Baby Clipper

Still pink with pride over his giant Pan American Clipper (S-42), which lately flew the Pacific to Honolulu, Inventor Igor Ivan Sikorsky last week stood on the shore of Long Island Sound at Bridgeport, Conn, and beamed at his newest creation, a baby sister of the Clipper, known as S-43. Supposedly the world's fastest (200 m.p.h.) amphibian, the new Sikorsky weighs 19.000 Ib. loaded, seats 25.

As Test Pilot Boris Sergievsky opened the throttles for the initial flight, the ship surged forward under the drive of its two 750-h.p. Hornet engines. Suddenly those on shore burst into a torrent of excited Russian. One of the motors had quit, owing to a defective fuel pump. Capt. Sergievsky, unaware of the engine failure, kept The throttles open. The 543 got up "on the step," lumbered into the air on one motor after 15 sec. At 200 ft. Mechanic Albert Morvay got the ailing engine working again by "wabbling" fuel with a hand pump. Capt. Sergievsky brought the ship down nine minutes later. Said he, trembling: "This is the first time in the history of aviation that a multi-motored seaplane or amphibian has taken off from the water on one engine."

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