Did you know? World's first airmail flight coincided with 1911 Kumbh in UP

On February 18 1911 French pilot Henri Pequet took off in his biplane from an exhibition ground carrying about 6500 mails and postcards and soared into the evening sky of Allahabad and into the pages of aviation and postal historyThis was the worlds first official airmail flown by an aeroplane and the pioneering milestone coincided with the Kumbh Mela that took place in this holy city 114 years ago according to philately expertsThe aircraft that became part of this historic flight flew a distance of about five miles crossed Yamuna and landed at a site near the Naini Jail in a span of nearly 13 minutesAmong the recipients of the mails was a young Jawaharlal Nehru later Indias first prime minister who was in England at the time and George V the then king of the British Empire Mails were also addressed to many royals and commonersEach of the mails carried a special postmark depicting an airplane mountains and bore the text First Aerial Post 1911 U P Exhibition AllahabadSpecial commemorative photo postcards bearing images of the twoseater Humber biplane and the pilot and signed by Pequet were also part of the consignment a prized collectors item among philatelists across the worldUnlike the vast multitudes of people gathered on the banks of Triveni Sangam the confluence of rivers Ganga Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati in 1911 in Allahabad now renamed Prayagraj Pequets arrival at Naini was a rather quiet affairAccording to archival records the pilot who had to carry a compass instrument tied to his lap and the mail bag accommodated just near the edge of his seat handed over the sack to a postal official present at the landing siteFrom there the letters and postcards were transmitted to their respective destinations by surface mail as in by road or by ship or by train as was the traditional postal practice thenPrayagraj resident and young history scholar Akshat Lal who has paid multiple visits to the ongoing Kumbh Mela of 2025 shares an exciting link of his family with the carriage of the worlds first official airmailI have a soft copy of a postcard flown on that aeroplane and it was addressed to my great grandfather Asharfi Lall Esq and carried the First Aerial Post 1911 U P Exhibition Allahabad postmark in black and the date mark 18 FE 11 Lal told PTI hereUnited Provinces Exhibition was held on a ground near the Allahabad Fort facing the Sangam from December 1910 till the end of February 1911 Aeroplanes were showcased at the exhibition through demonstration flights The province was later renamed as Uttar PradeshAn avid collector himself Lal also has a physical copy of an envelope addressed to a person in Allahabad and carrying the commemorative postmark in magenta over a rare halfanna postage stamp bearing the silhouetted image of King Edward VII whose son George V was coronated in June 1911 and travelled to India to attend his coronation durbar in Delhi on December 12 the same yearNoted Patnabased philatelist and author Pradip Jain or aerophilatelist as he also calls himself said this historic occasion that accords India a place in iconic aviation and postal history coincided with the Kumbh making it even more special for India and its peopleMany of the mails were also sent to Bhagalpur and Champaran in Bihar region and I have a rare collection of a few of them besides the envelope carrying the name of Jawaharlal Nehru addressed to him by his father he told PTIJain has written about this 1911 flight in his book Indian Airmails Development and Operations 19111942 published in 2002 and said he also possessed a few signed Pequet postcardsA special stamp was issued in 1961 to mark the golden jubilee of that historic first flightOn the centenary of this event in 2011 the government of India had issued a commemorative postal miniature sheet And on February 18 this year I also delivered a talk on this subject in an online international seminar In a fitting tribute to the 1911 flight the seminar took place while the Kumbh was underway he saidThe 45day religious congregation began this year on January 13 and will culminate on February 26 Over 60 crore people have taken a holy dip in the Triveni Sangam since it started according to data shared by the Uttar Pradesh governmentThe magenta colour postmark for the 1911 event was made with a special dye manufactured in Aligarh It is said that this dye was destroyed later to make the letters and postcards carried by Pequet a rarity in future and indeed these are today even after 114 years experts saidJain in his early 70s said while the magenta postmark or cachet was a rarity black ink was used for the privileged few while some had it both magenta and blackThe Ministry of Communication recently also acknowledged the 1911 event and its coincidence with Kumbh that year as perhaps the sangam of postal history and spiritual heritage of IndiaThese letters are living documents of their time Many of these letters have transformed into pages of literature While postal services now reach across the world via airplanes their history is intrinsically linked to the Kumbh and Prayagraj it said in a statementThese letters defined the concept of globalisation in an era when travelling abroad was a distant dream The airmail service not only gave wings to the letters but also provided flight to peoples dreams the ministry saidAlso ReadThese Indorebased philatelists have preserved rare stamps on Maha Kumbh Simhastha MelaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever