Height x Width: 6 1/2 × 8 1/2 in. (16.51 × 21.59 cm)
Type:
Covers & Associated Letters
Place:
District of Columbia
Date:
September 4, 1918
Description:
Praeger wires Lipsner in Chicago that pilot Max Miller will depart according to schedule at 6:00 a.m. from Belmont Park, New York. He flies the new Standard JR-1B biplane. Edward Gardner, on the other hand, remains delayed as the “mail pump on [his plane's] gas tank”, the Curtiss R4-1M, breaks on the third trial trip. Gardner will fly the two-seat biplane with mechanic Edward C. Radel at noon if a new pump can be fitted in time, and they will carry additional mail.
Praeger wants Lipsner to “rush Hispano mechanics” to Bryan, Ohio and Cleveland to meet Miller. Miller's Standard JR-1B airplane was fitted with a Wright-Hispano engine. Praeger hopes that Glenn Martin [of Glenn L. Martin Company in Cleveland] can assist him.
Lipsner later described that time, “If ever in my life I felt like a complete nervous wreck, it was on the eve of that flight. It wasn’t a lack of confidence in the abilities of Gardner and Miller or in our loyal and capable mechanics.”
References:
Lipsner, Captain Benjamin B. The Airmail Jennies to Jets. Chicago, IL: Wilcox & Follett, 1951.
Topic:
Benjamin B. Lipsner Airmail Collection Search this
