RARE! GOODYEAR ZEPPELIN (GZ) HATBAND of 1st CAPTAIN of the GOODYEAR BLIMP 1920's

Description

GOODYEAR ZEPPELIN (GZ) HATBAND of 1st CAPTAIN of the GOODYEAR BLIMP 1920's
RARE. Goodyear Zeppelin hatband. N.p.: [Ca. mid 1920s]. Approx. 3 5/8" x 2 1/2" couched embroidered "GZ" patch on blue cotton (losses to blue fabric backing, expected tarnishing of metal thread); 1 1/2" x 11 1/2 " woven band (light discoloration). The letters "GZ" are embroidered on a bordered blue oval, flanked by couched embroidered stylized wings. The badge is worked on black felt and is attached to the woven hatband with a buttonhole on either end to attach to a hat. Provenance: Jack Boettner, Goodyear's first pilot, and later Goodyear Zeppelin Airship Fleet Commander. (please see his picture wearing the hat band) A hatband relating to the partnership of the Goodyear Company Akron, Ohio, and the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin Company of Friedrichshafen, Germany, started in the mid-1920s. The Zeppelin company worked closely with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company to manufacture Zeppelins in the United States. To cement this relationship, a joint venture company, the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation, was created to handle such activities. The first airship to be produced under this initiative, the Zeppelin LZ 126 called the ZR-3 USS Los Angeles that performed its first flight on 27 August 1924.
John A. (Jack) Boettner (b.
1893 -d.1961)
I
n 1916, Boettner joined the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. and, because of his superior reflexes and athletic skill, he soon found himself in the experimental blimp division. During World War I, he trained blimp and dirigible pilots at Wingfoot Lake for the Army and Navy.
J
ack Boettner was the first Captain of the Goodyear blimp fleet, holding pilot license no. 13.
He logged over 12,000 hours in the air. As dean of America’s non-rigid airship pilots he handled the controls of every blimp built by Goodyear.
In the 1930’s, Jack took training himself aboard the Graf Zeppelin and the ill- fated Hindenberg. In World War II this former football ace now turned flying ace piloted blimps on anti- submarine patrol and held the rank of Commander in the United States Navy. After the war he returned to Goodyear, later retiring after 35 years in the flying business.
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