Cover of the Month

Catapult Mail.

Before the development of long range aircraft capable of carrying mail between Europe and North America mail had to be carried aboard transatlantic ships. In 1929 the Norddeutscher Lloyd line developed a novel way to reduce the time it took for such mail to reach it’s destination. Two of their new liners, the Bremen and the Europa, had been fitted with catapult equipment capable of launching a small seaplane. Once the ship was within the aircrafts capabilities from its destination the catapult would launch the aircraft and its cargo of mail. This typically reduced the time it took for transatlantic mail to reach its destination by about 36 hours. The initial plane on the Bremen was the purpose designed Heinkel HE 12. With a two man crew of a pilot and a radio operator and a top speed of just over 130 m.p.h. the aircraft was capable of carrying about 440 lbs of mail. The service continued to be used during the summers from 1930-1936. The use of longer range aircraft made the catapult service obsolete. Many pieces of such Catapult Mail bear cachets indicating the fact that the item was dispatched that way along with the name of the ship and the date. Although the cachet on this cover shows a 2.8.1929 date, records indicate the plane was actually launched at 8.35 am on 1.8.1929. On the reverse of the cover is a Bremen receiving mark of 1.2.1929 12.34. A nice piece of postal history! Thanks Jerry!

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