Interesting photo and letter archive from Erik Hildesheim, one of the earliest pilots who came of age just after WWI, and who was involved in aviation manufacturing for much of the 20th century. In this large archive from the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hildesheim writes to Herb Wetenkamp, an aviation historian who reached out to Hildesheim and formed a friendship with him. Archive includes two 5'' x 7'' signed photos of Hildesheim in an airplane as a young man, 11 autograph letters signed, 12 typed letters signed and other items such as a vintage photo of an airplane and a typed manuscript of an interview with Hildesheim.

In the interview transcript, Hildesheim recounts his early fascination with flying and what was supposed to be his first flight that ended in tragedy: circa 1912, when he was a young man of about 17, Hildesheim was about to take his first plane ride, when the pilot told him he'd be cold. Hildesheim left to get a heavier jacket, but the pilot grew impatient and left without him. The plane then crashed after takeoff, killing the pilot, with Hildesheim witnessing the crash from afar. Hildesheim wasn't dismayed by this twist of fate, however, always believing that a crash would happen to the ''other'' pilot.

Although Hildesheim was Danish, all his letters are fluent English. He describes one of the signed photos in the collection: ''...the photo of me seated in the Bleriot was taken either late in 1917 or early in 1918. I liked this monoplane which was elegant and technically advanced for its day when appearing in 1909. With its slow speed the rudder was more effective than wing warping in banking and with the relative low horsepower one had then to be careful and get the nose down first. The opposite was the case with the higher powered and faster Morane-Saulnier (with its too small rudder) which was my favorite pre-WWI mount.''

He continues in this letter, ''I began to learn to fly at the Danish Army Flying school on a dual-control Maurice Farman 'Longhorn', but then all 3 trainers were crashed and I took Swedish F.A.I. license 120 at Dr. Thulin's flying school in Ljungbyhed. There it was then the taxi and trial and error method without any accompanying instructor, later they also adopted the dual-control metod [sic] and therefore used Albatros two seaters. Thulin did not instruct at his flying school but managed his large a/c factory in Landskrona...''

In a handwritten letter penned in September 1983, Hildesheim writes that he will turn 89 in October of that year, and was even planning a series of flights across America at his age. With much more content on early piloting and also his passion for aviation collecting. Letters often end with the sign-off, ''Happy Landings'', and are accompanied by their original covers. Overall in very good to near fine condition. A charming group of letters from an early 20th century aviation pioneer.