100 years of Swiss Airmail

A prepaid postcard carried by re enactment flight marking the 100 years of Swiss Airmail. 

On 8 January 1919, a Häfeli DH-3 biplane transported courier consignments by air for the first time. The 63-minute flight took off from Dübendorf and landed in Beundenfeld, Berne. The route was extended to Lausanne in early February, and in mid-April, the stopover was moved to Oberlindach, the location of Berne’s airfield until 1922. In the September of the same year, the route was extended as far as Geneva. 

The aircraft was a Swiss design: the two-seater DH-3 was originally constructed as a reconnaissance biplane by the Swiss Federal Armament Works Thun.

The special stamp of the Swiss Pro Aero Foundation features an eye-catching red tail fin with the white cross – the identifying mark of Swiss commercial aircraft. The second main object on the stamp takes us back 100 years with an image of the DH-3, which previously appeared on an airmail stamp marking its 25th anniversary in 1944. In the background, the first airmail routes and a modern SWISS Bombardier CS100 can also be seen.

A stamp issued in 1944 also features the first Swiss biplane of 1919. 

The postcard has been uprated with stamps marking 100 years of Swiss land transport 

Thanks Tom for this wonderful postcard ! Another one to my collection of centenary airmail postal stationary :)