Born out of war

SKETCHES

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

TOULOUSE - Seeing the conflagration in the Middle East spreading, we can keep our sanity intact by looking on the bright side. Global civil aviation was born in this French city. It is home to European aviation giant Airbus and the European aerospace industry, and not surprisingly is also a research and university center.

And the civil aviation industry was born out of the First World War. Toulouse, according to a licensed tour guide here, was a sleepy city before WWI. But it was home to the world's first dedicated institute of aerospace engineering, the Higher Institute of Aeronautics and Space (ISAE-SUPAERO), founded in 1909.

As the war became more likely, French industries began relocating to Toulouse to avoid destruction.

In preparation for war, the French government tasked a manufacturer of metal frames to build planes, tapping aerospace engineering talent from ISAE-SUPAERO.

When the war ended, the French had to find peaceful uses for the warplanes. They noted that French colonists in Africa had to wait two months for their mail. So they decided to use the warplanes for postal service. Thus was born the aviation company Aeropostale, whose first postal delivery from Toulouse was made to Barcelona in Spain on Christmas Day 1918.

From two months, mail delivery was cut to two days, with the planes flying from Toulouse to the Mediterranean coast to Barcelona, Gibraltar and on to South America.

Before becoming Aeropostale, the company was called Latecoere. Among those hired to fly this company's planes was a 26-year-old who served as a military pilot when he was just 21, Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Yes, that's everyone's favorite writer and illustrator of "The Little Prince," who flew postal planes from Toulouse to Senegal.