Lockheed Model 8 Sirius

The Lockheed Model 8 Sirius is a single-engined, propeller-driven monoplane that Jack Northrop and Gerard Vultee designed and built while they were engineers at Lockheed in 1929, at the request of Charles Lindbergh. Fifteen Sirius aircraft were constructed in 1929 and 1930. The best known, bought by Lindbergh and named Tingmissartoq, became a floatplane in 1931 and carried Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh to the Far East. In 1933, upgraded with a more powerful engine, a directional gyro and an artificial horizon, it flew a survey of possible airline routes for Pan Am across the northern Atlantic, Europe, Russia, Africa and Brazil, about 30,000 miles through 21 countries. In 1931 Endresz and Magyar flew a Sirius 8A named Justice for Hungary across the Atlantic from the United States to Hungary. The variants were the Sirius 8, the 8A with an enlarged tail, the four-seat 8C and the Detroit-built DL-2. Lindbergh's aircraft is displayed at the National Air and Space Museum.