First Flight 1959 - Djakarta To Honolulu Or San Francisco

I am confused a bit with this piece. It is addressed to California and has a postmark of the FF from Djakarta to San Francisco.

But, there is also a handstamp of the first flight to Honolulu... and, what I don't understand at all, a Honolulu's receiving postmark on the reverse.

And it took a month to get there?? 'Wrong way Corrigan' most have been the pilot.

I suspect that the date of cancel in Jakarta is 5 June (I believe it's only the US that uses the format of month, day, year - everywhere else it's day, month, year).

Awww, you're no fun Jenny2U...... Of course if I had taken a moment I might have caught onto that lol.

Filipo, It is a first flight cover of the route between Djakarta and San Francisco. The plane made a stop halfway (?) at Honolulu which was probably also a first ( at least for Pan Am Airlines ? ).

Peter

Hello Peter. Yes, you have a right. You know that for us Europeans, entire USA are on the West. And Hawaiian island are EVEN MORE western. So, I didn't think about that the airoplane came from the OTHER SIDE, and, in that case, Honolulu was just a station.

2 first flights on one single cover... I like it even more now :)

Thank you for the discovery! :)

Stampcrow and Jenny2U - thank you for a funny dialogue... you make me laugh :)

No, it is not two first flights on one cover - it is one flight on one cover. This is catalog number FAM 14-132f which marked the extension of Pan American's trans-Pacific route to Indonesia in early June of 1959. To have the complete set of this particular first flight you would need a total of 15 covers- one for each leg of it. This cpver is one of those 15 legs. Indonesia only made one special cancelation to indicate the end points of the Foreign Air Mail route and they did not make individual cancelations for all of the intermediate legs. This cover was flown from Djakarta, Indonesia to Honolulu, Hawaii. It would have gone by boat and then by truck the rest of the way to Redlands, California. You can assemble a full set of the 15 legs for a very reasonable amount of an investment as all of the legs typically sell in the $1 to $3 range depending on the dealer.

Hi Kimo. Thank you very much for the complete observation about the subject!