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S-38
A replica Sikorsky S-38 being positioned for display at AirVenture, Oshkosh in 2006.
Role	Flying boat
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	Sikorsky Aircraft
Designer	Igor Sikorsky
First flight	25 May 1928
Introduction	October 1928
Primary users	Pan American Airways New York, Rio, and Buenos Aires Line Hawaiian Airlines
Number built	101
Unit cost	$37,000 in 1930
Developed from	Sikorsky S-34 Sikorsky S-36

Sikorsky PS-3, serving as a transport for the Eleventh Naval district. VJ-5 D11-4 (8285), photographed in March 1930.

The Sikorsky S-38 was an American twin-engined eight-seat sesquiplane amphibious aircraft. It was sometimes called "The Explorer's Air Yacht" and was Sikorsky's first widely produced amphibious flying boat which in addition to serving successfully for Pan American Airways and the U.S. Army, also had numerous private owners who received notoriety for their exploits.

Design and development

The S-38 was developed from the Sikorsky S-34 and S-36. The S-38 first flew on May 25, 1928. The United States Navy ordered two aircraft (designated XPS-2) and Pan American Airways was an early customer.

A total of 101 aircraft were built, manufactured originally by the Sikorsky Manufacturing Corporation of Long Island, New York, and by the Sikorsky Aviation Corporation in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Sikorsky was acquired by United Aircraft and Transport Corporation in mid-production.

Variants

A C-6A

S-38A

11 Built

S-38B

Ten-place model, 80 Built

S-38C

12-place model, ten Built

C-6

United States Army Air Forces designation for the S-38A for evaluation, one aircraft later used as a VIP transport.

C-6A

United States Army Air Forces designation for a C-6 with minor changes, ten aircraft.

XPS-2

United States Navy designation for the S-38A, two aircraft later converted to XRS-2 transports.

PS-3

United States Navy designation for the S-38B, four aircraft later converted to RS-3 transports.

XRS-2

United States Navy designation for two XPS-2 converted as transports.

RS-3

United States Navy/Marine Corps designation for the S-38B transport version, three aircraft and conversions from PS-3.

RS-4

United States Navy designation for two civil S-38A impressed into service.

Operators

• 
  American Airways^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Andean Corporation^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Canadian Colonial Airways^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Chilean Air Force^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Colonial Western Airways^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Creole Petroleum Corporation - operated out of Maturin, Venezuela.^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Cubana de Aviación^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Curtiss Flying Service^[1]


• 
  Inter-Island Airways (Hawaiian Airlines)^[2]


• 
  Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano-Lab^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Martin and Osa Johnson^{[citation needed]}


• 
  New York, Rio, and Buenos Aires Line (NYRBA) - Used for first airmail from Argentina to Miami. All sold to Pan Am in 1930^[3]


• 
  NYRBA do Brasil^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Northwest Airways^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Pan American Airways^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Pan American-Grace Airways - Operated out of Lima, Peru^[3]


• 
  Pan American Petroleum Company^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Panair do Brasil^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Panama Air Force^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Avianca as SCADTA^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Svensk Flygtjänst AB (later Swedair)^{[citation needed]}


• 
  United States Army Air Forces^{[citation needed]}


• 
  United States Marine Corps^{[citation needed]}


• 
  United States Navy^{[citation needed]}


• 
  Western Air Express^{[citation needed]}

 Spain

• 
  Spanish Republican Air Force. One unit was used on the Northern Front during the Spanish Civil War. Shot down by friendly fire^[4]

Some famous owners include:

Osa's Ark S-38

• Aviator and businessman Howard Hughes
  


• Aviator Charles Lindbergh – Surveyed South American and Pacific Ocean routes for Pan Am with Anne Morrow Lindbergh.


• 
  Robert R. McCormick, newspaper publisher – Surveyed commercial air routes between North America and Europe.^[3]


• Venture capitalist John Hay Whitney – Luxury transport


• The Flying Hutchinsons – First attempted around-the-world flight by a family.


• Filmmakers Martin and Osa Johnson – In the zebra-striped S-38 Osa's Ark, with companion giraffe-patterned S-39 Spirit of Africa, explored Africa extensively, making safari movies and books. Their S-38 was cited in the plot line of The Phantom comic strip adventure (May 2 - August 30, 2008) as the reason Kit Walker bought an original for $3.25M (USD). The sale was by invitation only and the new owner had to depart at night because all 101 built were documented as lost, not accounting for the two survivors listed below.


