RED HOOK, N.Y. — Before taking off Tuesday morning, pilot Andrew King said that finding appropriate landing strips over the next four days would be the most challenging part of planning the replica Spirit of St. Louis’ 1,250-mile trip to Florida.
King, speaking at the Old Rhiebeck Aerodrome as he tried to make up time for a flight 14 minutes behind schedule, said the aircraft has one particular requirement for landing to be both safe and authentic.
“Finding airports that we could use was probably the most important thing,” he said. “We have to land on grass, and there are not that many modern airports that have grass.”
The aircraft’s cramped cockpit provided a sense of the squeeze Charles Lindbergh felt for 33 1/2 hours on his historic solo nonstop crossing of the Atlantic from Roosevelt Field on Long Island to Le Bourget Aerodrome in Paris some 3,600 miles away.
Except for an iPhone and tiny video cameras recording the journey to Lakeland, Florida, the ambiance of the interior lent itself easily to what it would have been like inside the single-engine Ryan monoplane. It was an atmosphere aided by the gray exhaust smoke and smell of the high-grade aviation gasoline permeating the airfield.
Flight tracking from FlightAware showed that the first stop was made at 11:38 a.m. at Summit Airport in Middletown, Delaware, before the flight resumed at 12:51 p.m.
Aviation enthusiast and Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome Trustee Chris Travers said the flight, even with two tracking planes that Lindbergh did not have, is a reminder that breaking barriers came with a lot of preparation and determination a century ago.
“We move on with progress and new technology, new wonders, and new things to think about,” he said. “But when you see it and you focus on it, you realize just what an incredible thing it was. We’re talking about an individual with courage and without new technology.”
When Lindbergh landed in Paris, crowd estimates ranged from 100,000 to 150,000 people, according to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome representatives doubt their replica will generate a high level of enthusiasm upon landing in Lakeland, but they are thrilled about the appreciation being shown for the detail that Ken Cassens, who built the replica, put into the passion project.
The replica will be on display at the Florida Air Museum in the months leading up to the 53rd annual Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo, April 6 through 11, 2027, where it will perform exhibition flights.