EARLY AIR MAIL

Evening Post, Issue 82, 6 April 1936, Page 7

EARLY AIR MAIL

FIEST IN ENGLAND

CARD FOUND LOCALLY

Flown from London to Windsor on September 9, 1911, as part of the first air mail in the United Kingdom, a postcard addressed from Durham to a prominent New Zealander, now deceased, has been found in a city auction room, and because of its rarity and its practically new condition has attracted some attention from air-mail philatelists.

The special postmarking and printing of the card show that even in those early days of aviation the ardent collector was a person to be catered for.

Additional interest is lent to the card because not only was the flight on which it was carried the first air-mail service in Britain, but it was made as part of the celebrations of the Coronation of the late King George V. Onehalf of the address side of the card is occupied by a picture of an ancient biplane in flight over Windsor Castle.1 Two stamps are on it, one bearing- the head of Edward VII and the other that of George V. The postmarks read: "United Kingdom Aerial Post,- Sp. 9,' 1911," and "Auckland, 22 Oc. 11." On the back'Js a brief message which indicates that the card was sent from. Durham on September 9. It was addressed originally to Auckland, there readdressed to Wellington.

Even in those days the Post Office was a cautious institution, for part of the printed inscription reads: "For conveyance by aeroplane from London to Windsor. ' tfo responsibility in respect of loss, damage, or delay is undertaken by the Postmaster-General." The net profits of the "aerial post" were devoted to charity. . , . WORLD'S FIRST AIR-MAIL PILOT.

The service was begun largely as the result of the interest of Captain W.G. Windham, who'was a pilot in the first air-mail service in the world, at Allahabad, in. February, 1911. He returned to' England and,devoted himself, with the. assistance of Mr. D. Lewis ,Poole and the apparently'lukewarm co-opera-tion of the Postmaster-General, to the inauguration of an "aerial post" there.

The special postcards, of which the Wellington-find is one, found a ready sale in the principal London shops as the project had fired the public imagination. Staff pilots of the Bleriot and Gra-hame-White aviation schools at Hendon were entrusted with the conveyance of the mails. September 9, the day fixed for the start of the service, was a Saturday. ' Conditions were enough to daunt the heart of the bravest pilot o£ the rickety craft of 1911, for a strong easterly wind made conditions aloft very bumpy. But Gusav Hamel was not deterred. At 4.58 p.m. he took the first mail bag off from Hendon: in: a Bleriot, and as a contemporary quaintly puts it, "was wafted to Windsor in ten minutes at an average speed of just over 105 miles an hour."

Sunday was a day of rest for the airmail pilots, but on Monday the South African, E. F. Driver, in a Farman, and Gresswell and Hamel in Bleriots, took' eight bags of mail, and the same three men carried eleven the following day. M. Hubert was to have taken some of Monday's mail, but the high wind was too strong for the cranky old Farman he was piloting, and 'he crashed soon after taking off,- and broke both-his legs. . ; : -. LANDED TO ASK THE WAY. Wednesday was too.-bad-, for\ flying, mail was carried on Thursday; J^SSyc was too .bad, two bags .went on Saturn day, Sunday was a holiday, and the mails were again .flown, on Monday and Tuesday, in-spite of. high winds and engine trouble: That concludes (he eleven days' service, which showedthat aircraft in those, days were risky. in rough weather.arid.uncertain in/their, times of arrival., ... ■ '■■''■';...

The distance" from London to- Wiridsor^as- flown, was 19. miles, and: most ot the .trips took' about, half an hour,the shortest.being .ten minutes and the longest ninety, minutes, when a pilot was lost in a' mist and : had • to" land to ask which way to go. It was in February, 1911, the month in w;hich the world's first air mail was flown in: India, that Mr. Leo Wash flew before the Prime Minister of New Zealand at>Papakura in a Howard-Wright, aeroplane. " ~ , .... '; .' ; -.