After a series of tantalizing Facebook posts Kermit Weeks announced yesterday that he has concluded a decade-long quest. The sole remaining flyable Sikorsky S-43 flying boat (of 53 built in the 1930s) is now his. Weeks also believes that the metaphysical spirit of the airplane’s former owner, Howard Hughes, himself, helped him acquire the aircraft. He posted the story on Facebook, beginning with the warning, “For those of you who only believe in a five-sense reality, please do not proceed.”
That revelation aside, what’s particularly special about the airplane is the main reason why this example is so well preserved. It served as Howard Hughes’s personal transport, fitted with an executive cabin rivaling what you’d find in 21st century business jets. Hughes made his last flight in the Sikorsky in the late 1950s, parking it at Houston Hobby Airport under armed guard.
