Back in the days before pilots had hard helmets and call-signs, many wore headgear made simply from leather and animal skin to protect themselves from the elements—or worse yet, a rocky landing.
Picture this for a minute: aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh doing loop-de-loops high above the skies of Paris. (This actually happened.) That’s what Lindbergh, the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic, was doing when he lost his aviator cap twice in the same week (we’ll get the first instance shortly). This second time around, the cap wasn’t recovered for another 89 years.
The leather and sheepskin cap could realize just shy of $90,000 at an upcoming auction by Paris-based auction house, Hotel Drouot.
The “Lone Eagle” first lost the hat when he was mobbed after his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, landed at the Bourget airstrip near the French capital on May 21, 1927.
A mechanic handed over the hat to the U.S. embassy that evening. But then Lindbergh lost it again seven days later when he was given special permission to perform aerobatic feats over the city in a borrowed French fighter.
The next morning a woman near Bourget found it in her vegetable patch.
The hat, which is set for auction on Nov. 16, has been kept by the same family since. It wasn’t actually identified as Lindbergh’s until 1969.
Lindbergh returned to the U.S. a hero, but six year later, was hit by tragedy when his baby son, Charles Junior, was kidnapped from the family home. The body of the 20-month-old was later found nearby.
For more information on the auction, click here. Watch a video of Lindbergh’s historic arrival in Paris below. —Relaxnews
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