Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
And here’s an FDC franked with a U.S. stamp commemorating the designer of the Piper Cub, William Piper:
Ever since my first flight, I’ve rarely turned down a chance to fly, even after a plane I was flying in crashed in 1962 in New Mexico’s Black Range mountains. It’s not surprising that I turned to topical stamps and covers when I resumed stamp collecting in the early 1980s. I especially learned to appreciate airmail stamps and covers, which so often feature aviation-related stamps, etiquettes, postmarks and cachets.
The cover below is the oldest one in my collection. It was postmarked on June 1, 1918, just 16 days after the inauguration of official airmail flights in the United States. I have no idea if the rate paid is correct for international airmail to Canada — postage rates aren't my forte.
These first American airmail flights flew between Washington and New York City, with a stop in Philadelphia. My cover was backstamped in Philadelphia and at its destination, Riverside, New Brunswick. I don't know why it wasn't backstamped in New York City.
Bob
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I'm on a board for car guys, mostly in our age group and crass old dudes. They'll tell you that they stopped making cars in 1973 and anyone who drives an automatic is a pansy.
So the discussion was on self driving cars. Most of these guys agreed that we'd never see these cars replace regular cars in our lifetime. They seem to ignore that these cars already exist.
That got me thinking about aviation...
Wright Brothers first flight was December 17, 1903 and things moved rapidly. The first official American airmail delivery was made on September 23, 1911, by pilot Earle Ovington under the authority of the United States Post Office Department, seven years later.
On January 1, 1914, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line became the world's first scheduled passenger airline service, operating between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida.
All of this was accomplished in TEN years. Without super computers or modern materials, just man and mechanical equipment, back when Model Ts were still the "bee's knees"!
So I just laugh at my car friends. Before they know it they'll be back seat passengers in a self driving car!
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...how long until we have pilot-less air transport?
After all, we already have 'drones'!
just food for thought/discussion.....!
Maybe they could deliver the mail that way!
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Drones delivering mail ?
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Sure!
Why not?
Look at all the things we made fun of in years gone by,
only to see them actually happen in later years.
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Yes, why not. I have heard it said that 'if it can be perceived in the mind, it can be possible in actuality'.
Chimo
Bujutsu
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02:01:45pm
You guys are missing the irony implied in sleepy's post!
Roy
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03:55:06pm
Yes, the "double entendre."
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01:11:48am
Or a subbookkeepper.
A favorite word I just wanted to see in print.
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No,I don't keep bees. I slap 'em if they sting and eat the honey.
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And now, could we get back to the original reason for this thread? I'd really like to see other airmail covers and learn their stories.
Bob
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Sorry Bob.
To repent, here you go:
This is a very recent acquisition to my Clipper mail collection. It's a first-flight philatelic cover for FAM-22, but the interesting aspect (to me) is the dates. This cover made the entire trip - Miami; San Juan, PR; Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago; Belem, Brazil; Natal, Brazil; Bathurst, Gambia; Lagos, Nigeria; and Leopoldville, Congo. All that way in just 6+ days! By the way, that trip was 197 flying hours for the round trip, just 3 hours short of the mandatory 200-hour service interval on the airplane.
The inaugural flight of FAM-22 was by a Boeing 314-A, Capetown Clipper, NC18612 piloted by William Masland. NC18612 was the twelfth and last Boeing Clipper built. Of course, it is notable that the interval between posting and receipt included the Pearl Harbor attack. The first flight crossed the Atlantic on December 9. I must presume that the penciled note on the backside is by the recipient (who was probably also the sender): "red 2-10-42" indicates when this cover was received, back in Windham, CT. Interesting that much of the mail returning with this item was censored in Havana, on or around February 13, 1942. Unsealed philatelic covers were allowed to bypass the censoring process, but this cover was obviously sealed - a bit of ink from the backstamp is on the flap. This item would have been delivered to New York on the return trip of the Capetown Clipper, on January 17, 1942
Very soon after this inaugural flight, this run stopped going to Leopoldville, but instead terminated at Calcutta, the easternmost port considered safe from Japanese attack, eventually becoming known as the "Cannonball Run" for its importance to the war effort.
