SIGNED BY CHARLES LINDBERGH

Commemorative cover for Boston's Charles Lindbergh Day addressed to P.H. Ripley, Jackson Heights, New York, 22 July 1927. With commemorative blue 10-cent stamp featuring the Spirit of St. Louis. With Boston and New York cancels. 9 1/2 x 4 in. WITH modern printed photograph of Lindbergh standing in front of his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis. 11 3/4 x 8 1/4 in. 

A commemorative cover celebrating Charles Lindbergh's solo, nonstop trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris, featuring his signature at the top of the cover. Lindbergh started flying as a U.S. Air Mail pilot before he decided to cross the Atlantic. Following his record-setting flight on 20-21 May 1927, Lindbergh went on a nationwide tour that stopped at 95 cities in all 48 states to talk about his flight and aviation's commercial potential. On 22 July 1927, Lindbergh stopped in Boston, where the city most likely had these covers made to not only honor Lindbergh's terrific feat but to also promote air mail services, as per the stamp on the cover's top left corner: 

"'I am proud to have done it [the trans-Atlantic flight] for America. My reward will be your continued use of the Air Mail Service.'  / Col. Chas. Lindbergh" 

Charles A. Lindbergh was born on 4 February 1902 the son of a U.S. Congressman. Lindbergh had always been interested in transportation, but he developed a love for flying after quitting college and starting at the Nebraska Aircraft Corporation's flying school in 1922, where he flew as a passenger for the first time. He practiced over the next two years until he was a U.S. Army Air Service pilot in 1924 and then an air mail pilot in 1925 when the Army had no open positions following his graduation. 

What inspired Lindbergh to try his hand at flying solo across the Atlantic Ocean was prompted by a prize put up by New York hotelier Raymond Orteig. Orteig was offering $25,000 for the first successful nonstop transatlantic flight specifically between New York City and Paris, which several tried and either died or disappeared doing so. Between him, his coworkers and a bank loan, Lindbergh found a company willing to build him a single-seat, single-engine high-wing monoplane, later dubbed the Spirit of St. Louis. 

On 20 May 1927, Lindbergh took off from Long Island, New York, with a takeoff time recorded at 7:52 a.m. EDT. A little more than 11 hours later, at 7:15 p.m. EDT, Lindbergh passed St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, and reached the Atlantic Ocean. He wouldn't see land again until 10 a.m. EDT the next day when he reached Dingle Bay in southwest Ireland. Lindbergh would land at Le Bourget Aerodrome, about 7 miles outside of Paris, at 4:22 p.m. EDT, making history as the first pilot to fly solo, nonstop and across the Atlantic Ocean. 

[Postal History, Covers, Philately] [Air Force, Air Force History, Planes, Aeroplanes, Air Mail, Piloting]

Small tears to edges of cover