Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, took this transmitter and other radio equipment on their 1931 flight to the Orient and 1933 survey flights across the North and South Atlantic. Because they were flying over vast stretches of unchartered territory in Canada, Alaska, and Siberia during their 1931 flight and Greenland, Africa, and Brazil during their 1933 flight, the Lindberghs relied on radio and navigation equipment to help them find their remote destinations.
Anne, who served as co-pilot, operated all of the radio equipment during the Lindberghs' two trans-global flights, performing an impressive daily workload, and set a telegraph transmission distance record. Prior to the 1931 flight she worked hard to learn Morse code and earn her radio operator's license. She eventually became skilled at using complex radio equipment such as this transmitter, but at first she felt she needed four hands to perform "acrobatics:" two to tune the dials, one to write down the incoming message, and one to hold her pad of paper.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.
1931-1933
United States of America
AVIONICS-Communication
Pan American World Airways System
Black box mounted on springs. Two gauges one mounted in each upper corner. Upper left gauge is milliamperes with "Plate" labelled above the gauge. The upper right gauge is amperes and has "Antenna" labelled above. Several nobs and switch.
3-D: 33 x 21.6 x 30.5cm, 4.7kg (13 x 8 1/2 x 12 in., 10 3/8lb.)
HAZMAT: Cadmium Plating
Metal, glass, rubber, phenolic
A20030065010
Transferred from the USAF Museum
National Air and Space Museum
Open Access (CCO)
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