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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0673.PDF
JUNE 24, 1920 Flying at a speed of 166-5 miles per hour : The latest British Nieuport racing machine, eclipsing the British speed record by 5 m.p.h. at Martlesham last week London about twelve months ago by a firm of stamp dealers,and consisted of four denominations of con'temporary New- foundland postage stamps, overprinted ' 1st Atlantic Air-Post—Martinsyde, Raynham, Morgan.' At the same time, a statement was published in the firm's house organ to the effectthat ' these were all used on the mail which was entrusted to the aviators of the Martinsyde machine, Messrs. Raynhamand Morgan.' A registered envelope franked with these stamps and bearing the St. Johns postmark of May 17 wasalso exhibited on their premises. I am given to understand that the firm in question obtained the whole supply. Inview of these facts, which I can substantiate, it is evident that examples of this unauthorised issuernust have passedthrough the hands of the Newfoundland postal officials. " Having regard to Mr. Robinson's remarks, it is apparentthat a fraud has been perpetrated upon the stamp-collecting public in the issue of these stamps, and it would appear tobe incumbent upon the Newfoundland Post Office to discover the source of its origin and bring the offenders to book" Apropos aerial-post stamps, the new postage stamps olthe Spanish air-mail will form a striking series to be added to the already quite considerable issues of this particularform of stickies. The designs are to symbolise the rise and progress of aerial navigation. They will shortly replace thepresent provisional issue overprinted " Correo Aereo," of . which only 20,000 sets have been prepared. Three particularpostage stamps are to be issued by the Spanish Post Office on the occasion of the seventh convention of the UniversalPostal Union in Madrid in October. 1 MOST people must have probably decided that the great16-foot high Daily Mail poster on the Embankment south of the Thames at Blackfriars is some poster. A passengerin one of the Bat limousines used on the Instone Air Line has, anyway, sat up and taken notice of it, as the other dayhe wrote our contemporary saying, " from a height of 4,000 feet a Daily Mail poster was very clearly legible. We 'were somewhere over Putney at the time, and 1 should say that the poster was some five miles to the east and just south of the river. It would be interesting to know the exactsituation of this very prominent landmark." What a prospect this opens up for advertisers of the futurewith visions ! , PUBLIC economy just now is quite a prominent feature ofthe landscape. That aircraft can in certain directions assist towards that very desirable end is a fact, contrary to theopinion of so many that aviation is but another name for useless expenditure. And this was emphasised last weekat a meeting of the newly-formed " I-eague to Enforce Public Economy " at Essex Hall, when Earl Beauchamp, speakingon the subject, said, in regard to the Army expenditure, he thought the use of tanks and aeroplanes for the purposeof" policing and keeping in order troublesome tribes, might be cheaper than employing large bodies of troops to that end. D. G. D. writes as follows :— " Your correspondent whose letter anent the Aero Showposters is reproduced in ' Airisms ' this week, misses an important point with regard to the lady ' scratching her headwith a banana.' This dashing pilot is about to commence, or has just concluded, a flight in a service machine, judgingfrom the familiar target on the fuselage. " May I suggest that the poster would be more effectiveif the target were replaced by the marking GE—WIZ, which sums up your correspondent's opinion (and mine) of theposter in one word ? " CONSIDERABLE feel ing appears to have been raised in India inregard to the flying of aircraft over the Towers of Silence, containing the dead bodies of members of the Parsee com-munity. Sir Jamshedji Jeejibhoy, leader of the Parsee community, who has taken the matter up, in a letter to theGovernor of Bombay, points out that " the religious customs of our community require that bodies of the dead should notbe seen by non-Parsees. To observe that custom our Towers of Silence, wjiere, according to our customs, bodies are exposedto the sun and to flesh-devouring birds, are surrounded by high walls. Now the introduction of aeroplanes and suchother flying machines causes an anxiety among our people that curiosity may lead some persons flying in such machinesto hover over our towers, and even to photograph the interior of our towers. If such a thing will happen, that will woundthe religious feeling of our community." The remedy for this possible sacrilege suggested by thewriter is that the Towers should be declared a prohibited area. The Governor, in sympathy with the request, has repliedthat he communicated with the headquarters of the Royal Air Force at Simla, and following that Air-Commodore WebbBowen pointed out that low flying over any city in India was a civil offence. An order would, however, be issued regardinglow flying over places of worship of all creeds. Further, the Commissioner of Police would, he said, issue a direct warningto pilots flying in Bombay to avoid flying low over the Towers of Silence. A British machine on a Polish Air Mail Service : Ourphotograph shows a Bristol Fighter, Rolls-Royce "Falcon " engine, being loaded with mail at Warsawpreparatory to its flight to Kieff. The pilot is Capt. S. G. McNaught Davis, R.A.F., and the passenger isBrig .-General A. Carton de Wiart, V.C., C.M.G., D.S.O. 673 \ Mm $;
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