An offer for a recreational balloon flight in Neuilly-sur-Seine with two famous aeronauts

[Commercial ballooning.] Hervieu, Gaston, French balloonist (1863-1923). Autograph letter signed. Co-signed by Hervieu's business associate and fellow balloonist Charles Gilbert.

€ 800.00

Written on the lithographed stationery of their "Parc Aérostatique de la Seine", complete with a photo of the site with one of Gilbert's bicycle-powered hot air balloons. The business associates addressed the letter with an offer for a "military themed" balloon flight to the mayor of Beaufort-en-Vallée (Maine-et-Loire): "Nous avons l'honneur de vous présenter nos offres dans le cas où vous auriez l'intention de faire exécuter cette année une ascension aérostatique. À cet effet nous vous adressons un prospectus et un thème militaire. Sous peu de jours nous vous adresserons un affiche actuellement à l'impression […]".

Charles Gilbert is best remembered for his "aérocycle rotateur" Gladiateur that was sponsored by the like-named bicycle company. This hot air balloon with an attached bicycle allowed Gilbert to power a propeller and direct his flight. In 1900, Gilbert moved to Moscow, where he demonstrated his hot air balloon several times and even taught at the Polytechnic Institute.

The better-known Gaston Hervieu was a balloonist, engineer, and aeronautic inventor. He competed in the ballooning events at the 1900 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal in the duration category for a 17h 51m flight. In 1907, Hervieu assisted Walter Wellman with his airship America, including the construction of a gas generator, in a failed attempt to reach the North Pole from Svalbard (Spitsbergen). As an inventor, Hervieu greatly improved parachute technology, his design allowing for jumps from much lower altitudes than previousily possible. The successful test of his silk parachute with a dummy on Eiffel Tower on 22 February 1911 made international headlines. Tragically, the Austrian-born tailor Franz Reichelt, who was trying to a develop a wearable parachute, felt incited by Hervieu's successful test to demonstrate his own invention and plunged to his death from the Eiffel Tower on 4 February 1912.