The Spirit Flies Again!

When Charles Lindbergh made his historic solo flight across the Atlantic, it was 1927, and when he landed the Ryan-built Spirit of St. Louis 33 hours and 30 minutes later at Le Bourget Airport in Paris, France (a distance of approximately 3,600 miles), he changed the world forever. At a time when aviation was still very young, the transatlantic flight by Lindbergh ushered in an era of aerial amazement that truly kick-started the Golden Age of Aviation. If you long for the simpler times and excitement of this bygone era, there is a magical place where you can actually see one of the most accurate reproductions of the Spirit of St. Louis take flight. The place is the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome (ORA) in Rhinebeck, New York, and the pilot of the Aerodrome’s Spirit of St. Louis replica is Ken Cassens. Started in the 1970s by Cole Palen (the founder of ORA), the “Lindbergh project” began after Cole obtained a Wright J-5 radial engine. The project took many years to complete, and Cole, unfortunately, never saw his project take flight. Cole Palen passed away in 1993, and in 1996, the Aerodrome’s head mechanic Ken Cassens took over the project. With the aid of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., Ken and his team of museum volunteers were able to closely inspect and take detailed photos of the original aircraft at ground level while it was removed from its hanging display. Everything about the Aerodrome’s replica is exactly like the original aircraft. Almost 50 years after Cole started the project, the first public flight and debut of the Aerodrome’s replica was on May 21, 2016, which was also the 89th anniversary of Lindbergh’s landing in France.