The additional accomplishment of making the first solo crossing earned him the nickname of ‘The Lone Eagle’.
Due to the weight of the fuel required for the flight, Lindbergh took very few personal items on the flight and one of those items was a letter to James
F. Prince, Treasurer of Wright Aeronautical Corporation, illustrated left. It reads:
“I am glad to mail you this letter from Paris, upon completion of my non-stop flight from New York to Paris, the first time this flight has been accomplished,” he wrote. “This letter was written in New York and was carried by me in the plane during the trip. I felt confident of success as I had the right combination to insure it.”
Until this missive recently came to light, only ten other items were known to have been carried by Lindbergh, of which only three were letters with covers; this makes a fourth.
The typed letter, signed, on Wright Aeronautical stationery, along with the original Air Mail envelope signed and inscribed by Lindbergh and the original diplomatic pouch envelope in which the missive was sent, is to be offered for sale at Swann Galleries’ November 14 Autographs auction. It was consigned by Prince’s family and is expected to bring $50,000-75,000 when it offered for sale in New York next week.
Another consignment from the James F. Prince collection is an American flag bearing 48 stars, with a typed note signed by Lindbergh indicating that the flag was also carried by him in the Spirit of St. Louis. This will be sold together with a photograph of Lindbergh and his plane, signed and inscribed to Prince. This lot is estimated at $30,000-40,000.
Further information is available online at www.swanngalleries.com.
No flight of fancy
In May 1919 New Yorker Raymond Orteig offered a $25,000 prize for the first non-stop aeroplane flight from New York to Paris. In the ensuing eight years dozens of people managed to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air, but no one met Orteig’s criteria until eight years later when on May 20-21, 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh made the longest non-stop, heavier-than-air transatlantic flight in his plane, the Spirit of St Louis.
