routes.
Tingmissartoq was on display in the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
in New York City until 1955, when it was acquired by the National Museum of the United States Air Force
National Museum of the United States Air Force
The National Museum of the United States Air Force is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the world's largest and oldest military aviation museum with more than 360 aircraft and missiles on display...
in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
. It was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
in 1959, and is currently on display in the "Pioneers of Flight" gallery of the National Air and Space Museum
National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world. It was established in 1976. Located in Washington, D.C., United States, it is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and...
in Washington, DC.