The Argentinian capital acted as a hub from which multiple regional routes sprung, taking air mail across the Andes to Santiago de Chile, north to Paraguay and south towards Patagonia. Its planes flew the mail all the way to Buenos Aires and beyond. Given the limitations of aircraft at the time, mail was then loaded on board ships that bridged the South Atlantic at its narrowest point, between West Africa and northeastern Brazil.įrom there, the Latin American branch of Aéropostale took over. The line continued south along Morocco’s Atlantic coast, with several waypoints along the way: Casablanca, Agadir, Cape Juby/Tarfaya and the present-day cities of Dakhla, Nouadhibou and Saint-Louis, until it reached its African terminus at Dakar, in Senegal. From there it crossed the Pyrenees to Barcelona, followed Spain’s Mediterranean coast to Alicante and then over to North Africa, which at the time was under Spanish and French rule. The story of Aerópostale is perhaps the last big epic tale of the era of exploration.Īéropostale’s long route started in Toulouse, in the south of France. In the decade that followed, this enterprise would not only contribute enormously to the consolidation of air transportation as an essential service in different parts of the world, but also became synonymous with adventure and fearlessness. The firm that came to be known as Aéropostale was founded at the end of 1918 under the official name of “Société des lignes Latécoère.” Right at the end of World War I, French aviation pioneer Pierre-Georges Latécoère made a reality of his vision to establish a regular air link carrying mail between Europe and Latin America. They are all linked to the extraordinary legacy of an airline that ceased to exist 90 years ago this year.ĭespite its relatively short-lived existence, from 1918 to 1931, the “Compagnie générale aéropostale,” usually known simply as Aéropostale, left an indelible mark, both in the world of civilian aviation and in the public imagination.
JEAN MERMOZ DAKAR MOVIE
What do two major national airlines, an American fashion retail brand, a large publicly listed industrial corporation, a Hollywood movie and several prize-winning literary works all have in common?
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