Builders of a Ryan NYP replica that has just been completed at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in upstate New York tell us the homage to the Spirit of St. Louis is probably more true to the original at the time of Charles Lindbergh’s solo Atlantic crossing in 1927 than the real airplane hanging today in the Smithsonian.

 

That’s quite a claim, but from the looks of the NYP in videos of the airplane’s first engine start and taxi test posted on the Old Rhinebeck website, there’s little doubt this is the nicest Spirit of St.