First Flight Cover 1949.10.20 USA Iowa postmark

Key Details from the Cover:

• Event: First Flight of Segment No. 3, Air Mail Route A.M. 90.
• Date: October 20, 1949 (indicated by the Council Bluffs, Iowa postmark).
• Route: The map on the left shows the flight path connecting Minneapolis-St. Paul through various cities in Minnesota and Iowa, including Rochester, Des Moines, and ending in Omaha/Council Bluffs.
• Stamp: A 6-cent red airmail stamp, cancelled with a slogan postmark: "GIVE ENOUGH THROUGH YOUR COMMUNITY CHEST."

Collectors often sent these to themselves (as seen with the address to K.E. Nelson in Jamestown, N.Y.) to obtain the unique "cachet"—the printed illustration on the left—and the specific postal markings that prove the letter was aboard that inaugural flight.