Pan American World Airways First Flight ROUND-THE-WORLD ALL-CARGO FLIGHT - UN NY

Description

The first round-the-world all-freight air service ever attempted was
scheduled to start on July 1, 1965, with an all-cargo flight from San Francisco westward to New York,
but was unable to carry its mail load beyond Tokyo because of Japanese objections. Hence, when the
first scheduled eastbound all-cargo flight was flown from New York on July 3, the plane bypassed
Tokyo and thus the covers on board this flight actually completed the first round-the-world all-freighter
air service. Shortly thereafter, the airline discontinued this service, reverting back to its prior pattern of
separate all-cargo flights from the U.S. eastbound to Europe and westbound to Hong Kong, with no
service to the countries in between.
This cover was
carried on the
inaugural Foreign Air Mail Route 18 flight from the United Nations Post Office in New York
around the world
to San Francisco, California
(where it was backstamped) and is listed in the Foreign Air Mail (FAM) Section of The American Air Mail Catalogue as F18-385U.