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Lindbergh takes his First Step.

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:137.00 USD Estimated At:275.00 - 375.00 USD
Lindbergh takes his First Step.
U.S. Post Office air field receipt, Contract Air Mail Service, Springfield, Ill., Jan. 21, 1927 - the fateful day that Lindbergh sent a telegram to Aviation and Aircraft magazine, requesting details of the Orteig Prize. "He then approached a small group of aviation-minded St. Louis businessmen, who quickly raised $15,000 for Lindbergh's proposed flight. Any plane Lindbergh selected would be named the Spirit of St. Louis to give the investors' city positive publicity and a modern image"--Three Across: The Great Transatlantic Air Race of 1927, Finkelstein, 2014. First offered in 1919, it was not until 1927, when flying advancements and Lady Luck made the Prize - $25,000 for the first non-stop flight between New York and Paris - a tenable feat. Partly printed, for one bag of mail flown between Chicago and St. Louis. An "Air Mail Field" employee, evidently George C. Isbell, has "signed" "Lindbergh" as "Name of pilot" of "Airship No. 113." 6 1/4 x 8 oblong. Postmarked at upper right, signed by two clerks over carbon paper, and by Isbell directly in pencil. Apparently without knowledge of Conkling Field, Lindbergh had asked his two fellow pilots on this route to take over his flights, as he had this day formally commenced the journey of planning his solo Transatlantic flight, just four months away. Lindbergh remarked at the time that a solo flight to Paris seemed less perilous than flying the airmail at night in winter. Very fine. A superb Lindbergh-related item, probably unique, unlike the receipts actually signed by Lindbergh.