Spirit of Igor

Air Classics, Nov 2003 by Auliard, Gilles

AFTER 40 YEARS & 40,000 MAN-HOURS, AN INCREDIBLY RARE SIKORSKY S-39 AMPHIBIAN HAS ONCE AGAIN TAKEN TO THE AIR

"Every time I was asked about the first flight of the airplane, I always answered it would take place on Thursday, but I never said which Thursday," recounted a smiling Dick Jackson.

"We had brake troubles, so, on 8 June, when everybody was around, I took the airplane for some fast taxi runs to try out the brakes. During the second run, I put in about half-throttle, and the tail lifted. I thought everything was feeling pretty good. I told Hank, my son who was seated next to me, to put his hand on the trim tab. I pushed the power a little more, and had the same good feeling. I pushed a little more, and a little more, and we were airborne. We went around the patch and landed. That was pretty neat!"

The above is a very simplified story of the first post-restoration flight of the 1931 Sikorsky S-39C NC50V (c/n 192) - an event that took "40 years and 40,000 hours" to happen according to Dick.

A tall man now in his 70s, Dick Jackson recalls his involvement with aviation: "I flew for the first time when I was six, in my father's Curtiss Rohin. Not much later, I started taking flying lessons. At this time it was costing $10 an hour for dual instruction. I was doing odd jobs - cutting grass, delivering papers and so on - to pay fur my flying. At 10 to 25 cents an hour, it took me about two years to have the money to log the eight hours necessary to solo at age 16. One year later, I got my private. Over the years, I accumulated ratings; single-engine land and sea, multi-engine land and sea, glider, and a commercial certificate I never used professionally. I logged all the 6000 hours in my logbook in my own airplanes.

"I built my first airplane, a Heath Parasol, in 1947/48. In 1952, a good friend of mine wanted to buy an Aeronca Chief based in Sanford, Maine. He dragged me there, and we started flying from a little grass strip next to home. Shortly after, we were running the airport for $20 a month. We had four Thangars we rented at $5 a month. We also were renting the Chief to buy gas to fly it. At the same time we restored a Culver Dart, then a Fairchild 24. I lost the 24 and all my tools in a hangar fire shortly after. This had been a lot of fun, but it was over.

"I went back home and, with some of my friends, started rebuilding airplanes we could find for cheap - we had no money. I started going to fly-ins and joined the EAA in 1954. We ended up with airplanes everywhere, one in the cellar, one in the garage, one at the airport in a hangar, then another one in another hangar. It was getting out of hand. Eventually, I had to build a hangar to regroup all the airplanes. It is a little museum, and between the four of us, we have a total of 18 airplanes."

In the world of antique aviation, the Sikorsky S-39 amphibian is a legend -having a long and colorful history and flying well into the 1950s.

After the success of the Sikorsky S38 Amphibion, there was a need for a smaller version of that craft, one geared towards the sportsman pilot or the busy business executive. The first S-39 was designed by Igor Sikorsky and was basically a scaled-down version of the twinengine S-38. Powered by two four-cylinder Cirrus Hermes Mk. I engines in the 105/11.5-hp range, the first flight took place on 24 December 1929, with Boris Sergievsky at the controls. Mechanical failure of one engine during takeoff on the third flight caused a hurried emergency landing which ended in a complete wash-out of the prototype.

After the accident, a decision was made to redesign the light amphibian into single-engine configuration. The new Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior engine of 300-hp was a logical choice. The second example of the series was a completely new airplane. Flight tests were satisfactory, hut the overall performance was not up to expectations. The twin vertical fins were revised into a single unit, the complicated landing gear was modified, and a complete aerodynamic clean-up implemented.

Production of the S-39 was launched in mid-1930, with the construction of complete assembly sets tor 20 airplanes. Several were completed immediately, hut stored awaiting orders.

The S-39 was basically a parasol monoplane flying boat with a single engine mounted atop of the leading edge ot the wing. The fairly large all-metal hull was a seaworthy structure to which wits added a retractable landing gear. Powered with the new nine-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-985, performance was adequate tor the type and the flying characteristics were quite pleasant. Sikorsky aircraft were never huilt for competitive pricing and, therefore, maintained a high level of quality and capability. The type certificate (ATC 340) for the four-place S-39-A was issued on 22 July 1930 and ten examples were built at the Sikorsky Aviation Corporation of Bridgeport, Connecticut, a division of the giant United Aircraft and Transport Company.

Access to the cabin was through a wide full-length hatch on the roof. Pilot controls consisted of dual wheel yokes and the landing gear was extended and retracted by a hydraulic pump actuated by a hand lever. The semi-cantilever wing was of three sections huilt up with duralumin girder-type spars and trusstype duralumin wing ribs. The leading edges were covered with durai and the overall framework covered with fabric. Two fuel tanks of 32.5-gal each were mounted in the center section of the wing, behind the engine nacelle. The tail group was of the same type of construction as the wing. A steerable tail wheel was mounted on the extreme end of the hull, and steps were placed for entry into the cabin.