Monday, November 29, 2010

first airmail service between New Zealand and Australia


The handwritten message says "The take off from Murawai Beach N.Z. First trans-Tasman official airmail 17/2/34".

Murawai is presumably a mis-spelling of Muriwai, due west of Auckland, and the aircraft is an Avro X; more information from airwaysmuseum.com :-

Following the loss of their Avro X VH-UMF Southern Cloud, Australian National Airways Ltd. (ANA) abandoned their interstate services and went into liquidation. C.T.P. Ulm, one of the principals of ANA, purchased Avro X VH-UMI Southern Moon from the liquidators and had it rebuilt in highly modified form for use on route-proving and record-breaking flights. His hope was to stimulate Government interest in subsidising long-range air services. The aircraft was re-registered on 16 June 1933 as VH-UXX Faith in Australia (c/n 231)... The colour scheme was silver overall with an orange upper wing and fuselage spine.

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