Complete Map of the Airlines of K.N.I.L.M

Featuring a Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra, or “Lockheed 14”, the flagship of the KNILM passenger fleet, soaring over the East India archipelago and parts of Southeast Asia, formerly the Dutch East Indies, and now modern Indonesia. The route map covers actual and proposed flight-routess from as far as Bangkok to Darwin, from Sumatra to New Guinea.

The Koninklijke Nederlandsch-Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappij, or KNILM, was founded in 1928 by Netherlandish-Indian investors. Originally service was limited to Indonesia, but later expanded to Southeast Asia, Asia, and Australia. During World War II, KNILM's planes were used to evacuate and transport troops in Indonesia. The last KNILM flight took off on March 7, 1942, one day before Java capitulated to the Japanese. A few KNILM planes managed to escape to Australia, but most were destroyed by the Japanese. After the war, the remaining aircraft were auctioned to the American government and KNILM formally disbanded. Groundside assets were sold to KLM and created the core of KLM Interinsulair Bedrijf (interinsular service), today's Garuda Indonesia Air.

Jan Wijga (1902-1978), known as “Wyga”, was a Dutch Art Deco painter, designer, and illustrator active in Holland in the mid-twentieth century. Wijga worked extensively for KNILM (Royal Dutch Indies Airways) and various beer companies, producing posters and other promotional material. Other cartographic images by Wijga include a smaller but similar map focusing on Bali/Lombok, and an ethnographic game-map of the world.

Rare: two institutional examples are known, at Leiden and Florida.