WILEY POST - AUTOGRAPHED INSCRIBED PHOTOGRAPH CO-SIGNED BY: HAROLD GATTY - HFSID 295438
Price: $2,000.00
WILEY POST and HAROLD GATTY
8x10 image of the first men to circumnavigate the world in a
fixed-wing aircraft, inscribed by Gatty and signed both aviators. From the
collection of fellow aviator Richard Blythe.
Photograph inscribed and signed: "To Dick/very sincerely/Harold
Gatty", "Wiley Post". B/w, 8x10. Post is shown standing in front of Gatty,
and has signed below Gatty's inscription but above the latter's signature. In
1931, Australian HAROLD GATTY (1903-1957) was the navigator for
American pilot WILEY POST (1898-1935) on their record-setting flight around the
world in eight days, 15 hours and 51 minutes, the first circumnavigation of the
world by a fixed-wing aircraft. The eastward flight of the single-engine
Winnie Mae began at Roosevelt Field, Long Island on June 23, 1931 and
ended there on July 1, 1931 after ten stops en route. This flight of 8 days, 15
hours and 51 minutes easily bested the 21-day mark set by the German dirigible
Graf Zeppelin. For this flight, Gatty and Post became the first
civilians to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross. Lindbergh once
called Gatty "the best navigator in the country if not in the whole world."
During World War II, Gatty served with the US and Australian air forces in the
Southwest Pacific, and wrote a survival guide for airmen downed at sea, which
was subsequently included in flyers' survival kits. Post, a barnstorming pilot
in the 1920s, lost his left eye in an oil field accident in 1926, but used the
settlement money to buy his own aircraft. (Post did not wear his famous eye
patch in this portrait photo.) In July 1933, after installing prototype
autopilot and radio direction finder, Post became the first to fly solo around
the world! On August 15, 1935, however, Post and his close friend, beloved
actor, writer and humorist Will Rogers, were killed in the crash of their plane
near Point Barrow, Alaska. This photo is from the collection of Canadian
collector Richard Blythe (1894-1941), an infantry and aviation veteran of
World War I with a distinguished flying record of his own. Blythe handled press
relations for Charles Lindbergh's solo trans-Atlantic flight (1927), and
collected many mementos from his aviator friends. Lightly toned. Corners lightly
worn. Signatures in poor contrast but legible. Minor unknown stains on verso.
Otherwise, fine condition.
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