Tingmissartoq

Tingmissartoq
Tingmissartoq preserved at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC
Type	Lockheed Model 8 Sirius
Manufacturer	Lockheed Aircraft Company
Construction number	140
Manufactured	November 1929
Registration	NR211
Owners and operators	Charles Lindbergh & Anne Morrow Lindbergh
In service	November 1929 to 6 December 1933
Fate	Retired to the American Museum of Natural History
Preserved at	Currently preserved at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC

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 Inuit boy in Godthaab (Nuuk), Greenland, who painted the word on its side.

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 Orient 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.

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Wikipedia