LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin Air Mail Envelope 1932

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin Air Mail Envelope 1932 - Bluish air mail stock envelope, stamped with a plane insignia and inscribed "MIT LUFTPOST BEFORDERT, LUFTPOSTAMT, BERLIN C2", "SE" printed in the upper left corner, printed with a "VIA AREA PAR AVION" mark and "PO-AEROPOSTALE" along the bottom, postmarked April 13, 1932 at both Berlin and Freidrcihshafen, Germany and postmarked April 18, 1932 at Sao Paulo, Brazil, three Brazilian stamps, identified "pelo Graf Zeppelin" and addressed to "Herren Reimer & Loesll, Hamburg, Lange Muehlen 3, Suedseehaus, Allemanha", 89 mm x 154 mm, better than very fine. Footnote: LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin was a German-built and -operated, passenger-carrying, hydrogen-filled, rigis airship which operated commercially from 1928 to 1937. It was named after the German pioneer of airships, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who was a "Graf" or Count in the German nobility. During its operating life, the airship made 590 flights covering more than a million miles (1.6 million km). It was designed to be operated by a crew of 36 officers and men. It was in the last five years of service, 1932 -1937, that Graf Zeppelin proved that an intercontinental commercial airship service was possible. For those five years it operated regular scheduled services during the summer season between Germany and South America. The Zeppelin Company built a large hangar in Rio de Janeiro, then Brazil's capital city, the construction of which was subsidized by the Brazilian government. Designed and assembled with parts brought from Germany, the hangar was used only nine times: four by the Graf and five by the LZ-129 Hindenburg. The Graf Zeppelin was too small and slow for the North Atlantic service, yet because of the blau gas fuel, was just capable of carrying out the South Atlantic route. The onset of regular airline service also led to a drastic reduction in the number of flights being made by the airship which, having logged almost 200 flights in 1930-31, made less than 60 in 1932.