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Earle L. Ovington
Aviation Pioneer
By Arthur H. Groten M.D.
Figure 2.
Figure 1.
Figure 4.
Figure 13.
A
n aviation pioneer as a Renaissance Man and philatelist? Earle Lewis Ovington (1879-1936) was
an electrical engineer from MIT who worked with
Edison and Tesla, an early student of x-ray technology, a life-long photographer and philatelist, motorcycle racer and
organizer, early aviator, first official carrier of the U.S, airmail,
friend and partner of Glenn Curtiss, builder and owner of the first
airport in Santa Barbara, Calif., and holder of hundreds of patents
for his inventions.
While the particular focus of this article will be on his aviation
career, it is important to understand something about him outside
of that sphere in order to grasp how he was able so quickly to ascend to the pinnacle of pioneer aviation.
Ovington, born into a well-to-do Chicago merchant family in
1879, showed an early fascination with electricity when, in 1888,
his mother gave him a small motor as a gift. But by the time he was
16, the early death of his father and a declining economy forced
him to quit school and go to New York where he went to work
for Thomas Edison. He made significant contributions to Edison’s
company and experimented with the new radiographic techniques
based on Roentgen’s discovery of x-rays in 1895 (Figure 1), coinventing the Strong-Ovington coil, based on the work of Nicola
Tesla in 1897. He realized he needed further formal education.
30 • The American Stamp Dealer & Collector • September 2011
He studied hard and passed the entrance exams for M.I.T.
(then Boston Tech). He entered in 1900 and graduated in 1904
as an electrical engineer. In addition to his studies he was an accomplished track and field athlete. (Figure 2) After graduating,
he founded the Ovington Manufacturing Company to produce
medical high-frequency generators and x-ray apparatus. This
was followed by the Ovington Motor Company which specialized in motorcycles. (Figure 3) He was a founding member of
the Federation of American Motorcyclists and wrote many of the
rules for racing. This then is the foundation of sportsmanship,
ingenuity and dedication to hard work that Ovington brought to
his next, greatest adventure. Those interested in the full story are
referred to a new book by Robert Campbell, Reminiscences of a
Birdman, available at www.livinghistorypressllc.com.
Ovington’s introduction to aviation came when he attended
the 1910 Gordon-Bennett International Aviation Tournament at
Belmont Park on Long Island which he attended as a special correspondent for the New York Times. There, for the first time, he
saw his friend Glenn Curtiss, who was also a motorcyclist, fly.
(Figure 4) Not yet affluent enough to support this new enthusiasm, he solicited support from four of his M.I.T. classmates and,
since there was no aviation school in the U.S. at the time, he
went to Louis Bleriot’s school at Pau, France in January 1911.
Bleriot was generally considered the finest aviation instructor in the world. He was the first person to receive a pilot’s li-
Figure 7.
Figure 3.
Figure 8.
Figure 5.
Figure 6b.
Figure 9.
Figure 6a.
cense from the Aero Club de France and the first person to cross
the English Channel by airplane. Figure 5 is an image with the
following inscription on the back: “The monoplane with which
Bleriot crossed the English Channel in July 1909—practically the
standard Bleriot monoplane of 1912.” The photo in Figure 6a was
made during his stay at Pau and is captioned: “Earle Ovington at
Bleriot’s School, Pau, France, Jan, 1911.” It has the special Bleriot
Pau vignette on the reverse. (Figure 6b) A photo on the front cover
shows a carefree Ovington, comfortable with his new Bleriot. The
composite postcard was made during his stay, as was the custom
among the early aviators. (Figure 7)
After eight flights he received his license on January 20 and
then spent time with his French technical crew putting together
the parts needed to modify the standard Bleriot machine to make it
safer, utilizing his engineering skills, and faster, by the addition of
a 70 h.p. Gnome engine. On this photo he wrote: “Bleriot’s factory
near Paris [Billancourt] showing how far advanced the French are
in aeroplane construction.” (Figure 8)
His first flight in the U.S. was a test made at Belmont Park on
April 25 followed by an exhibition flight on May 17. He next flew
at Bridgeport, Conn. Figure 9 has the note: “Ovington as a young
man, when he first came back from France, where he learned to
fly—this picture was taken at Bridgeport, Conn.” It is a real photo
postcard by Apeda Studios-Photographers, N.Y., who also photographed him at the Garden City Meet, including the famous picture of PMG Hitchcock handing him the mailbag.
