ZURICH-CAPETOWN 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST FLIGHT 1977 WITH 4 IN SOUTH AFRICA

ZURICH-CAPETOWN 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST FLIGHT  BY WALTER MITTELHOLZER 1977.DATED 13/2/77..BACK STAMPED 21/2/77 CAPETOWN     HISTORY - Walter Mittelholzer (April 2, 1894 in St. Gallen – May 9, 1937 in Styria) was a Swiss aviation pioneer. He was active as a pilot, photographer, travel writer, and also as one of the first aviation entrepreneurs. He made the first North-South flight across Africa. It took him 77 days. Mittelholzer started in Zürich on December 7, 1926, flying via Alexandria and landing in Cape Town on February 21, 1927. Earlier, he had been the first to do serious aerial reconnaissance of Spitsbergen, in a Junkers monoplane, in 1923. [1] On December 15, 1929 he became the first person to fly over Mt. Kilimanjaro, and planned to fly over Mount Everest in 1930. [2] [3] In 1931, Mittelholzer was appointed technical director of the new airline called Swissair, formed from the merger of Ad Astra Aero and Balair. [4] Throughout his life he published many books of aerial photographs. He died in 1937 in a climbing accident on an expedition in the Hochschwab massive in Styria, Austria. [5] Among other Swiss air pioneers, he is commemorated in a Swiss postage stamp issued in January 1977.     CONDITION-GOOD