Aviation Stories – Going down to Brazil!
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“For Sammy. One day I hope that you make this journey. It changed my life.”
This dedication from Herbert Johnson to his eight-year-old son acted as a catalyst almost 60 years after it had been written. After recovering from a health problem Sam Johnson decided to repeat his father’s journey and take his family with him.
It was during a pleasant conversation with “Buzz” Kaplan, a colleague at the Experimental Aircraft Association, that Sam revealed his intention to retrace his father’s journey in a Cessna Caravan. Buzz advised him that that would be foolish and that he should use the same type of aircraft as on the original journey. But on that trip, made in 1935, Herbert used a Sikorsky S-38 and of the one hundred and one constructed … “There are none left” – said Sam. “Well then, you have to make one”. “Is that possible?”, “Of course” – said Buzz. “And who will build it?”, “I will”. And thus began the story of a beautiful aeroplane. Two, in fact, because Buzz ended up falling in love with the S-38 and making two replicas.
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No sooner had Herbert Johnson inherited SC Johnson, the family business, than the Great Depression of 1929 struck. Wanting to guarantee the supply of carnauba palm wax, which was crucial to the business, Herbert decided to visit its country of origin – Brazil. Finding himself confronted with the long duration of the journey using the traditional means of transport of the period (about a year), he quickly realized that air travel was the alternative, and the Sikorsky S-38 was the plane that was chosen. This amphibious twin-engine was Sikorsky’s first commercial success. It was truly a yacht of the sky, with an excellent range, comfort and reliability, and possessed an important quality when compared to the competition: it could maintain altitude flying with just one engine. Its ability to take off and land just about anywhere made it the ideal tool for the job. Johnson left the USA in September 1935 with 5 more men, on a real commercial and scientific expedition around Brazil that lasted two months. The original plane was later sold to Shell, and was lost off the coast of Indonesia.
It took Born Again Restorations three and a half years to build a replica of the Spirit of Carnaúba. Buzz was able to locate two rear fuselage supports and the central part of the upper wing in a warehouse in Burbank. Various blueprints were also obtained from Sikorsky’s archives and other sources, culminating in one of the most beautiful resurrections that the world of antique aviation has seen. Painted black, red and yellow, and with its two 450 horse-power Pratt&Whitney engines purring in unison, an S-38 once more took to the skies between the USA and Brazil, and again transformed the life of the Johnson family.
Today the Spirit of Carnaúba is on exhibition in Fortaleza Hall, on the site of SC Johnson’s headquarters in Wisconsin.
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by Ricardo Reis
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