Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh embarked on their survey flight to the Orient on July 27, 1931. Taking off from Long Island, New York in their Lockheed Sirius aircraft modified with a 700H.P. Wright-Cyclone engine, pontoons and this propeller. Their itinerary through Canada included Ottawa, Moose Factory and Churchill on Hudson Bay and Baker Lake in the Northwest Territories. After a 12-hour night flight north from Baker Lake, they arrived on the 5th of August at Aklavik on the Mackenzie River delta. Their next stop was Point Barrow, the northernmost tip of Alaska, at the Arctic Ocean. They then headed south to Nome in darkening skies, away from the Arctic sunlight. Low on fuel, with fog-shrouded mountains ahead, they landed near Shishmaref Inlet. After crossing the Bering Sea on August 14, they arrived in Siberia at Karaginski Island, Kamchatka, before flying on to Petropavlovsk. Their next stop was Ketoi Island, where Charles landed skillfully in a sea of fog. After fouled spark plugs prevented an engine start there, the plane drifted close to the rocks when the anchor rope broke. They were rescued by a Japanese boat, the Shinshiru Maru, and towed to Buroton Bay.
On August 22, repairs completed, they flew on towards Tokyo, but battling fog again, they were obliged to land near Kunashiri Island. After a brief stop at Nemuro, the Sirius set down in Tokyo on August 26. From Fukuoka, they flew across the Yellow Sea into Nanking, China, site of severe flooding of the Yangtzee River. Their flight to the Orient was cut short. In October, at Hankow, as the Sirius was damaged while being hoisted by the British carrier H.M.S. Hermes. The Lindberghs subsequently sailed to Shanghai, hoping to have the plane repaired in China, but they headed home by boat after hearing news of Dwight Morrow's sudden death. The plane was shipped to the Lockheed factory in California for repairs.
In her book North to the Orient (published in 1935), Anne Lindbergh gives a complete account of their adventure, its impact on aviation, and the opening of the windows of flight for the average citizen.