Igor I. Sikorsky's S-39

Photo by John Underwood

THE OBJECT of Greg Herrick's recovery effort - Sikorsky S-39 before it sunk on Two Lakes in 1958.

Pratt & Whitney 300 horsepower Wasp Jr. engine. First flight was early February 1930 and test pilot Boris Igor 1. Sikorsky's S-39 was built to meet the demands of the individual pilot-owner. Following the success of the S-38, Sikorsky felt that a market existed for a smaller amphibian intended for the sportsman and executive. The aircraft had a wing span of .52 feet, a wing area of 3.50 square feet and a gross weight of 4,000 pounds. The aircraft was capable of carrying one pilot plus four passengers. It sold completely equipped for $20,000. The design of the S-39 started in mid 1929 as a twin engine aircraft powered by British Cirrus "Hermes Mark I" 100 horsepower engines.

First flight was December 24, 1929. On December 30 the aircraft crashed due to lack of power from one engine. The twin engine concept was abandoned in favor of the small Sergievsky commented; "During the first test flight I looped the aircraft." More than twenty-three S-39's were produced in spite of the depression. The little amphibian established an enviable service record. The "Spirit of Africa", Osa and Martin Johnson's S-39 logged more than 60,000 miles of exploratory flights in Africa. The S-39 established two Aviation World Records, was the first aircraft to use the Pratt & Whitney Wasp Jr. Engine, the first aircraft mounted on a private yacht and the first aircraft designed and produced by Sikorsky after it moved from Long Island to Connecticut.

Search Is On For Sunken Sikorsky

Article from - Pacific Flyer January 2001 - Page B27

Minnesota-based vintage aircraft collector Greg Herrick is after his most elusive prey yet:  a 1930 Sikorsky S-39C amphibian that's sitting on the bottom of a lake in Alaska.

Herrick, 49, whose collec­tion includes such rarities as a 1937 Cunningham-Hall PT 6F, first began his search for a Sikorsky S-39 four years ago. It began like all his other hunts, with a search for rare types profiled in the late Joe Juptner's nine-volume U.S. Civil Aircraft series.

Then he combs the FAA reg­ister to see how many of a cer­tain type are still around and who owns them. In 1996, he found three Sikorsky S-39s: one in a museum, one not sal­vageable and one whose owner didn't call Herrick back for six months.

"When he finally did call," reported Herrick, "he told me I could have it but that I'd have to bring it up from the bottom of a lake." The plane had sunk in Two Lakes, Alas., 150 miles west of Anchorage, in 1958 and hadn't been touched since.

Luckily, Herrick had the re­sources to continue the search despite the daunting odds. The tenacious Herrick tracked down the S-39's pilot, Victor Lenhart, by calling ev­ery Victor Lenhart listed in a nationwide phonebook on the internet. On the 38th try, he found the 78-year-old Lenhart alive and well in Cornucopia, Wisconsin. 

Lenhart was reluctant to re­turn to the crash site because of unhappy memories. Al­though no one was killed in the mach Lenhart and his wife lost most of their possessions and their dream of starting a hunt­ing lodge at Two Lakes. But at Herrick's urging, he flew to Alaska and to point out where he thought the plane had sunk.   Alas, Herrick's sonar was unable to find the plane.

It was a park surveyor's map that gave the distance of the wreck from different points on shore that finally led to the dis­covery of the S-39 in 200 feet of water. That was the good news.  The bad news is that the first attempt to lift it ended in fail­ure last August. Lines hooked to the plane snapped as boats tried pulling it to the surface. Forced to regroup, Herrick has decided to return to Two Lakes this spring with a de­compression chamber. This will let scuba divers to spend more time clearing debris from the plane before they try again to lift it.

Plan B is expected to cost $110,000 on top of the $145,000 already spent on the salvage effort so far. "What the hell," said Herrick. "You only live once."

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