The Aircraft – The Sikorsky S-38 amphibious aircraft affectionally known as the Flying Yacht is a duel-engine aircraft built in the late 1920s at the Sikorsky plant, College Point Long Island, USA. It was designed as a commercial aircraft with a crew of two plus up to eight passengers.
A total of 101 S-38’s were made and were the mainstay during the early years of aviation. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, numerous attempts were made to cross the North Atlantic, all of these attempts ended in disaster: the niece of former President Woodrow Wilson wanted to be the first woman to fly from America to Europe in 1929 but was lost in the Atlantic. Two journalists from the Chicago Tribune newspaper also attempted the adventure but plunged into the ocean and were also lost.
All of them had tried to follow Charles Lindbergh and his first Atlantic flight between New York and Paris in 1927. It took almost 100 years before Tom Schrade successfully crossed the North Atlantic in his reconstructed Sikorsky S-38. To this day, the S-38 can be seen at special aviation events in the skies over Florida.