Lot 402

1926 (May 13), Madrid to Manilla, pilot signed first flight cover, carried on the final leg from Aparri to Manila, franked with two 2c green Jose Rizal and one 12c orange Lincoln, tied by two biplane-shaped handstamps, struck on front with Aparri c.d.s. (13 May) and "RAID MADRID-MANILA" commemorative cachet, signed in ink by Spanish aviator Eduardo González-Gallarza, reverse with secondary commemorative cachet of simplified biplane frame enclosing "MADRID TO MANILA FLIGHT / ACCOMPLISHED BY / SPANISH AVIATORS"; ex Truby.

The flight from Madrid to Manila, a distance of some 17,500 km, was completed by only one of three Breguet XIX aircraft that departed Spain on 5 April 1926, the other two having been forced down and abandoned in North Africa and China; the surviving aircraft, flown by Eduardo González-Gallarza and Joaquín Loriga, reached Aparri on 11 May before completing the final stage to Manila on 13 May.