Lot 4573
Air Mail. Winged Globe 5 cents violet on cover from New York 5-7-1932 to New York. This cover was carried on board of the "Century of Progress", flown by Jimmie Mattern and Bennett Griffin during their attempt to break the Earth Aerial Circumnavigation Record in July 1932. They started on Floyd Bennett Field, New York, on July 5th and reached Berlin in a record time of 18.41 hours. On July 7th they reached Minsk in Belarus. Shortly after taking of for Moscow the plane crashed near Borisov. Very fine and extremely rare cover (only 10 flown) with the autographs of both pilots. In June 1933 Jimmie Mattern tried again to break the record with a rebuilt "Century of Progress" and this time solo, following the same route. This time he reached Moscow but made a forced landing in East Siberia. He was eventually rescued by Eskimos and flown to Nome, Alaska, by Russian pilots.