He then flew into Columbus, Ohio, and at Waltham, Mass., on
June 15, where he made the first flight over the City of Boston.
Here he is pictured with his Bleriot (and his ever-present mascot
hanging in the rear) and his mechanical team, all of whom came
with him from France: Maurice Brun, Rene Peloy and Alfred Panier (left to right). (Figure 10)
The International Aviation Meet in Chicago (August 12-20,
1911) was the first major meet Ovington took part in after his
return. Figure 11 shows Ovington’s modified Bleriot, his Treize
[Thirteen]. A card sent from the meet has the message: “Missing
half your life in not seeing the meet here this week. It’s great. Saw
Brindly make his flight yesterday up and out of sight.” (Figure 12)
Ovington immediately went to Boston for this, the first, meet
in that city (August 26-September 4), although he had flown over
it in June. (Figure 13) In the program, he is listed as aviator #13
(his favorite number) and there is a full-page reproduction of the
famous Apeda photo of him with his pipe. It was here that he won
the Tri-State Race that solidified his place as one of the premier
pilots in the country.
Always looking to the future, he foresaw the value of aviation
for the delivery of mail, as did Postmaster General Frank H. Hitchcock. When the opportunity came to become the first official airmail pilot, he seized it and made the first airmail delivery along a
specified route (Garden City to Mineola) on September 23, 1911,
at the International Aviation Tournament at the Nassau Boulevard
Aerodrome, Garden City, Long Island, September 23-October 1.
The American Stamp Dealer & Collector • September 2011 • 31
Figure 14.
Figure 10.
Figure 11.
Figure 12.
This was the seminal event in the history of scheduled delivery
of mail on a specified aerial route. There had been a few ad hoc
carriages earlier but none were official and none proved that mail
could be dependably delivered by air. The portrait in Figure 14,
taken at the time, is captioned: “The crash helmet, lined with mineral wool, which Ovie brought back with him from France.”
Before presenting a brief postal history of this meet, let’s look
at some images of the meet taken by Ovington himself. (A full
account of the meet can be found in Thomas J. O’Sullivan, The
Pioneer Airplane Mails of the United States, AAMS, 1985.) He
was an avid photographer and took photos of his friends and the
general ambience at the various meets he attended. The Burgess
biplane was rather popular with the press. This photo shows a
hand-cranked Vitagraph Co. of America movie camera at work.
The number 2 on the tail indicates that the plane was owned by
Lt. Henry M. Arnold of the U.S.Army. (Figure 15) Another photo
shows mechanics assembling a Queen biplane designed by Grover
32 • The American Stamp Dealer & Collector • September 2011
Loening. (Figure 15) Ovington took a bird’s-eye view while flying
above the field. There is, of course, a degree of motion blur. It was
a tricky business to control the plane and snap the photo. (Figure
16)
A press photo from the Boston Globe archive shows the wellknown image of Ovington standing by his plane preparing for the
first airmail flight. (Figure 17)
The postcard in figure 18 shows his Bleriot and has his “signature” on it suggesting it was made after the fact. The caption on the
card says “After Ovington’s Flight” and it is tantalizing to think it
might have been after his first mail flight.
The story of the flying of the mail begins with Ovington taking
the oath of office. This is his personal copy with his hand stamp on
the reverse. (Figure 19) The original is in the Smithsonian.
The mail was to be flown each day during the meet between
Garden City and Mineola. All mail was canceled with a circular
“Aeroplane Station No. 1/Garden City Estates, N.Y.” postmark
Figure 15.
Figure 16.
Figure 17.
Before flight.
Figure 18.
Figure 17. GC3.
