Chennai, February 18 Exactly 115 years ago, on a crisp February morning, 23-year-old Frenchman Henri Pequet made the first flight in a fragile Humber biplane. As he flew over the Yamuna River, the sound of his engine marked the beginning of a global revolution. This was the day when India became the "ground zero" for global airmail.
Today, February 18 is celebrated as World Airmail Day, marking that historic 13-minute flight from Allahabad to Naini. While we live in an era of instant digital communication, the world of aerophilately is looking back to India to honor this moment when communication truly took flight.
For Bengaluru-based Piyush Khaitan, a passionate collector and Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London, these 13 minutes represent a lifetime of research.
Khaitan, Founder & Managing Director of fintech firm NeoGrowth Credit Pvt. Ltd, has spent nearly 20 years studying this flight – particularly, the "holy grail" of Indian philately, the Black Cachet.
"To an untrained eye, the Black Cachet may appear to be just a different ink impression, but it is the rarest and most selectively used marking on the 1911 First Aerial Post," Khaitan told