Warbird Information Exchange

From ANN:
SC Johnson CEO Attempts To Locate Plane His Grandfather Owned Went Down Off Indonesia In 1938

The head of the giant consumer products maker SC Johnson Company
embarked on a sentimental journey this week, as he traveled to the
South Pacific to search the ocean for a plane his grandfather flew
in 1935.

Fisk Johnson's grandfather flew the plane to Brazil that year,
looking for a permanent supply of carnauba wax. H.F. Johnson Jr.
completed the trip successfully, and later sold the Sikorsky S-38C
seaplane to an oil company.

Three years later, however, the plane went down on takeoff along
the coast of Indonesia... and that's where it has remained for
nearly 50 years.

In 1998, Fisk Johnson, his brother and late father flew a
replica of the plane to Brazil to re-enact the 1935 flight... but
Fisk believes his father, who passed away in 2004, had always
wanted to find the plane that HIS dad had flown.

"I think Dad wanted much more to find the plane (than build
it)," Johnson told the Associated Press. "In many ways, it
symbolized who his father was to him."

Recent underwater photos taken off the Indonesian coast show
wreckage that could be an aircraft... and that is where Fisk and
several family members will begin diving this weekend.

I hope they find it and use the parts to recreate another S38!

C170BDan wrote:I hope they find it and use the parts to recreate another S38!

I'm with you Dan. Maybe one of these years we'll be watching 3 S-38's doing a fly by at Air Venture...

They found it!

From here:
http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwau ... st=b_ln_hl

Carnauba airplane wreckage found
The Business Journal of Milwaukee - 2:29 PM CDT Wednesday
The Johnson family has succeeded in its quest to find the wreckage of the original Carnauba airplane, a 1930s vintage aircraft that played a key role in S.C. Johnson & Son Inc.'s early history.

The wreckage has been found off the shores of Manokwari Bay, Papua, Indonesia in 90 feet of water in a debris field, according to a statement from the company. Fisk Johnson, chairman and chief executive officer of the Racine-based family-owned company led the expedition.

Johnson was joined on the dive trip with his brother, Curt Johnson, chairman of JohnsonDiversey, Inc., Sturtevant, and his sister, Helen Johnson-Leipold, chairwoman and CEO of Johnson Outdoors Inc., Racine, and chairwoman of Johnson Financial Group, Racine. Their mother, Gene Johnson, the widow of the late Samuel C. Johnson, also took part in the trip.

Fisk Johnson and his family embarked on an expedition June 27 to search for the wreckage of the Sikorsky 38 aircraft. Johnson's late grandfather, H.F. Johnson, Jr., flew the amphibious plane 15,000 miles to Brazil in 1935, searching for a sustainable source of wax -- the Carnauba palm tree.

After the expedition to Brazil, the plane was sold to a petroleum company and crashed off the coast of Indonesia shortly after takeoff during a flight in 1938. The pilot, not related to the Johnson family, swam to shore and survived, but the plane was not recovered despite extensive searches, including a 1997 Johnson family dive expedition.

"Seeing the original plane for the first time, resting deep under the ocean, was magical," Fisk Johnson said. "We've all dreamt of the moment that would finalize Carnauba's incredible journey. Now that it's here, words simply can't capture this experience. It was as if Dad was with us. We could feel his spirit and his love of adventure."

Although plans for the wreckage have yet to be determined, Johnson has previously said that he hoped to be able to relocate part or all of it to the new building being constructed to honor his father. The building will display the replica Carnauba aircraft that Samuel Johnson and his sons flew to Brazil in 1998 when retracing the famed 1935 adventure.