Figure 24.
and a three-word straight-line black cachet “Aerial Special Despatch.” On the first day, mail was carried exclusively by Ovington.
He used a Queen Bleriot (50 h.p. Gnome engine) on September 23
and 24 and, thereafter, a Bleriot IX (70 h.p. Gnome engine). The
experiment proved so popular that other pilots had to help out on
some days.
Although the distance was only five miles, the success of this
experiment showed that mail could be carried reliably and regularly over a set route. On this first day, September 23, Ovington
carried 1,280 cards and 640 letters. Accurate records don’t exist
for all dates. This card is quite unusual in being up-rated to 2¢ and
sent to Germany. (Figure 20)
There is some confusion as to who handed Ovington the first
airmail pouch. It was either a local postman named Cleary, the
advertising manager for Bosch Magneto Co., A. H. Bartsch, or a
local postal inspector M.H. Boyle. There are photos of each but the
dates are uncertain. It was definitely not PMG Hitchcock.
The message on this card carried September 24 is clearly to the
point: “This will reach you via the aeroplane on the opposite side.”
That plane was the soon-to-be-very famous Curtiss biplane flown
by T.O.M. Sopwith who was helping Ovington. The mail consisted
of 6,156 postcards and 781 letters as word spread and folks wanted
to be a part of history. Ovington carried 14 lbs while Sopwith carried 16 lbs.
On September 25, PMG Hitchcock was on hand to give Ovington the mailbag as seen in the photo. Ovington was the sole carrier
that day; the quantity of mail or its weight is unknown. (Figure 22)
PMG Hitchcock flew with Capt. Paul Beck on September 26,
carrying 10 lbs. of mail (1,400 cards and 620 letters). Ovington
carried 12 lbs. (2,220 cards, 300 letters and 78 pieces of printed
matter). The card carries a printed advertisement of Doubleday &
Co, a Garden City publishing house and shows that, even at this
early date, industry was foreseeing the future of carrying mail by
air. (Figure 22)
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Figure 19.
Figure 20.
Figure 22.
Figure 25.
Figure 26a.
Figure 26b.
Figure 27.
Neither the amount of mail carried nor the pilots who carried it
are known for the rest of the meet.
Despite some mail being postmarked September 29, mail was
not carried due to bad weather. Mail that could not be flown on the
29th was flown on the 30th, the last day that mail was flown. High
winds canceled the October 1 flights and mail was sent by surface
to its destination. Such mail was delivered by surface the next day.
After the Garden City meet, Ovington had hoped to make the
first transcontinental flight that fall but the plan had to be abandoned for technical reasons. On October 10, 1910, William R.
Hearst had put up a $50,000 prize to the first pilot to do it before
October 10 of the following year. Of the six pilots who made plans
for the flight, none succeeded in winning the prize. Cal Rodgers
alone completed the journey, on November 5, 1911 in the Vin Fiz.
With the impending birth of his first child, Ovington retired from
competitive flying. He attended the 1912 Third Annual [Boston]
Air Meet at Squantum, Mass., as an observer and watched as his
34 • The American Stamp Dealer & Collector • September 2011
friend, Harriet Quimby, fell to her death. He formed the Ovington
Airplane Company in 1912 and had stock certificates printed but
the venture was, apparently, never capitalized. (Figure 24)
Thereafter he worked with Glenn Curtiss during the War (Figure
25) and became a consulting engineer and airport owner. The first
governmental airmail was begun on May 15, 1918, between Washington, Philadelphia and New York. Ovington was aware of the
significance of this and wrote to his wife as a memento of the service. (Figure 26) He promoted and took an active part in the 20th
anniversary celebrations of his first airmail flight. (Figure 27). )
[Author’s Note: The archive upon which this article is built
came from Ovington’s daughter, Audrey, to Al Starkweather in the
early 1980s. Al obtained the photographic negatives from the Photographic Eye in Cambridge, Mass., in the late 1970s and was told
they came from her as well. Most of the images have notes on the
back in either Earle’s or his wife Adelaide’s hand; some have one
or another of his personal hand stamps.]