Brevet d'invention aéronautique

Typescript with one autograph leaf in pencil in Saint-Exupéry's hand, "Method for Guiding Aeroplanes", followed by "Letters-Patent of Invention. A New Method for the Landing of Aeroplanes without Visibility with instruments and apparatus for its realization", 8 October 1937. Rust marks from staple holes and light damp-staining.

Original typescript of his “Method for Guiding Aeroplanes”, tackling the problem of flying and guiding aircraft without visibility: an issue which, as he explains, is all but solved...

The first leaf is in the hand of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who inscribed in pencil his name and addresses: “67 Broad Street / Antoine de Saint-Exupéry / 15 place Vauban Paris / Barbizon Plaza New-York”, and in blue pencil: “conserver” (“keep”)... The reference to the Barbizon Plaza shows that the manuscript leaf dates from his first stay in New York, during which time he set out to complete the impossible 14,000-kilometre flight from the city to Punta Arenas, which ultimately ended with his terrible crash in Guatemala.

On his arrival aboard the liner “Ile-de-France” on 11 January 1938 with his mechanic, André Prévot, his contacts at the Alliance française set him up in a room on the twenty-fifth floor of the Barbizon Plaza Hotel. “Amid the skyscrapers and neon lights, on the first night he experienced the strange sensation of sailing aboard a three-master, the wind roaring through the rigging and muffled noises rising from the depths of the hold,” relates Christine Kerdellant. It is therefore very likely that this work took shape during his American stay, marked by the tragic take-off failure of his Simoun F-ANXR at La Aurora, which left him in a sorry state. The patent was officially filed in France – and in the United States, by means of this document – on 8 October 1937. The typescript of the present English-language patent is preceded by a detailed demonstration absent from the French text filed with the Institut national de la propriété intellectuelle. The demonstrations are illustrated with geometrical diagrams (6 plates). The explanatory section is followed by 4 applications and a concluding chapter:

“Saint-Exupéry tackles the problem of approaching an airfield in very poor visibility. He devises a radio aid system consisting of two radio transmitters set up on either side of the landing area (in the days of grass or dirt airfields, one spoke of a ‘flying field’ rather than a runway). Each transmits a narrow rotating beam, and an indicator on the aircraft's instrument panel shows the position of the field. Today, a host of instruments perform this function. The idea of the rotating transmitter survives in the VOR (VHF Omnidirectional Range) system of ground beacons.” (Jean-Luc Goudet)

Visibility problems were commonplace aboard these flying scraps of metal. As Emmanuel Chadeau reminds us, Saint-Ex lived through the arduous early days of aviation, when “one flew with one's head outside, poorly sheltered from wind and cold, behind thick goggles spattered with oil spat out by the exhaust pipes. The pilot was swaddled in leather, under a round helmet gripping the nape of his neck, his hands encased in heavy fur-lined gloves, his feet numb on the rudder bar in boots that were never warm enough. He found his bearings mostly by reference to the ground, with neither radio nor Morse transmitter, a map on his knees.” The writer-aviator-engineer was doubtless inspired by the highly effective radio communications of American aviation, whose systems were then superior to the French ones. This text is followed by the official text of his patent of invention, in its English translation, setting out a “New Method for the Landing of Aeroplanes without Visibility”, comprising 15 pages and 1 plate of diagrams.

A rare document revealing the whole of Saint-Exupéry's technical reasoning in his quest for safe flight: “To this young man eager to know and to put himself to the test, the aeroplane opened up the untouched sky, its snows, its cyclones, its fearsome and almost sacred night. It sparked creative shock. It hastened the blossoming of the soul.” (Jules Roy, Passion et mort de Saint-Exupéry).

Typescript with one autograph leaf in pencil in Saint-Exupéry's hand, Method for Guiding Aeroplanes, followed by Letters-Patent of Invention. A New Method for the Landing of Aeroplanes without Visibility with instruments and apparatus for its realization, 8 October 1937

Rust marks from staple holes and light damp-staining.

Original typescript of his “Method for Guiding Aeroplanes”, devoted chiefly to the problem of flying and guiding aircraft without visibility, a problem which, as he explains, is all but solved... His demonstrations are illustrated with geometrical diagrams (6 plates). The explanatory section is followed by 4 applications and a concluding chapter. This text is followed by his patent of invention, setting out a “New Method for the Landing of Aeroplanes without Visibility”, filed on 8 October 1937 under number 420,779. This part comprises 15 pages and 1 plate of diagrams.

The first, manuscript, leaf is in the hand of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who has noted in pencil his name and addresses: “67 Broad Street / Antoine de Saint-Exupéry / 15 place Vauban Paris / Barbizon Plaza New-York”, and in blue pencil: “conserver” (“keep”)... The reference to the Barbizon Plaza shows that the manuscript leaf dates from the first month after his arrival in New York: between 11 January 1938, when he disembarked from the liner “Ile-de-France” with his mechanic, André Prévot, and 14 February 1938, when he took off aboard his Simoun F-ANXR to attempt the New York–Tierra del Fuego long-distance flight, which was to end in his terrible crash in Guatemala.