World's first air letter: The Indian connection
New Delhi: It is exactly 100 years to the day when India created history pioneering the world's first official airmail and among the letters was one written by Motilal Nehru to his son Jawahar who was pursuing higher education at the Cambridge.
Around 5 PM on February 18, 1911, 23-year-old French pilot Henri Pequet loaded a special mail bag with a limited number of 6,500 cards and letters on a two-seater bi-plane stationed at a polo field in Allahabad and soared into the evening sky.
It all took just 13 minutes for the flight of hardly 15 kms to and fro and the mails dumped at Naini Junction to create history where letters were transmitted by air for the first time in the world
The letters were all transmitted to the respective destinations by surface mail (by road or by ship or by train) as was the normal practice. Some of the letters were addressed to the monarach George V and these are found even now at the Buckingham Palace.
Pequet, who had signed a contract with British company Humber for demonstration flights, had to carry a compass instrument tied to his lap and the mail bag was accommodated just at the edge of his seat.
Since the occasion was something special and as it was witnessed by elite of the region letters were addressed to people all over the globe. Some letters emanating from the senior British officials were also addressed to the monarch, George V and these are found even now at the Buckingham Palace.
Text & Images: PTI
In Image: Worlds First Air Letter. It was India which transmitted letters by air for the first time in the world from Allahabad on Feb 18, 1911.
