First airmail flight

The first official airmail flight was made by Frenchman Henri Pequet on 18 February 1911, only seven years after the Wright brothers made the first ever powered flight. Pequet, flying a small biplane, took 6,500 letters and cards from an airfield in Allahabad, near Delhi, to Naini, 10 kilometres away, in a flight lasting about 15 minutes. On 12 February 2011, coinciding with the opening of the World Philatelic Exhibition in New Delhi, the Indian government marked the event’s centenary by re-enacting Pequet’s historic flight.