Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2021 11:04:30 GMT -5
S. C. Johnson is an American multinational, privately held manufacturer of household cleaning supplies and other consumer chemicals based in Racine, Wisconsin. "Mr Muscle","Toilet Duck" and "Glade" are some of the worldwide well known housekeeping and cleaning product brands.
The third-generation leader, H.F.Johnson, has always advocated curiosity and a diligent risk-taking. With his flight to northeastern Brazil in 1935, he set an example of courageous decisions. He was looking for the company's most valuable resource at the time: the carnaúba palm.
He and his crew flew from Milwaukee to Fortaleza, Ceará, in an amphibious twin-engine Sikorsky S-38. The trip was to learn more about the carnauba palm tree of north eastern Brazil. The palm leaves were used to produce carnauba wax, one of the main products of his company, and to determine whether groves of these trees could produce enough to meet future demand.
The Sikorsky S-38 was known to be the safest aircraft of the time since it was a twin-engine plane but could maintain itself on only one engine if needed. This trip, however, was anything but safe. Satellites had not yet been invented and people rarely flew such ambitious distances. Johnson and his crew often went long stretches without seeing a soul. But H.F. loved the adventure.
Over Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Virgin Islands, Antigua, St. Lucia, Trinidad, British Guiana, Dutch Guiana and French Guiana, Para, Maranhaa, Amarracao, and Camocin, they finally reached Fortaleza, Brazil. There were the base from which started several exploring flights to the areas of Amazon, Tocantins and Paranaiba Rivers.
In Fortaleza, H.F. Johnson wanted to establish a research center where SC Johnson could grow and study the carnaúba palm while looking for more efficient ways to harvest its wax.
Here some stages of this journey:
taking off from Millwaukee
stopover at Miami
landing at Rochembeau, French Guiana
exploring upper Parnaiba River
finally reached Fortaleza
landing at Fordlândia
Fordlândia was founded in 1928 by Henry Ford as a plantation for cultivated rubber. On the Johnson's 1935 expedition to Brazil, then chairman H. F. Johnson paid a visit to Henry Ford who was staying at Fordlândia at that time. This site was abandoned long ago when the rubber plants failed. Today, it stll exists as a remote tiny village and retreat center accessed only by river. The scenery was created by Garry J. Smith and released on the "Ford Tri-Motor Project" website.
The Sikorsky S-38 plane had been missing for decades. After the journey, it was sold to Shell Oil Company, which used it for aerial survey work in New Guinea, Borneo and Indonesia. Research said that in the late 1930s, the plane sank during a takeoff attempt in Manokwari Bay, Indonesia. The wreck was finally found in 2005.
Starting in 1998, H.F. Johnson's son Sam had the plane rebuilt, and in 2000 recreated the journey. The Sikorsky shown above is in fact the replica of the model used in 1935.
Bernard
