Combination flight cover from Norddeutscher Lloyd's liner Bremen to Sao Leopoldo, Brazil. The cover is franked with a vertical pair of 8-cent winged globe U.S. airmail stamps and a 2-cent U.S. Arbor Day commemorative plus three Germany airmail stamps (10 Rpf, 15 Rpf, RM1) of the 1926 airmail issue. The sender underpaid the U.S. rate for catapult airmail by two cents. German RM 1.25 is the correct surcharge rate for Zeppelin airmail to Brazil.
This cover was posted on the NDL liner Bremen at New York on October 1, 1932 (U.S.-German Seapost cancel on U.S. stamps and Deutsch-Amerikanische Seepost hand cancel on German stamps). The catapult departed on October 5, 1932, from the Bremen while the ship was at sea. The catapult plane flew 980 km to Southampton (red pictorial flight cachet lower center face). Onward air transmission continued by DLH from Croydon Airport (London) to Köln, Germany, from where it was forwarded to Friedrichshafen.
In Friedrichshafen the cover received a postmark of October 10, 1932, and was then flown on the LZ127 Graf Zeppelin's eighth 1932 South America Flight (departed 2143 GMT on October 9, red flight cachet left face) to Recife, Brazil, where it arrived October 13, 1932 (0023 GMT). It was then forwarded via Condor to Porto Alegre (transit postmarked October 14, 1932, on reverse), then by surface to its destination (Sao Leopoldo arrival postmark October 15, 1932, lower left face).
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