[AERONAUTICS - AVIATION]. The Great Cruise of Costes and Le - Lot 3

[AERONAUTICS - AVIATION]. The Great Cruise of Costes and Le Brix. First illustrated edition of this account of the round-the-world flight undertaken by Costes and Le Brix in 1927–1928. This copy is enhanced with a double autograph signed by the aviators and three postcards also signed by them. Paris, Lapina, 1928. Quarto, half-havana morocco with beveled bands, plain spine, black morocco title label accented with two brown morocco strips, linings and endpapers of gold-embossed paper with floral motifs, gilt head, untrimmed, gold-printed covers and spine preserved. 98 pp., 2 engraved portraits as frontispieces, ten full-page watercolors reproduced in color, black-and-white drawings in the text. Detached frontispiece leaf. First illustrated edition of this story, originally published in *L’Intransigeant*, featuring 10 beautiful color illustrations by Jean Hallo. In 1927–1928, Dieudonné Costes (1892–1973) and Joseph Le Brix (1899–1931) undertook a major round-the-world air cruise, covering nearly 40,000 kilometers in 338 hours of flight time. This publication was produced at the initiative of the Ateliers d’aviation Louis Bréguet S.A. and the French company Hispano-Suiza, whose logo—a stork—adorns the lower flap of the cover. Limited to 2,000 copies, this is one of the 1,900 numbered copies on laid paper (No. 537). The two engraved portraits on the frontispiece are each accompanied by an autographed dedication signed by the aviators to Ferdinand Fouré, one of Hispano-Suiza’s key collaborators. Also included are three postcards depicting the aviators Costes and Le Brix, two of which are signed by the aviators and the third by Costes. A highly desirable copy, in an elegant binding in fine condition.