James R. Simon Collection of Worldwide Stamps and Covers

1925 (Jan) Pioneer flight from Tela to USA, with 6c franking and oval "Landing Field Tela Honduras" alongside, "Via Airplane" label, fine Roessler cover. Airmail service was of great significance to Honduras, its capital Tegucigalpa isolated from the outside world, with no rail transport and with roads so poor that mule trains took up to a week to carry mail to a port on the north coast for onward transmission to other countries. The small aircraft flown by Compania Aerea Hondurena (also advertised as Central American Airlines [CAA]) traveled the 200-kilometer distance in about an hour and a half. On Oct. 24, 1922, the postmaster general of Honduras contracted with an American physician named Thomas C. Pounds to establish airmail service between Tegucigalpa and the north coast. The pilot, Sumner B. "Sonny" Morgan (by this time, an aviator for a decade or more having worked for Glenn H. Curtiss' Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Co.) flew a small number of covers
Estimate: $150