bleriotxi

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Goggles, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

bellissima

The caption underneath the picture 'Hubert Latham in his Antoinnet Monoplane is not correct as the monoplane in the middle is not an 'Antoinette' (sic) but an early version of the Blériot Type XI monoplane. As far as I know Hubert Latham never flew for Blériot but only for the Levavasseur firm, the designer and builder of the Antoinette monoplanes. At right is a Curtiss biplane. Presumably the picture is taken at an early flying week (1909 or 1910 ?) also evidenced by the seats visible at the left side.

Kees is totally correct. Don't think this photo has anything to do with Latham at all. Stig

Earle Lewis Ovington (December 20, 1879 - 1936) was an American aeronautical engineer, aviator and inventor, and served as a lab assistant to Thomas Edison. Ovington piloted the first official airmail flight in the US in 1911, from Garden City, New York to Mineola, New York. He delivered 640 letters and 1,280 postcards, including a letter to himself from the United States Postal Service designating him as "Official Air Mail Pilot #1." Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earle_Ovington Frank Harris Hitchcock (October 5, 1867 – August 25, 1935), was chairman of Republican National Committee from 1908 to 1909. He was then Postmaster General of the United States under President William Howard Taft from 1909 to 1913. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Harris_Hitchcock The plane is instantly recognizable as a Blériot XI. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%c3%a9riot_XI

Other Bain/LOC photos of Earle Lewis Ovington, the first U. S. Airmail pilot:

Photo taken Nassau Boulevard Aerodrome Garden City, Long Island, New York. Notice hangars, helpful in identifying Nassau Boulevard Aerodrome