US pilot and WWII hero. TLS signed 'J. H. Doolittle,' one page, 7.25 x 10.5, George Washington Bicentennial Airplane Flight letterhead, no date. In part: 'One hundred and fifty-seven years ago this week, the Continental Congress inaugurated the postal service...[that] later became the Post Office Department of the United States. Benjamin Franklin became the first director. Mail, at that time, was carried by post riders and stage coaches. No one in the early days of the service had a more appreciative understanding of the advantages of a postal service than George Washington. No one did more to give it a firm foundation. In this Bicentennial Year of George Washington's birth it therefore seems appropriate that a demonstration be made of the advance of transportation facilities since those early days. I am making a flight over as many of the routes traveled by George Washington as is possible in a single day from dawn to dusk. I am informed that the average speed made by George Washington may be considered to be about twenty miles a day. The advance since then can best be indicated by the fact that it is hoped to cover in each hour the distance it took Washington nine days to travel. So that you will have a record of this flight, I am dropping several of these letters as I pass over certain cities.' In fine condition, with overall light creasing affecting nothing and accompanied by the original typed mailing envelope featuring a cachet and stamps commemorating this journey, postmarked July 25, 1932 from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
