Wilbur Wright, Le Mans
WRIGHT AT CAMP D'AUVOURS, AUGUST 1908.
Group of 4 black and white photographs, 5 x 7 inches, and smaller. Inkstamps on verso of photographers Branger, Boyer, and Harlingue.

In 1908, Orville and Wilbur Wright divided their efforts, the sooner to fulfill contracts with the US Army and a French syndicate. Orville concentrated on demonstrating the aircraft to the Army at Fort Myer, Virginia, while Wilbur went to Europe. "Having captured the attention of the world during a single week of flying at Hunaudières [beginning on August 8], Wilbur shifted to a larger field at Camp d'Auvours, 11 kilometers east of Le Mans.... Wilbur made his first flight at Camp d'Auvours on August 21. The atmosphere was electric.... Wilbur was aloft every day, breaking records as soon as he set them.... Some days, Wilbur remarked to his family, 'Princes and millionaires' were 'thick as fleas' at the flying ground" (Crouch and Jakab, The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age, pp 166-172).
Comprising: the Flyer on the launch rail; Wilbur at the controls; aloft over the French countryside; coming in to land.
See illustration overleaf.
Sold for US$ 3,125 inc. premium

Category: Space / Space History


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