A Field Trip To Sikorsky 70 Years Ago

By Jan Howard

In 1934 members of the Hawley High School Aviation Club had the opportunity to see Sikorsky’s new flying boat, the S-42, and to have their picture taken in front of an S-39.

The story about how this came about was described recently by one of the club’s former members, George Clark of San Francisco, Calif.

Mr Clark, the son of George and Carolyn Clark, lived in Sandy Hook for 25 years until World War II, when he joined the US Navy. After that, he said in a recent letter, he returned to Newtown only for visits.

“My father, George Clark, Sr, worked for some 60 years for Hobart G. Warner at the Brick Store in Sandy Hook,” Mr Clark wrote. His parents later moved to California where they spent the rest of their lives, he noted.

The trip to see the S-42 began with a letter sent by Mr Clark’s mother to an official of the Sikorsky Aviation Company in Stratford, requesting permission to bring members of the club to view the new airplane.

After receiving a favorable response, she and another driver took the boys to the Stratford plant where they were able to view the assembly line and seat themselves in the luxurious cabin of a plane that would accommodate 32 passengers.

“At that time, the S-42 was one of the largest commercial flying boats in the United States and was designed for Pan American’s South American routes. It was a Sikorsky design with input from the renowned Charles Lindbergh, who was a technical advisor for Pan American Airways,” Mr Clark said.

Following the visit to the Sikorsky plant, the group crossed the street to the then-named Mollison Field where Mrs Clark took a photograph of them standing by an S-39, a Sikorsky amphibian that could accommodate five passengers.

“Twenty-nine of the S-39s were built in the new Stratford plant,” Mr Clark said.

As to the attire of the boys in the photograph, Mr Clark noted, “In those days, and in the region, boys could not wear long pants unless they were age 16 or older, thus the shorts and knickers as seen in the front row.”

In his letter, Mr Clark described what happened to some of the Aviation Club members in the future. In early 1941, Mr Clark was employed by Vought-Sikorsky and remained there until early 1944 when he entered the US Navy and served in the Pacific on a destroyer.

“Donald Walker served in the USAAF as did Bob Kayfus who piloted planes over the Hump in the China-Burma Theater,” he said.

While working at Vought-Sikorsky, Mr Clark said he spoke briefly with Mr Sikorsky on one occasion and observed one of Mr Sikorsky’s early helicopter test flights.

Charles Lindbergh was a frequent visitor to the plant, he said.

“He was retained as an engineering consultant and was given a new production F4U Corsair to take to the Pacific as a technical representative to teach Corsair pilots fuel economy, thereby increasing their mission range and to observe the performance of the aircraft,” Mr Clark said.

Though Mr Lindbergh was not supposed to engage in combat, Mr Clark said, “He flew several sorties as an observer and in one instance, in self defense, shot down a Japanese Zero. Once word of this sortie got back to General MacArthur, he was ordered back to the United States.”

(Anyone interested in contacting Mr Clark regarding the photograph of the story should contact Jan Howard at 426-3141 for his phone number and address.)