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Tuning Coil, Radio, Lockheed Sirius "Tingmissartoq", Lindbergh

Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum

Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum
Washington, DC, United States

Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, took this tuning coil and other radio equpment on their 1931 flight to the Orient and 1933 survey flights across the North and South Atlantic. Because they were flying over vast stretches of unchartered territory in Canada, Alaska, and Siberia during their 1931 flight and Greenland, Africa, and Brazil during their 1933 flight, the Lindberghs relied on radio and navigation equipment to help them find their remote destinations. She used six sets of coils, each with a different frequency, to remain in near constant communication with radio operators along their routes.Anne, who served as co-pilot, operated all of the radio equipment during the Lindberghs' two trans-global flights, performing an impressive daily workload, and set a telegraph transmission distance record. Prior to the 1931 flight she worked hard to learn Morse code and earn her radio operator's license. She eventually became a skilled radio operator, but at first she felt she was doing "acrobatics" every time she sent or received a message. She often wished she had four hands: two to tune the dials, one to write down the incoming message, and one to hold her pad of paper.

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