Tingmissartoq means "one who flies like a big bird"; the plane was thus christened by an Inuit boy in Godthaab (Nuuk), Greenland, who painted the word on its side.

Lockheed had introduced its Sirius model in 1929; this particular craft appears to have been built to specifications sometime between then and 1931, when the Lindberghs planned to fly to the Orient via the Great Circle Route.

From there they flew to various other sites in Canada, including Moose Factory, Churchill, Baker Lake, and Aklavik, before heading to Point Barrow, Alaska.

While at Hankou, the plane, with the Lindberghs aboard, was being lowered into the Yangtze River from the British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes (95) when it capsized accidentally.

To maintain radio contact with the couple, Pan American hired a Danish ship, the Jellinge, to stay within range in the area of Labrador, Greenland, and Iceland.

It was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1959, and is currently on display in the "Pioneers of Flight" gallery of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.