Henri Pequet

{{Short description|French airmail pilot (1888–1974)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}

File:Stamp of India - 1961 - Colnect 238985 - 1 - Pecquet Flying Humber Sommer.jpeg

Henri Pequet (1 February 1888 – 13 March 1974) was a pilot in the first official airmail flight on February 18, 1911.{{cite book |title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Events & Dates|author=S. B. Bhattacherje|isbn= 9788120740747|page=A-175 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oGVSvXuCsyUC&q=allahabad&pg=SL1-PA63 |date=2009}}{{Cite web|url=http://postalmuseumblog.si.edu/2011/01/india-and-the-worlds-first-official-air-mail-by-airplane.html|title = Blog | National Postal Museum}}{{cite web |url=http://philatelynews.com/2011/india/100-years-of-the-world%E2%80%99s-first-official-airmail-flight/ |title=100 years of the world's first official airmail flight | Stamp News | Philately News | Postage Stamp | philately |access-date=2013-06-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150609145844/http://philatelynews.com/2011/india/100-years-of-the-world%E2%80%99s-first-official-airmail-flight/ |archive-date=2015-06-09 }} The 23-year-old Frenchman, in India for an airshow, delivered about 6,500 letters when he flew from an Allahabad polo field to Naini, about 10 kilometers away. He flew a Humber-Sommer biplane with about fifty horsepower (37 kW), and made the journey in thirteen minutes.History of Air Cargo and Airmail from the 18th Century by Camille Allaz, p. 26.

The letters were marked "First Aerial Post, U.P. Exhibition Allahabad 1911."{{Cite web|url=http://postalmuseumblog.si.edu/2011/01/india-and-the-worlds-first-official-air-mail-by-airplane.html|title = Blog | National Postal Museum}}{{cite book |title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Events & Dates|author=S. B. Bhattacherje|isbn= 9788120740747|page=A-175 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oGVSvXuCsyUC&q=allahabad+%3D+Google+Books&pg=SL1-PA63 |date=2009}}