One Page. The 1933 December Flight of the Pander Postjager

From Stamps of the World

The 1933 December Flight of the "PANDER Postjager"

Introduction

The Pander S4 PH-OST

Background Postjager Airplane. The S-4 was designed and built by Pander & Son as a fast mailplane for the service between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. It was a three-seat low-wing monoplane powered by three 420 hp (313 kW) Wright Whirlwind radial engines. It had a conventional retractable landing gear with a tailwheel. The S-4, registered PH-OST, first flew on 6 October 1933. The plane was destroyed (burst into flames) at the departure of the MacRobertson Air Race in Allahabad (India) on October 26, 1934.

Frontside of the Pander S-4 Postjager

By the end of 1933, the Dutch KLM meets the competition of the “Postjager” express mail airplane. The plane was constructed by aircraft builder Pander as commissioned by the shipping industry, where there was growing concern about KLM’s monopoly position. The Postjager takes off on December 9th 1933 on its way to the Netherlands Indies and is scheduled to deliver return post in Holland before December 31st.

The Christmas Special

Pander company issued a souvenir Postcard for a special December flight from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies.

The Pander Souvenir Postcard

If wanted the card could be sent back to Amsterdam after arrival at Bandoeng. In that case Dutch Indies postage stamps had to be added! Most cards however were sent to family in the far east country.

The flight

On route from Schiphol (Amsterdam) the plane landed in Rome (Italy) in good conditions at 11:55 a.m. After refuelling the plane took off and reported oil pressure trouble. Made a forced landing at Grottaglie/Taranto (Italy). The mail was removed from the plane and taken by British Imperial Airways to Cairo (Egypt) were it was forwarded on by KLM plane 'Pelikaan' (Pelican) to Bandoeng (Java, Indonesia). All the mail bears a small circular red stamp which reads "Amsterdam-Batavia/9 Dec 33 (in) PH-OST/ PostJager":

One Page. The 1933 December Flight of the Pander Postjager PHOSTa.jpg

Time Table of the Flight

The time table for this service was as follows:

  • Departure Amsterdam: December 9, 1933
  • Arrival Bandoeng: December 22, 1933
  • Departure Bandoeng: December 26, 1933.
  • Arrival Amsterdam: December 30, 1933.

Examples of used cards

Amsterdam - Bandoeng

One Page. The 1933 December Flight of the Pander Postjager Card1a.jpg
  • This is an example of a Pander card sent to a known (family) in Salatiga on Java.
  • The card was posted in The Hague on December 2, 1933. The mandatory stamp for "special flights" (Stampset Stampset.png) was correctly applied.
  • The red board stamp is present twice, on the stamp and in the left box.
  • The letter card was forwarded from Bandoeng to Salatiga where it was delivered on December 23 confirmed by the boxed postman stamp B2.

Amsterdam - Bandoeng - Amsterdam

One Page. The 1933 December Flight of the Pander Postjager Card2.jpg
  • Here is an example of a postcard that was returned to the Netherlands.
  • In this case a normal stamped letter card has been used (Stampset Stampset.png) and delivered at Amsterdam-Central Station on December 8 (cancel in upright corner).
  • The required triangular airmail stamp for "special flights" has also been added correctly. See Stampset Stampset.png.
  • The red collar board stamp can be seen on the right.
  • The card arrived in Bandoeng on December 22 (see cancel).
  • The addressee was 'Postmaster General / Bandoeng / N. India' and therefore the card was returned to the sender's address in the left box.
  • The mandatory triangular airmail stamp "Special flights Netherlands India" has been used for this. See Stampset Stampset.png.
  • Probably the sender was a philatelist, because a complete series of stamps from Crisuswerk AMVJ from 1933 has been included.
  • The return flight was by Pelican, departure date December 26: 2 stamps Pelikaan and 2 stamps Bandoeng. Finally, an arrival stamp of Amsterdam on December 30, 1933 is seen on the red postage stamp.

References

More information on the 1933 Christmas flight and the Pander Airplane is shown at:

https://thejavagoldblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/25/the-1933-christmas-mail-flight-to-java-and-back/

https://oldmachinepress.com/2016/11/05/pander-s-4-postjager-trimotor-mailplane/

Notes

1. Illustrations and informations have all been taken from various websites on the Internet.

2. Compiled by Toon Oomens, Terneuzen (The Netherlands)

3. Thank you for visiting!

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