There is another free kit. This time it is more oriented towards the educational aspect.
It is a layered kit that assembles into a flyable model. The inner layers show a profile of Lindbergh seating. This will be lost once the outer skin is glued. But I find the concept to be very instructive: the person building it will always remember how it was to be inside the Spirit. The scale is about 1/50.
This kit was available from:
New Mexico Wing Aerospace Education
And the direct download link was:
http://nmwg.cap.gov/santafe/Activities/index.html
But beware: the site is gone. You may want to use the Wayback Machine to get this kit in case you want it.
The instructions call for a coin to be glued on the nose for weight to get a straight flight. I glued the coin but haven’t thrown it in the air yet.
As it could be expected for such a simple flying model, the landing gear is very simplified. Something good if you are using this kit in a classroom activity.
Besides the shapes and proportions not being 100% accurate, there are only two other notable mistakes: The nose is yellow, as it is the current state of the plane exhibited in the Smithsonian. As you know, the original plane was all metal, and the yellow color is from the poor varnish they used to preserve the flags that were painted after Lindberg’s historic flight.
The other mistake is the statement under the wing saying Lindbergh was “the first person” to fly over the Atlantic. He wasn’t the first, but he was the first to fly alone. Besides those two mistakes, the kit is enjoyable to build.