A replica of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis soared through the New York Hudson Valley air after almost a decade of tinkering by Ken Cassens, a retired flight engineer who has long been studying the work of Lindbergh.
The replica will be joining other vintage planes that fly for weekend crowds at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, according to Fox News.
In order to make a real copycat of the real St. Louis, Cassen, 71, had to frequent the original historic plane at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington. He also greatly relied on photos of the original work. Cassen has been studying Lindbergh's memoirs since he was a kid, and he had built several smaller replicas already.
"It's a great feeling of accomplishment and a lot of pride. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into it," said Cassens, according to ABC News.
The historic "singular moment" that Lindbergh accomplished by flying across the Atlantic in 1927 is what made it more significant for enthusiasts to duplicate his work.
"It [Lindbergh's flight] came at a time when there was great focus on the sort of the beginnings of aviation really becoming an industry and becoming something more pervasive in daily life and in business and he had this great story of this relatively unknown pilot doing this thing with minimal resources, on his own," said Peter Jakab, Smithsonian Museum's chief curator, ABC News reported.
Cassens' version will start flying for crowds on May 20 of next year, the same date that Lindbergh embarked on his journey 89 years ago.
