An Airmail That Celebrates The First Flight From Bombay To London

Published on:

08 Jun 2021, 12:17 pm

2 min read

On June 8, 1948, the Malabar Princess, a 40-seater Lockheed L-749 Constellation took off from Santa Cruz, marking Air India’s first long haul international flight. Nowadays the above line merely seems like a dusty, old fact sifted from a history book; however, at the time the whole of India eagerly awaited the cumulation of the 5,000 mile journey from Mumbai to London via Cairo and Geneva.

In the late forties not too many airlines existed and only a few countries had international operations of their own. Thus, a successful long haul international flight conducted by an Indian airline was key in the assertion of Independent India’s presence as a global figure in the aviation game. Although the American made L-749 Constellation was considered a cutting edge commuter plane at the time, the forty seater is a far cry from modern day international aircraft. In fact, the very same Constellation had six crashes and aircraft failures the year 1946.

Thus, the success of the flight was of paramount importance for the international image of Independent India, and many across the nation rallied around the momentous occasion. Surprisingly, Indian philists and stamp dealers showed their support and enthusiasm by ‘producing private covers/cachets to commemorate the flight, and sent mail on this service using them,’ according to the Air India Collectors website.

In a time where paying for an international call felt like putting a down payment on your home, airmail was a relatively quick way to communicate along with the telegraph. So to produce custom airmail for the ‘coming of age’ moment for commercial Indian aviation was a very cool idea - back in the day.

Praful Thakkar, a die hard philist and numismatic, first published his Collectors Guide to First Day Covers in 2010. Check out crisp collection below or on his website.