After Charles Lindbergh returned from his historic solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, he commenced with a flying tour of the U.S., visiting 80 cities and landing in every state.
The Spirit of St Louis was packed up in cases and taken back to America by ship and reassembled for this tour.
Some of the final tinkering before the pioneering transatlantic flight, and re-assembly following Lindbergh's return, was completed by Lindbergh's trusted engineer, Kenneth Lane. Ahead of the tour, Lindbergh handed Lane a 'survival kit' of parts of the plane.
Lane eventually gifted most of the survival kit to the Smithsonian Museum, but he extracted parts used on the solo flight which he thought were becoming unreliable, or would not last the whole tour.
These historic parts, as saved by Lane, from the Spirit of St Louis form a truly spectacular collection. The collection includes two spark plugs which Lane believed had less than a year's worth left in them, a rocker arm from the Wright J5-C "Whirlwind" engine (serial no. 7331), and three shock absorber bungee cords stretched by the heavy transatlantic fuel load.
With the other parts of the 'survival kit' now in the Smithsonian Museum these are almost certainly the only parts of the Spirit of St Louis from her transatlantic flight ever to appear for sale.
