.
Flown large commercial corner cover carried by Charles A. Lindbergh, Chief Pilot, CAM-2, from Chicago to St. Louis, on the opening day of the route, 15 April 1926. Contractor: Robertson Aircraft Corporation, Lambert Flying Field, Anglum, Missouri: photo by US Post Office Department, 15 April 1926: image by Centpacrr, 19 April 2008 (The Cooper Collection of Lindberghiana)
Alongside all the solemnity that frames Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic, we may allow ourselves the arabesque of a joke -- the amusing pendant to the regrettable frivolity with which the Paris evening papers prematurely announced the triumph of Nungesser and Coli.* The same papers are now exposed for the second time. They owe this to an idea conceived by a student at the Ecole Normale -- an idea that Karl Kraus might envy. As is well known, this Ecole Normale is the celebrated French school that every year admits only an elite group of applicants, after the stiffest entrance examinations. On the afternoon of the first day Charles Lindbergh spent in Paris, someone telephoned all the newspaper editors with the news that the Ecole Normale had resolved to declare the aviator "a former student." And all the papers printed the announcement. Among the medieval Scholastics, there was a school that described God's omnipotence by saying: He could alter even the past, unmake what had really happened, and make real what had never happened. As we can see, in the case of enlightened newspaper editors, God is not needed for this task; a bureaucrat is all that is required.
*Francois Coli (1881-1927) and Charles Nungesser (1892-1927) were French aviators whose plane, L'Oiseau Blanc, disappeared over the North Atlantic during their attempt to fly nonstop from New York to Paris.
*Francois Coli (1881-1927) and Charles Nungesser (1892-1927) were French aviators whose plane, L'Oiseau Blanc, disappeared over the North Atlantic during their attempt to fly nonstop from New York to Paris.
Walter Benjamin (1882-1940): Journalism, first published in Die literarische Welt, June 1927, translated by Rodney Livingstone in Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 2: 1927-1934, 1999
Graduation photo of 2nd Lt. Charles A. Lindbergh, US Army Air Corps Flight School, Kelly Field, Texas, March 1925: image by Artur Andrzej, 23 September 2010 (US Army Air Corps)
Kelly Field, Texas, 1920: photographer unknown, from Mueller, Robert (1989). Volume 1: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982. USAF Reference Series, Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C.; image by Bwmoll3, 12 March 2013 (US Air Force)
l'École normale supérieure, Paris. L'administration en 1920: au premier rang de gauche à droite Ernest Vessiot, Gustave Lanson, Paul Dupuy; debout de droite à gauche Lucien Herr, Fernand Maurette et le «Pot», L. Meynieux: photo by E. Vallois, 1920; image by morphypnos, 3 August 2012 (Bibliothèque de l'École normale supérieure)
Cour intérieure de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris), et bassin aux Ernests, de nuit, sous la neige: photo by Evarin, 19 January 2012
Charles Lindbergh's plane The Spirit of St. Louis surrounded by a mob of spectators at London's Croydon Aerodrome, London, eight days after landing at Le Bourget airfield in Paris following a 33 1/2 hour transatlantic flight from Roossevelt Field, near New York City. The plane's license number N-X-211 is visible on its wing in this aerial photo, taken from one of the planes used to escort Lindbergh's craft -- a specially modified Ryan monoplane -- across the English Channel; the letter N is the international designation for the United States, the X signifies "experimental": photographer unknown, 29 May 1927 (via Iconic Photos)
Charles Lindbergh's airplane, The Spirit of St. Louis, in flight: photographer unknown, c. 1927 (Library of Congress)
New York Times front page, 22 May 1927 (New York Times)
CAM-2 Air Mail pilot Charles Lindbergh's own copy of the weekly postage report for mail carried on the Chicago-St. Louis route during the week of 6 to 12 February, 1927. Less than two weeks later, Lindbergh left St. Louis for San Diego, California, to oversee the design and construction of the Spirit of St. Louis, which he flew non-stop from New York to Paris on 20-21 May 1927: image by Centpacrr, 19 April 2008(The Cooper Collection of Lindberghiana)
B.L. Rowe corner cover flown by Charles Lindbergh in the Spirit of St. Louis from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince (6 February1928) and Havana (8 February 1928): image by Centpacrr, 20 April 2008 (The Cooper Collection of Lindberghiana)
Flown, registered Springfield, Illinois USPOD #13 penalty cover autographed by Charles A. Lindbergh and the five regular Robertson Aircraft Corporation CAM-2 pilots (L.H. Smith, E.L Sloniger, H.A. ("Bud") Gurney, T.P. Nelson, P.R. Love) who flew the mail on CAM-2 northbound on 21 February and southbound on 22 February1928, on the "Lindbergh Again Flies The Air Mail" flights, with all cachets and backstamps. The cover is addressed to William A. Steiger, the Assistant Post Master at Springfield, Illinois who was in charge of Air Mail service there: photo by William A. Steiger, US Post Office, Springfield, Illinois,21 February, 1928: image by Centpacrr, 20 April 2008 (The Cooper Collection of Lindberghiana)
Charles A. Lindbergh's paycheck as a U.S. Air Mail pilot from the Robertson Aircraft Corporation dated 15 January 1927, four months before his nonstop flight to Paris. By then Lindbergh had saved up $2,000 of his own money to contribute to the project which was funded primarily by a $15,000 loan made by the State National Bank of St. Louis on 18 February1927: image by Centpacrr, 25 March 2008 (The Cooper Collection of Lindberghiana)
U.S. "Lindbergh Air Mail" Postage Stamp (Scott C-10) issued 11 June 1927: image by Centpacrr, 19 April 2008