Today in Postal History

On May 30, we told the story of the airline Lignes Aériennes Latécoère
that  blazed a trail from France to South America.
The daring pilot, Jean Mermoz, finally made an experimental
flight from St. Louis north of Dakar to Natal across the South Atlantic in 21 hours on May 12, 1930.
His plane, a Latécoère 28 float plane named Comte de la Vaulx, carried 285 pounds of mail.

This airmail first flight cover was carried on a
portion of the return flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Recife was the next to last stop before embarking to Africa from Natal.

Jean Mermoz was the pilot for this flight.
He bears a place in French aviation similar to that of Lindbergh in US aviation history.
He pioneered flights to and within South America by Aéropostale.
The president of Aéropostale was Antoine de St-Exupéry.
St-Exupéry was also a famous writer.
The cover bears a boxed handstamp CORREO AEREO| LINHA C.G.A.
Linhas C. G. A. was the Brazilian subsidiary of Aéropostale and operated the airlines in Brazil.

This cover bears two large Recife CDS and one Recife, Pernambuco, Airmail CDS.
The cover is franked with two 1927 SERVICO AEREO 1000 Rs
surcharges on 1913 20 r Official stamps (Scott C8),
There is also a 1929 500 r red violet portraying Santos Dumont's biplane
(Scott C20) and a 1929 500 r ultrmarine Mercury (Scott 308).

There is a hexagonal postmark on the reverse.
I'm not sure where this was applied.
It is possible that it was applied on June 1 in the town where the cover
really originated and the cover was then held in Recife until the day of the flight.

The destination of the cover was Aulnois en Perthois, Meuse.*
Aulnois en Perthois is a very small town near Bar-le-Duc in Meuse.
I was unable to find a map or much definitive about the town.

There is supposed to be a machine backstamp for the arrival in Paris.
The hexagonal cancel was applied in Aulnois en Perthois; however, the date is unclear.*
It is probably 1x June 30.

*Thanks to Jim Whitford-Stark for getting me to read the address.
That way I could have deciphered the hexagonal cancel myself.

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