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Aviation

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:800.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Aviation

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Auction Date:2017 Sep 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Intriguing pair of flight artifacts related to the early career of Courtney Whitney, who is best known as the loyal aide of Douglas MacArthur and one of the authors of the postwar Japanese Constitution. The first item is the heavy core of an early airplane's wooden propeller, approximately 20 x 7.5 x 6.5, with the center rotor plate adorned with the Army Air Service's 'Prop and Wings' emblem and the initials "U.S." The second item is a pair of aviator's goggles, approximately 7? in length, which have been adhered to a cloth flight 'helmet' due to an accident involving Lieutenant Courtney Whitney. In overall very good condition, with wear and damage from use and plane crash, with melted rubber adhered to both goggles and portions of propeller core.

Accompanied by a copy of a letter of provenance from a Whitney family member, in part: "From 1918 to 1927, then Lieutenant Whitney was stationed at Bolling Field in Washington where he served as the field’s adjutant as well as serving as a pursuit pilot. During his time at Bolling Field, he crashed his plane, but fortunately managed to escape from the burning wreckage unhurt. As a memento of his good fortune, he was presented with this large fragment of the center of the plane’s wooden propeller…His flight goggles, the rubber lining of which was melted from the heat of the fire has adhered it to his cloth helmet, also date from the same incident.”