If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 671

 

 

Tourism advertisement postcard

 

Today’s unused postcard is one of two cards that were found and purchased at the Museum of Flight in Seattle a few years ago.  It is a Foundimage.com product and features a vintage advertisement for the travel industry.  The destination shown on the card is Equatorial Africa.  The airplane shown on the card is a Boeing 307 Stratoliner or Strato-Clipper, introduced in 1940 and used by Pan American Airways, and also used by the USAAF as a C-75.  TR-48 appears at the lower right corner on the reverse.  There is no blurb or other information on this divided back card.

 

This plane had the first pressurized cabin, a cruising speed of 200 mph at 20,000 ft.  By contrast, a competitor, the Douglas DC-3, went 160 mph at 8,000 ft.  For commercial service the four-engine prop plane had a crew of five or six people:  two pilots, a flight engineer, two flight attendants, and a navigator (optional).  The plane held 33 passengers, later increased to 38, and finally to 60. Only ten of these planes were built.

 

During the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s traveling by air was much different than today.  It was still somewhat of a novelty.  Passengers had more legroom, and aisles were wider too.  There were no First class and economy seats, all seats were in one cabin.  It was a glamorous experience for only for the relatively wealthy.  There were “postcards from the sky” to send to friends and family.  Multi-course meals were served with “white linen, silver cutlery and fine china dinnerware were the order of the day.” 

 

Exotic destinations like that of Equatorial Africa, which is roughly the equatorial region of the sub-Saharan Africa along the Equator, and the tropical African rain-forest area, were advertised to entice the world traveler.  The poster art on the card shows elephants and palm trees.  This type of travel would also have been something that would be beyond the plans and budgets of the average person.

 

The region called French Equatorial Africa consisted of the French colonial territories of Gabon, French Congo, Ubangi-Shari, and Chad from 1910 to 1958.  These territories became new republics in 1959 as the Union of Central African Republics and then later fully independent in 1960. 

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://www.galerie123.com/en/poster-history/travel-poster/

https://imagesofvenice.com/history-of-travel-posters/

https://simpleflying.com/the-golden-age-of-flying-guide/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_307_Stratoliner

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Equatorial_Africa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_Africa