• 
  Herbert Fisk Johnson, Jr. – Explored the northeastern part of Brazil in search of the carnauba palm, and to research carnauba wax, the source of the world's hardest natural wax. The Spirit of Carnauba, a replica of this aircraft, is on display in Fortaleza Hall on the S. C. Johnson campus.^[5][6][7]

Reproductions

During the 1990s two reproduction S-38s were built by the late Buzz Kaplan’s “Born Again Restorations,” of Owatonna, Minnesota.^[8] One was produced for Samuel Curtis Johnson Jr., the son of Herbert Fisk Johnson, to recreate his fathers flight, which he completed in 1998. As of August 2017^[update] the plane is suspended from the ceiling of Fortaleza Hall in the S. C. Johnson & Son company headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin .^[9] The other S-38 replica, N28V, appeared in the movie The Aviator (2004), a story loosely based on the life of Howard Hughes, who owned an S-38 during his lifetime. As of August 2017^[update] it is owned by Kermit Weeks and located at the Fantasy of Flight Museum in Polk City, Florida, bearing the Osa's Ark paint scheme.^[10][11]

Accidents and incidents

• A SCADTA (actually Avianca, never was a Pan Am subsidiary) S-38, NC9107, crashed in the Colombian jungle near Pereira, killing all but one on board; the survivor was carried for seven days through the jungle to civilization.^{[citation needed]}


• T. Raymond Finucane, a wealthy Rochester, NY businessman, and three others disappeared over the sea aboard a Sikorsky Amphibian after departing Norfolk, Virginia for New York City March 22, 1929. In Miami, Florida, Finucane had wagered a friend who was traveling ahead by train that he (Finucane) would reach New York first. He chartered Curtiss Flying Service to fly him to New York from Miami. Also on board the missing aircraft were Frank Ables and J. Boyd, Curtiss mechanics, along with Harry Smith, the pilot. A massive search by Curtiss planes, American military planes, coast guard cutters, and even the airship Los Angeles failed to turn up anything. Mrs. Finucane, founding president of the Rochester Community Players, visited the Curtiss operation at Roosevelt Field, the destination of the flight, for updates.^[12] Wreckage presumed to be from this plane was found eight years later by a fishing schooner.^[13]


• On September 25, 1932, a Panair do Brasil Sikorsky S-38 registration P-BDAD still bearing the titles of Nyrba do Brasil was seized in the company's hangar by three men, who took a fourth man hostage. None were aviators but they managed to take off. However the aircraft crashed in São João de Meriti, killing the four men. Apparently the hijack was related to the events of the Constitutionalist Revolution in São Paulo and it is considered to be the first hijack that took place in Brazil.^[14][15]


• A wealthy divorcee, Mrs. Francis Grayson, Brice Herbert Goldsborough (navigator) and Oskar Omdal, and Fred Koehler (passenger) set off to cross the Atlantic (a 3rd attempt) on Dec 23, 1927 (1928?) in a Sikorsky S-38, named "The Dawn". She was determined to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic. Sea conditions were stormy and rough, but she was determined. They passed Cape Cod, 8 am, due for Harbor Grace, Newfoundland. The Sable Island wireless station picked up "Something's wrong here" with their call letters...30 miles distant. They did not reach a landing port. This began the first-ever air relief expedition, including two destroyers and the USS Los Angeles dirigible. A message in a bottle was found on Jan 29, 1929, it read "1928, we are freezing. Gas leaked out. We are drifting off Grand Banks. Grayson." Nothing more is known.^[16]

Specifications (S-38-A)

Sikorsky S-38 3-view drawing from NACA Aircraft Circular No.79

General characteristics

• 
  Crew: two


• 
  Capacity: ten passengers


• 
  Length: 40 ft 3 in (12.27 m)


• 
  Wingspan: 71 ft 8 in (21.85 m)


• 
  Height: 13 ft 10 in (4.22 m)


• 
  Wing area: 720 ft² (68.6 m²)


• 
  Empty weight: 6,000 lb (2,727 kg)


• 
  Loaded weight: 10,480 lb (4,764 kg)


• 
  Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp 9-cylinder air-cooled radial engines, 400 hp (298 kW) each

Performance

• 
  Maximum speed: 104 knots (120 mph, 192 km/h)


• 
  Range: 648 nm (750 miles, 1,200 km)


• 
  Service ceiling: 16,000 ft (4,878 m)


• 
  Rate of climb: 750 ft/min (229 m/min)


• 
  Wing loading: 14.5 lb/ft² (69 kg/m²)


• 
  Power/mass: 0.08 hp/lb (0.13 kW/kg)

See also

• 
  Sikorsky RS, a designation used by the United States Navy for a number of different Sikorsky twin-engined amphibious flying boats

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

• Keystone-Loening Commuter


• Keystone–Loening Air Yacht


• Grumman Widgeon


• Grumman Goose


• Piaggio P.136

Related lists

• List of aircraft of the Spanish Republican Air Force


• List of Interwar military aircraft

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sikorsky S-38.

• 1933 film of a flight of an S-38 into the mountains of BC