SA: 1926 MITTELHOLZER FLIGHT Switzerland - Cape: Registered cover franked 20c, 25c & 75c Swiss Airmail adhesives tied by Zurich cds 28 XI. Special "AFRIKAFLUG" flight cachet, Alexandria (Egypt) transit cds. ADDRESSED TO CAPE TOWN where boxed tri-lingual UNKNOWN handstamp applied. Covers addressed to South Africa are rare; these were carried as far as Alexandria and thence by train/ship. No return flight was made as the seaplane was sent back by ship. Most of the mail initially loaded was for intermediate stops and it was unloaded at Naples for onward carriage by ship. Couple minor blemishes, generally F-VF with excellent strikes of all postmarks. An attractive representation. Swiss aviator Walter Mittelholzer undertook the 19000km journey between Zurich & Cape Town, this being the first flight of a seaplane down Africa. Departure was 7th December with the flight via Naples where most of the 160kg mail, primarily for intermediate stops, was in fact unloaded and conveyed onwards by ship. Other than this most mail was for Alexandria & Cairo; the uncommon South African addressed mails were datestamped in Alexandria 13 DE 26 and carried onward by ship and train. The pilot continued the flight arriving in Cape Town February 21st 1927.
