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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1856.PDF
620 FLIGHT, 10 November A Graf Zeppelin cover from Bra2.il. its /^e-*~*~- ^ <L (tat 3\ A " crash " cover from Southern Rhodesia. Collecting relics of this kind is an interesting, if grim, sideline. Qantas tmpire airways and Imperial Airways flew the cover be- low in their first service between Australia and England, in 1934. The Editor, "Tlij^t", Dorset House, Stanford Street, LONDOM. S.E.I. OAMTA* EMPIHK AIKWAVB AMO IWUKL Ai«w»y» (Below) Cover carried by the DC.2 piloted by Parmentier and Moll in the London-Melbourne air race. 1934. ROYAL DUTCH AIR LINES « PCP LUCHTPOST PAR AVION if I \ • Fo Wie Representative of the "K.LM." Royal Dutch Air Lines 255, St. George Street SYDNEY AUSTRALIA PHILATELIST'S AIRMAIL . . . works, eventually enriched the clerk by some ^3,000, for he sold the sheet at a substantial profit. The era of pioneer transatlantic flights saw the appearance of a number of interesting stamps for use on the limited amount of mail carried on the flights. The first was the "Hawker" issue of Newfoundland, made in 1919 for the unsuccessful attempt by Harry Hawker and K. Mackenzie Grieve. The then current 3 cents stamp, showing the head of a caribou, was overprinted " First Trans-Atlantic Air Post, April, 1919," and sold at 1 dollar. Only 200 specimens were overprinted, and 95 were used on letters. The Sopwith biplane was abandoned in mid-Atlantic when the crew were rescued by a Danish tramp steamer, but later was sal- vaged by an American ship and towed into Falmouth. Although the mailbag had suffered from immersion the letters were dried and delivered. The " Hawker " is one of the world's rarest air- mail stamps, and unused examples are worth ^400 or more. Another early issue by Newfoundland was a i-dollar overprint for the flight by Alcock and Brown. Specimens are much easier to obtain than those of the Hawker issue, and fetch only a few pounds each, but envelopes carried by the Vickers-Vimy on this pioneer Atlantic crossing are not very plentiful. The flights by de Pinedo, Miss Columbia, the DoX and General Balbo were all made the occasions of special issues of stamps, the first two being rarities. Great Britain has never officially issued special stamps for air- mail, although the 6d stamps imprinted on air letter forms can, in a way, be considered airmail issues. The attitude of the postal authorities towards air stamps is that they are unnecessary, and that ordinary issues can be used equally well on all mail. Never- theless, unofficial air stamps have appeared from time to time, the first being the green label produced for the Sinclair Tobacco Co. and used on parcels carried by B. C. Hucks during a flying week at Gosforth in February, 1913. Twenty years later, in 1933, there was a crop of semi-official issues by the Great Western Railway, Provincial Airways, Inter- national Air Lines and others. The stamps were used on inland services, and are found on letters bearing ordinary British stamps which paid the postage from the airports to the addressees. Some covers carried on these services, especially first-flight covers, are quite rare, as only small numbers exist. Semi-official air stamps have appeared elsewhere at different times. There were several issues in France and Switzerland shortly before the outbreak of war in 1914, and Germany also brought out a number of these stamps before and after that war. Canada, too, issued numerous stamps of the same kind between 1918 and 1929; they were used on mail carried by private aviation companies which ran services over the huge stretches making up the Dominion. Apart from the actual airmail stamps the collection of covers can be interesting. Some of the early items are rare but can still be obtained at not too great an expense. A card carried on the first aeroplane mail flight, from Blackpool to Southport 1 IQIO, might cost about /15, but a letter carried from Allahabad This cover was carried on the first flight by Railway Air Services from Glasgow to London in 1934. LONDON-MELBOURNE AIR RACE 1934 BY F!«ST UNITES Alt MAIL BY £*HWAV Alt 5JKV1CJ5 UD. The Editcr, "Flight*, Dorost House, Stanford 3treat, London, S.E.I.
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