2 letters relating to Charles E. Taylor [1868-1956], who built the 12hp engine of the 1903 Wright Brother airplane. Taylor was originally hired to work on Wright bicycles, but soon turned his attention to designing a high power-to-weight ratio engine for the 1903 Flyer. He continued working for the Wright Company until 1920, and later became involved in the defense industry in California. By 1955 he was in poor health and short of money; the Aviation Industries Association raised a campaign to look after him. Comprising a typed letter signed from the Director of the Western Region of the AIA to a donor Vern Carstens, chief test pilot at the Beech Aircraft Corporation in Wichita, KS, dated January 16, 1956; typed letter signed from Taylor's secretary-nurse, dated January 24, 1956, expressing personal thanks to Carstens, stressing that Taylor "has never lost his interest in airplanes or the people who make them and the Great Boys who fly them," and enclosing a 2-inch square swatch of fabric as a gift (albeit without indicating from which aircraft it comes; it bears little resemblance to the fabric of the 1903 Flyer). Taylor died six days after this letter. Together with a copy of a newspaper report.
2 letters relating to Charles E. Taylor [1868-1956], who built the 12hp engine of the 1903 Wright Brother airplane. Taylor was originally hired to work on Wright bicycles, but soon turned his attention to designing a high power-to-weight ratio engine for the 1903 Flyer. He continued working for the Wright Company until 1920, and later became involved in the defense industry in California. By 1955 he was in poor health and short of money; the Aviation Industries Association raised a campaign to look after him. Comprising a typed letter signed from the Director of the Western Region of the AIA to a donor Vern Carstens, chief test pilot at the Beech Aircraft Corporation in Wichita, KS, dated January 16, 1956; typed letter signed from Taylor's secretary-nurse, dated January 24, 1956, expressing personal thanks to Carstens, stressing that Taylor "has never lost his interest in airplanes or the people who make them and the Great Boys who fly them," and enclosing a 2-inch square swatch of fabric as a gift (albeit without indicating from which aircraft it comes; it bears little resemblance to the fabric of the 1903 Flyer). Taylor died six days after this letter. Together with a copy of a newspaper report.
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
