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Title: Aeropostale Air Mail Service |
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Description: Aeropostale Air Mail Service. Europe - Africa - South America Aeropostale is one of the most well known of the early French airlines. It’s fame is due, in part, to the author Antoine de Saint Exupery, who wrote several books about his experience as an Aeropostale pilot. From 1928 to 1933, Aeropostale offered fast and dependable air mail service from France to South America, with tributary routes within Europe, South America and North Africa. The mail would leave from Toulouse, France, fly across the Mediterranean Sea and make its way along the western coast of Africa. When it reached Senegal, the mail was transferred to a ship for the voyage across the South Atlantic to Brazil. It was then put back on a plane for Rio de Janiero, Buenos Aires, and Santiago de Chile. Aeropostale’s service would transport a letter from Paris to Buenos Aires in 8 days, compared to 16 days by the quickest sea mail. It was very dangerous to fly over much of this transcontinental route. The areas between the landing fields in Africa were inhabited by hostile tribes who would hold a shipwrecked pilot for ransom if they didn’t kill him. Since airplanes were not as reliable as they are today, especially when operated over the desert, Aeropostale’s planes were often forced to land in hostile Saharan territory. The trip over the Andes in South America is still a treacherous one, even today. Another danger faced by Aeropostale pilots was the night. Radar did not exist, weather information was scanty, and forcasting was unreliable. But to compete with other forms of ground transportation, they had to risk flying in the darkness. This Brazilian poster shows a Latecoere 28 going through a searchlight to land in a small mountain hamlet. |
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