Sikorsky S-38



The Sikorsky S-38 was an American twin-engined 8-seat amphibious aircraft. It was sometimes called "The Explorer's Air Yacht" and was Sikorsky's first widely produced amphibious flying boat which in addition to serving successfully for Pan American Airways and the U.S. Army, also had numerous private owners who received notoriety for their exploits.

Design and development
The S-38 was developed from the Sikorsky S-34 and S-36. The S-38 first flew on May 25, 1928. The United States Navy ordered two aircraft (designated XPS-2) and Pan American Airways were an early customer.

A total of 101 aircraft were built, manufactured originally by the Sikorsky Manufacturing Corporation of Long Island, New York, and by the Sikorsky Aviation Corporation in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Sikorsky was acquired by United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (now United Technologies Corporation) in mid-production.

Variants

 * S-38A
 * 11 Built


 * S-38B
 * 10 place model, 80 Built


 * S-38C
 * 12 place model, 10 Built


 * C-6
 * United States Army Air Forces designation for the S-38A for evaluation, one aircraft later used as a VIP transport.


 * C-6A
 * United States Army Air Forces designation for a C-6 with minor changes, 10 aircraft.


 * XPS-2
 * United States Navy designation for the S-38A, two aircraft later converted to XRS-2 transports.


 * PS-3
 * United States Navy designation for the S-38B, four aircraft later converted to RS-3 transports.


 * XRS-2
 * United States Navy designation for two XPS-2 converted as transports.


 * RS-3
 * United States Navy/Marine Corps designation for the S-38B transport version, three aircraft and conversions from PS-3.


 * RS-4
 * United States Navy designation for two civil S-38A impressed into service.

Operators

 * American Airways
 * Andean Corporation
 * Canadian Colonial Airways
 * Chilean Air Force
 * Colonial Western Airways
 * Creole Petroleum Corporation - operated out of Maturin, Venezuela.
 * Cubana de Aviación
 * Curtiss Flying Service
 * Inter-Island Airways of Hawaii
 * Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano-Lab
 * Martin and Osa Johnson
 * New York, Rio, and Buenos Aires Line (NYRBA) - Used for first airmail from Argentina to Miami. All sold to Pan Am in 1930
 * NYRBA do Brasil
 * Northwest Airways
 * Pan American Airways
 * Pan American-Grace Airways - Operated out of Lima, Peru
 * Pan American Petroleum Company
 * Panair do Brasil
 * Panama Air Force
 * Avianca as SCADTA
 * Svensk Flygtjänst AB (later Swedair)
 * United States Army Air Forces
 * United States Marine Corps
 * United States Navy
 * Western Air Express

Some famous owners include:
 * Aviator and businessman Howard Hughes
 * Aviator Charles Lindbergh – Surveyed South American and Pacific Ocean routes for Pan Am with Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
 * Robert R. McCormick - Newspaper publisher– Surveyed commercial air routes between North America and Europe.
 * Venture capitalist John Hay Whitney – Luxury Transport
 * The Flying Hutchinsons – First attempted around-the-world flight by a family.


 * Filmmakers Martin and Osa Johnson – In the zebra-striped S-38 Osa's Ark, with companion giraffe-patterned S-39 Spirit of Africa, explored Africa extensively, making safari movies and books.
 * Herbert Fisk Johnson, Jr. – Explored the northeastern part of Brazil in search of the carnauba palm, and to research carnauba wax, the source of the world's hardest natural wax. The Spirit of Carnauba, a replica of this aircraft, is on display in Fortaleza Hall on the S. C. Johnson campus.

Survivors
One of the two remaining S-38s, N28V appears in the movie The Aviator (2004), a story loosely based on the life of Howard Hughes. Hughes owned an S-38 during his lifetime. N28V is not a real survivor but rather a reproduction, built in the early 2000s. N28V bears the Osa's Ark paint scheme. N28V is now owned by Kermit Weeks and located at the Fantasy of Flight Museum in Polk City, Florida.

Accidents and incidents
A SCADTA (a Pan Am subsidiary) S-38, NC9107, crashed in the Colombian jungle near Pereira, killing all but one on board; the survivor was carried for seven days through the jungle to civilization.

T. Raymond Finucane, a wealthy Rochester, NY business man, and three others disappeared over the sea aboard a Sikorsky Amphibian after departing Norfolk, Virginia for New York City March 22, 1929. In Miami, Florida, Finucane had wagered a friend who was traveling ahead by train that he (Finucane) would reach New York first. He chartered Curtiss Flying Service to fly him to New York from Miami. Also on board the missing aircraft were Frank Ables and J. Boyd, Curtiss mechanics, along with Harry Smith, the pilot. A massive search by Curtiss planes, American military planes, coast guard cutters, and even the airship Los Angeles failed to turn up anything. Mrs. Finucane, founding president of the Rochester Community Players, visited the Curtiss operation at Rooseveldt Field, the destination of the flight, for updates. Wreckage presumed to be from this plane was found eight years later by a fishing schooner.

On September 25, 1932, a Panair do Brasil Sikorsky S-38 registration P-BDAD still bearing the titles of Nyrba do Brasil was seized in the company's hangar by three men, who took a fourth as one hostage. None were aviators but they managed to take-off. However the aircraft crashed in São João de Meriti, killing the four men. Apparently the hijack was related to the events of the Constitutionalist Revolution in São Paulo and it is considered to be the first hijack that took place in Brazil.