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LETTERS

MORE LETTERS ON PAGE TWO

To the Editor:

There is no question that the first official airmail was flown from Garden City Estates' Nassau Boulevard Field during the week of September 23-30, 1911, of the Second International Air Meet.

But Mr. Koessler has quite properly brought up the question of the "first" batch of mail to be flown. His postcard is definitely marked September 24th - the second day of the Meet. Mrs. Jagow's card, which she donated to our Archives, is dated September 28, 1911. In Preston Bassett's booklet, Long Island Cradle of Aviation, a photograph of a similar postcard bears a slightly blurred cancellation dated September 23 - as far as I can make out.

My article, and I apologize, was way off in saying that Earl Ovington had been sworn in on the 28th as first airmail pilot. The ceremony probably took place the first day of the meet and mail was flown to Mineola during the week that followed. Mr. Bassett goes on to say that he carried 640 letters and 1.280 postcards.

Even so, these few surviving cards and letters are rare, important and valuable. They are all "firsts' within the span of that week; and Mr. Koessler's may be a real first at that. 

Sincerely,
Mrs. Irwin Smith,
Village Historian

P.S. Source material relevant to the events taking place during the 1911 International Air Meet can also be found in a Hofstra Univ. publication "The Development of the Aerospace Industry on Long Island," edited by William Kaiser: September 23.

Earle Ovington [[note: 1917 Passenger Field Family "Glosaic"]] in a Bleriot monoplane, Queen, made the first airmail flight, flying from Nassau Boulevard air field to Mineola, a distance of six miles.

September 23-30

Army Lieutenant Thomas D. Milling set a new endurance record by carrying two passengers for 1 hour and 54 minutes. 

Army Lieutenants Milling and "Hap" Arnold gave Long Islanders a military reconnaissance demonstration in two Burgess-Wright biplanes, the only two aircraft owned by the U.S. Army at the time.

Mathilda Moisant, in her Bleriot - Moisant monoplane, equipped with a 50 hp Gnome engine, was issued a summons for flying on a Sunday. This charge was dismissed by a Hempstead Justice and the practice of flying on Sunday was henceforth considered "legal".

[[note: Air Mail 1911]]