That's the story, as I have seen it told many times.

And here is a Cosmonaute, dating to within a few months of Carpenter's flight. It's the early Cosmonaute (black registers on black dial) . . . white portion of slide-rule is after-market; luminous has been removed; chrono needles replaces.

Jeff

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

: This is from the wikipedia entry for Breitling:
: In 1961, Scott Carpenter, one of the
: original astronauts in the Mercury space
: program, approached Breitling with idea of
: incorporating a 24 hour dial instead of the
: normal 12 hour dial. This was needed because
: of the lack of day and night during space
: travel. Breitling complied, and produced the
: 24 hour Navitimer which Carpenter wore on
: his 1962 space flight. Breitling then
: proceeded to produce the 24 hour version as
: the so-called Cosmonaute Navitimer - under
: both Breitling and AOPA logos.

: Is this true?

: Scott