Auction unites artifacts from three legends

COLUMBUS, Ohio — As the sons of a legendary astronaut, Matt Carpenter said he and his little brother “were blessed to grow up around some pretty interesting stuff.”

That included the extraordinary headgear the boys would wear during youthful afternoons spent pretending to be fighter pilots.

“When we were young, as far back as I can remember, we would play naval aviators on the couch, and either my brother or I would wear the gold Glenn Navy helmet and one of us would wear a helmet that belonged to my father,” Carpenter said.

That’s Glenn, as in John Glenn, the first American to orbit earth, and their father, Scott Carpenter.

Both men were among the Mercury Seven, the group of astronauts that piloted America’s first manned spaceflights in the 1960s.

Now, both astronauts are gone and Matt said the brothers want the public to get a chance at the golden helmet, which Glenn wore while setting the transcontinental speed record during 1957’s “Project Bullet.”

He gave it to Carpenter, who was a good friend, as a gift.

The helmet will be offered at auction by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions on Friday, a kind of astronautical addendum to a larger, previously announced sale involving the personal collection of another famed astronaut, Neil Armstrong.

A series of auctions involving some 2,000 artifacts and mementoes owned by Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, began Thursday and runs through November 2019.

The event now brings together three big names in aviation history: Glenn, Armstrong and Wright.

Among Armstrong’s personal items are pieces of a wing and propeller from the 1903 Wright Flyer, the first successful heavier-than-air powered aircraft. Armstrong, who like Glenn and brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright was from Ohio, took the items with him to the moon.