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a couple of old papers sitting next to each other on top of a table
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Estimate €1,000 - €1,500
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MERMOZ Jean L.A.S. ‘Jean’, Buenos Aires, 24 April 1928, to his grandparents, the GILLETs; three and a half pages, in-4 format, on Compagnie Générale Aéropostale letterhead. Night flight from Buenos Aires to Rio. He does not write often, as he has ‘two jobs, at my request, incidentally […] As for us, winter has just set in. We’ve had a few cold days alternating with hot ones. The temperature changes are very sudden here, but you get used to them quickly. Winters aren’t harsh in Argentina. We never see any snow, just the occasional light frost. – Moreover, I now spend ten days in Buenos Aires and four days in Rio de Janeiro, where the heat is always almost unbearable. But the setting is so wonderful that even the climate cannot make you tire of it. Since 1 March, I have been regularly flying the Buenos Aires–Rio de Janeiro route and back, two or three times a month. I have another pilot with me, and the two of us run the service without fail. When I return to Buenos Aires, my work is not over. I have to take care of the organisation and administration in my capacity as airport manager. I currently have about twenty mechanics. And before long, when the auxiliary routes in Argentina open, I’ll certainly have plenty of responsibility. All in all, I’m getting on quite well. I get on well with everyone, both in Rio and here. All the directors of the Bouilloux-Lafont group hold me in high regard […] I’ve been fortunate enough to complete all my flights with great success, despite numerous breakdowns and persistent bad weather. I’ve managed to complete the Buenos Aires–Santos route four times in a single day, and recently I’ve just completed the 2,600-kilometre journey from Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires in a single day, flying for 13 hours and 10 minutes, beating Costes’ record of 14 hours and 15 minutes. Having set off from Rio at 3 am, I arrived in Buenos Aires at 6 pm, having dropped off and picked up mail at five different stopovers. – It caused quite a stir here and in Brazil. On my own initiative, I pioneered night-time flying, which saves us precious time. Unfortunately, the boats provided to us by the French government are worthless. They’re always breaking down and aren’t very fast. It takes two days by plane from here to Natal, eight to ten days by boat from Natal to Dakar and two days by plane from Dakar to Paris – a total of about 14 days, four of which are spent on the plane alone. We are currently studying a new project and developing a large seaplane to remedy this situation. Once we have managed to do away with the boat, we will be saved. But the effort required remains immense for the time being. The journey is gruelling. – Unpredictable winds, frequent storms and intense heat from Porto Alegre onwards. From the Gulf of St Catherine, an inevitable centre of atmospheric disturbances, it is nothing but virgin forest all the way to Natal. – In the event of a breakdown, we have only the stretches of beach on which to land. The Santos–Rio leg is the hardest. A jagged coastline, not a single beach, countless islets – sort of wooded rock formations. The virgin forest, an inextricable tangle of palm trees, vines and precious woods, almost reaches into the sea. In short, it’s two hours – magnificent yet nerve-wracking – to get through. It’s wonderfully beautiful, but a breakdown here would be a real nightmare. From Rio onwards, it’s still virgin forest, but there are beaches almost everywhere. The inhabitants, of mixed-race or Indigenous descent, are not particularly dangerous. They live in wretched huts, subsisting solely on fish and bananas all year round. Leprosy causes a great many of them to die or, at the very least, leaves many disabled. Rest assured, we do not go near them. In the event of a forced landing, we sleep in the aircraft and, as we always carry a supply of water and provisions, we have no contact with them. […] A flood of awards has come my way this year. Enough to fill a museum! Three medals: one in vermeil from the Aéro-Club de France for my services to civil aviation and the Toulouse–St Louis air raid; another in vermeil from the city of Toulouse; a diploma with a silver medal from the Society for the Encouragement of Progress for my career in commercial aviation, and a bronze triptych from the Directorate-General of Aeronautics to commemorate the first non-stop flight from France to Senegal, which we completed in October. […] ‘the collection will certainly not stop there’… Correspondence, no. 138. Enclosed is a telegram dated 1 January 1928, sending New Year’s greetings to his grandparents. Provenance: - Jean Mermoz (1901–1936); - Gabrielle Gillet-Mermoz (1880–1955); - Passed down through the family
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About the sale Historical Memories
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Auction time 11/03/2026 at 11:00 AM
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