1934 Lufthansa's first air mail service over South Atlantic

[Deleted]

The first scheduled airline over South Atlantic was opened up by the German Lufthansa in 1934 and operated regularly for five years until the outbreak of the Second World War,

Four different aircraft had to be used to cover the 16,000 km long route between Stuttgart and Buenos Aires: the Heinkel He-70 high-speed aircraft to Seville, Spain, a Junkers Ju-52 along the west coast of Africa, a Dornier flying boat Do-Wal across the South Atlantic and a Junkers seaplane from Natal to Argentina. Thanks to the airplane, the prior travel time could be reduced to one sixth.

It's astonishing that the route from Natal to Buenos Aires was operated with a seaplane, while the French Aéropostale then already used land-based planes.


The contemporary Junkers Ju-160 (instead of a unavailable Heinkel He-70) takes off at Stuttgart Böblingen for its flight to Seville-




At Seville the flight continues with a Junkers Ju-52




with a stopover at Gando, Canaries Islands




and reaches Bathurst (now Banjul) in former British Gambia.




while the Dornier Wal at the port is ready to carry on.




It takes off




and is heading to the SS 'Westfalen' cruising 900 miles in the middle of the South Atlantic and serving as weather reporting and refueling station.




Further on the way to Brazil the second used Dornier Wal arrives at the Archipelago of Fernando de Noronha.




There the SS 'Ostmark' moores as next refueling station.




Finally the seaplane reacheas the Brazilian coast at Natal:

here over Natal Airfield used by the French Aéropostale




and on final to the seaplane base.




The flight from Natal to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires is achieved with a Junkers Ju-52 floatplane of Brazilian Syndicato Condor operated by Deutsche Lufthansa. Some sources makes reference to a Junkers W34, which is unavailable anyway .




After taking off at Natal,




a next stop occurs at Salvador de Bahia.




The Junkers slighty approaches Rio while over the back country,




Guãnabara Bay,




and lands near today's Santos Dumont Airport and in front of Sugar Loaf Mountain (pourly modeled, BTW)




After further stopovers at Porto Alegre and Montevideo the Ju-52 is reaching Buenos Aires




and its final destination, while the environment isn't by far as spectacular as with RDP II scenery package ...



Bernard

[Tom/CalClassic]

Nice job.

Two possibilities I can think of:

1. Aéropostale owned the land airports and wouldn't let Lufthansa use them.

2. Lufthansa did not own a land plane with the required range, or did not want to use it on this route.

[nmlw]

Very interesting and nicely done Bernard.

[lastivka]

Some great planes and sceneries! Can you divulge where and what scenery packages you used to recreate this wonderful era?

[Deleted]

It's a mix of "Aéropostale Raid" done by Alexander Belov and personal creations.

Bernard

[Erik]

Another great narrative with movie-like screen shots.

Thanks,
Erik

[Ice]

May I have a link to the Aéropostale Raid scenery? Love the shots!