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10

Orville Wright

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,800.00 - 2,000.00 USD
Orville Wright

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Auction Date:2012 Nov 29 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, 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
TLS, one page, 7.25 x 10.5, personal letterhead, March 11, 1926. Letter to C. F. Schory of the National Aeronautics Association providing very specific details on an altitude test performed by record-setting pilot John A. Macready, who conducted several test flights for the Wright Brothers, and at one time held altitude, distance, and endurance records. In part: “Your letter…enclosing correspondence with the Air Service Engineering Division is received…We went to the field Tuesday, but the sky clouded before the machine was ready, so that the test had to be postponed. We have had an over-cast sky since that time. I am very much puzzled over the barograph calibrations of these altitude tests. In the test on January 29th, Lieutenant Macready reported on landing that his altimeter indicated an altitude of 36,200 feet (F.A.I.) We tested under a bell jar at ordinary room temperature an unsealed barograph which had been carried on the flight. This indicated a little less than 35,900 feet altitude. The official barograph was sent to the Bureau of Standards for test with the result of 38,704 feet. I presume the test at the Bureau of Standards was made under conditions of low temperature as obtained in the flight, and this might account for some of the difference in the calibration of the two barographs. On the other hand the altimeter and the barograph tested here agreed quite closely, as we have found they have always done in the many tests heretofore.” In very good condition with two punch holes along the top edge, a pair of light paper remnants and professional restorations to several areas of paper loss, staple hole and rusty paperclip mark to top left, and scattered instances of toning and soiling.

At 10 a.m. on January 29, 1926, Lieutenant John A. Macready the US Army’s chief test pilot, finally piloted an experimental aircraft in the hope of establishing a new altitude record for airplanes. Wright was one of three official observers for the flight. Although his altitude—more than seven miles above Earth—was impressive, it did not break the world record of 39,586 feet, set in 1924. A highly detailed page pertaining to one of the “next steps” in aviation history.
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