V1301s

Samuel Pierpont Langley

Astronomer, Aviation Pioneer and Inventor

Fred Collins Signature

Collins Cover Announcement 

SAMUEL P. LANGLEY

45-cent U.S. Airmail

Sam Langley was an aviation pioneer, and this is the tack that I took in presenting this cover. The bold hand-painted cachet has an abundance of yellow and gold which makes for a very eye-appealing cover. It represents, in my mind, a rising sun or the "new dawn of aviation". An early flying machine is shown, and it looks like something out of a Disney movie. Also, gulls which Langley studied and his engineering and design tools -- tsquare, triangle, plans and drafting desk. He poses and leans against the desk, handsome in a threequarter length waistcoat. A hand-painted "entire" cachet, of particular note is the period scrollwork evident in each corner.

This issue is of the Airmail variety and many stamp collectors are always happy to have the Postal Service provide another Airmail. A single is canceled at San Diego, California. I spent a week of my life at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia undergoing deep sea survival school and enduring such experiences as (1) a day of isolation in a one-man raft (cramped) seeing nothing but water and the occasinal exhaust trail of a jetliner at 30 thousand feet and (2) swimming 100 yards in an exposure suit which made me more tired than anything else I have ever done. Other activities ranged from treating jellyfish stings to using signal devices to dealing with parachute wind drag (so as not to drown). None of the above is very pertinent other than the fact that the entire week is forever vivid in my memory and that the base was named to honor this aviation pioneer -- Samuel P. Langley. Item #V1301. $7.25