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VERY FINE. THIS IS THE ONLY RECORDED EXAMPLE OF MAIL INTENDED FOR EARLE OVINGTON'S ATTEMPT AT WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST'S $50,000 PRIZE OFFERED TO ANY AVIATOR COMPLETING A TRANSCONTINENTAL FLIGHT.
Calbraith Rodgers and his Vin Fiz Flyer were not the only aviators interested in claiming Hearst's prize money. On October 11, 1911, after the Garden City-Mineola New York International Aviation Tournament, celebrated aviator Earle L. Ovington took off from Nassau Boulevard Aerodrome for Governors Island to officially start his coast-to-coast flight. The Post Office Department assigned Route 607,001 to this airmail route. Ovington wrecked his plane on the way to the start and abandoned the effort.
After reading a newspaper report of the upcoming flight, a collector named W. J. Stanton prepared this envelope to be carried by Ovington on the official mail route. He mailed it inside another envelope to the postmaster in New York, requesting it be held for the flight. The postmaster ignored Stanton's request, despite receiving it days before the scheduled flight, and returned the stamped envelope by regular surface mail. This is the only cover reported to have been prepared for Ovington's transcontinental flight attempt.
Ex Judge O'Sullivan (Image)