Spirit of St. Louis

Lindbergh Project

October 2000

In the fall of 2000, Wilder Waite Grade School built a ¾ scale model of the Spirit of St. Louis.   The 5th graders helped construct parts of the plane and helped paint it.   After the plane was completed, the 5th graders took 40-minute turns recreating Charles Lindbergh's famous 1927 crossing of the Atlantic flying from New York to Paris in 33 ½ hours.  

Many parents and community members participated in this project.   James L. Martin, an engineer with Caterpillar, Inc., was the main designer.   Many parents and friends helped many evenings and weekends for the month of September to complete this plane.   Authentic gauges and a periscope added to the feel of being in the real plane.   The control surfaces worked just like the original plane.   The plane was built to ¾ scale to accommodate the average 5 th grade student who is about ¾ the size of an adult.

On Friday, October 6, 2000, at 9 AM, the "plane" took off with its first pilot.   The computer simulator played outside the cockpit window, showing the pilot what Lindbergh saw during his flight.   The plane "landed in Paris" at 6:30 PM Saturday night, after all the 5th graders had taken their turn flying the plane.  

During the day on Friday, teams of students presented information on various pilots.   These teams consisted of students from Kindergarten through 5 th grade.   Each student participated in the presentation.   Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Chuck Yeager, and Jimmy Doolittle, were just a few of the famous aviators the students researched.

The plane is now on display at the Wheels of Time museum in Dunlap, Illinois.  

Below are some photographs of the Spirit of St. Louis project: