Brevet d'invention aéronautique

Typescript with one autograph page by Saint-Exupéry in pencil, Method for Guiding Aeroplanes [the title is in English], followed by Letters-Patent of Invention. A New Method for the Landing of Aeroplanes without Visibility with instruments and apparatus for its realization [also in English], 8 October 1937

Rust stains from staple holes and light dampstaining.

Original typescript of Saint-Exupéry patent titled "Method for Guiding Aeroplanes", addressing in particular the problem of piloting and guiding aircraft without visibility: a problem which, as he explains, is virtually solved... His demonstrations are illustrated with geometric diagrams (6 plates). The explanatory section is followed by 4 applications and a concluding chapter. This text is followed by his patent of invention, proposing a "New Method for the Landing of Aeroplanes without Visibility", filed on 8 October 1937 under number 420,779. This section comprises 15 pages and 1 plate of diagrams.

The first manuscript page is in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's own hand, 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" [to be kept]... The mention of the Barbizon Plaza dates the manuscript leaf from the first weeks of his arrival in New York: between 11 January 1938, when he disembarked from the ocean liner Île-de-France with his mechanic André Prévot, and 14 February 1938, when he took off aboard his Simoun F-ANXR in an attempt to complete the New York-Tierra del Fuego record flight, which ended in his catastrophic Guatemala crash.