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Title: Aux Pessimistes |
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Description: To the Pessimists: What is the form of human endeavor when, within 20 years, you can view the progress as if it were a complete road? This poster by Georges Villa begins with a poem and lists the milestones of aviation progress until 1930 when Captain Diudonne Costes and Maurice Bellonte made the first non-stop flight from Paris to New York. Although Charles Lindbergh had flown "The Spirit of St. Louis" from New York to Paris three years earlier in 1927, the journey from France to the United States was more difficult due to many factors, especially the unpredictable weather on the American east coast. Previous attempts had been made, but it was not until September 1930 that Costes, France’s idol of the air, a veteran pilot with six world records to his credit, successfully spanned the Atlantic with his co-pilot in their plane "The Question Mark". The non-stop flight took 37 hours through some difficult weather, but when they finally landed in New York, Lindbergh was at the airfield along with a crowd of 10,000 people to welcome the Frenchmen to America. Artist Georges Villa, born in 1883, was a painter, printmaker and illustrator with a longtime interest in aviation. He collaborated on two comedy magazines and illustrated several books, including one by Emile Zola. |
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