Spain Honours Lindbergh’s Cat GO BY THE STARS

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31542, 2 December 1967, Page 22

Spain Honours Lindbergh’s Cat

GO BY THE STARS

staJp STORY

(Specially written for “The Press" by KENNETH ANTHONY, In a set of airmail stamps issued in 1930, Spain paid tribute to some of the world’s most famous aviators. For the American representative in the series, the choice fell not, as one might expect, on the Wright brothers, but on Charles A. Lindbergh. In 1927 Lindbergh became the first man to make a nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic from the United States to France. He won a $25,000 prize for the 33 j hour flight As the illustration shows the design included an inset portrait of the pilot, the Statue of Liberty in New York, and Lindbergh’s machine, the Spirit of St Louis. Not so obvious at first

glance is a far more unexpected and therefore more interesting feature. Just what is the cat doing in the lower right-hand comer, apparently watching as the aircraft flies past? When Lindbergh planned his . epic flight, he intended at first to take with him as his mascot a cat named Patsy. But at the last minute he changed his mind and Patsy was left behind. “It’s too dangerous a flight to risk the life of a cat!” he remarked.

The United States promptly issued a large and handsome stamp to commemorate Lindbergh’s achievement, showing the aircraft and a map of the route. Three months later, France contributed another picture of the Spirit of St Louis on two stamps issued to mark the visit to France of the American Legion. But it was left to Spain, another three years afterwards, to remember in this appealing way the cat that might have shared the glory but didn’t.