In 1931 Charles A. Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, showed the feasibility of using the great circle route to reach the Far East. They flew a Lockheed Model 8 Sirius low-wing monoplane specially fitted with floats, since most of their flight was over water.

Their next venture in the Sirius was a result of Pan Am’s hiring the Lindberghs in 1933 as technical advisors in the development of commercial air transport across the Atlantic. From New York, the Lindberghs flew up the eastern border of Canada to Labrador. From there, they made their first major over water hop, 650 miles to Greenland, where the Sirius acquired its name – “Tingmissartoq, which in Eskimo means “one who flies like a big bird.”

After flying to Iceland, they proceeded to the major cities of Europe and as far east as Moscow, down the west coast of Africa and across the South Atlantic to South America. They returned to New York in late 1933, having traveled 30,000 miles to four continents and twenty-one countries.

This painting show the Tingmissartoq flying over a fjord in Greenland. The final resting place for this famous plane is the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.