TIRUCHY: Exactly a century ago, India made history this day by carrying a mail bag on a plane and one of the letters is now with a philatelist in Srirangam.
The first airmail service was launched on February 18, 1911, when a vintage aircraft, flown by a 23-year-old Frenchman, Henri Piquet, took off at 5.30 pm from the Polo grounds in Allahabad, flew across the Jamuna and landed at Naini junction with thousands of people, most of whom gathered there to attend the Kumbha Mela, cheering from the ground.
The twin-engine De Havilland with wooden wings was brought down for display at an exhibition on industry and agriculture at Polo grounds and a military officer, Walter G Wyndham, struck upon the idea of carrying mail bags across the Jamuna.
The flight, which was originally planned just over the grounds with a sponsorship from a Christian mission, covered 15 km both ways and took 13 minutes.
To mark the historic occasion, a special commemoration cachet with the inscription ‘First Aerial Post’ and ‘UP Exhibition, Allahabad’ was issued. (UP then stood for United Province).
All the 65,000 letters that were on board the plane bore the stamp, according to Soundararajan, who possesses one of the 10 surviving post cards. He says that the British government destroyed the special die made for stamping and the letters have enormous antique value. Now, to commemorate the centenary of the world’s first airmail service, Indian is issuing a special stamp and cover.