This one FAM, alone, could be the subject of an extensive postal history exhibit.
Ken Lawrence did a very informative two-part series in the American Philatelist on this FAM:
Part I: https://stamps.org/userfiles/file/AP/feature/Feature_01_15.pdf
Part II: http://digital.ipcprintservices.com/publication/?i=241954&article_id=1905659
plus: http://digital.ipcprintservices.com/publication/?i=191786&article_id=1607496
And, here is an interesting and informative site on the Boeing 314 Clippers:
http://rbogash.com/B314.html
-Paul
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And another:
Also a recent acquisition, today in fact. Paid 5 quid for it.
This isn't really a collecting area for me, but it was an item I grabbed to spread out shipping costs. Couldn't resist at that price!
Illustrates that crayon cross that was applied to Registered letters in the British Commonwealth.
-Paul
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And finally, one more:
Yet another philatelic cover, commemorating the first regular airmail service between England and Australia, by QEA, the alliance between QANTAS (Queensland And Northern Territory Air Services, Ltd.) and Empire Airways, 1934.
First departure from London was December 10, and the backstamp indicates that the passage to Brisbane consumed 11 days.
One has to admire the logistical planning prowess of these organizers, no less daunting perhaps than the 1969 moonshot.
This collecting area of postal history is not as well represented as the Pan Am Clippers, but at least as interesting...
-Paul
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Pig, seldom see multiple AMSDs on a single cover, and I've never seen both CE1 and 2 together.
Nice, too, that that it made it at that late juncture.
Nice cover, for sure
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Well, I'm not that excited about the FAM-22 cover. Here's an excerpt from Ken Lawrence's article linked in the original posting:
"The Clipper’s pilot, Captain William M. Masland, was
not happy that his load included souvenirs for collectors —
thousands of covers that collectors had sent to Pan Am for
servicing at each stop along the way. He wrote in his memoir:
We put out of New York with a few passengers and a
cargo of, guess what? First-flight letters, empty envelopes
(so the New York office said) covered with stamps to be
canceled at every stop for the benefit of stamp collectors. I
knew what they desperately needed in Africa. At Bathurst
Lady Hartshorn had told me: pins, needles, matches, and
soap, not first-flight covers. If you have a philatelist for
a president, you must take the good with the bad. But it
made me sick."
For one thing, my cover is missing a whole bunch of receiver cancels that would make it much more interesting. For another, it's not a cover that contained crucial communication. But, again, the postal history of just this one FAM route is incredibly rich and extremely complex, as anyone can appreciate from reading the articles that I linked to...
Pan Am's interdependence with the US government, including the POD and the Department of the Navy could easily fill a book with intrigue. The US government essentially sustained Pan Am, through probably illegal contracts to carry the mails. Pan Am received about 8X the revenue from carrying mail as from carrying passengers, pound for pound, earning about 40 dollars a pound for carrying mail from the US to China. The total revenues reach into the tens of $millions over the life of the clippers...But, again the logistical achievement in making these voyages, regardless of how they were financed, is truly awesome.
Thanks,
Paul
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I agree about the first flight covers. I've been trying to collect the early US airmail stamps on cover. I've been avoiding philatelic covers, hoping to populate my album with honest mail! Not being all that successful!
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Thanks to Pigdoc for returning this thread to its topic. I am really impressed by that PanAm cover, and fascinated by the pilot's comment about the first flight covers.
I can't but agree with Tom's post about the desirability of postally used covers as opposed to philatelic ones. That why this cover appeals to me so much:
I bought the cover on eBay; the seller told me that the recipient in La Jolla was his mother. While I wouldn't mind having a philatelic FDC representing the same flight, I would give this one a place of honour in my collection.
Bob
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Oh, that's a BEAUT, Bob!
I love the winged stamp on it! And, its connection to the railroads makes it a TWOFER.
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Bob's post somehow reminded me of this cover, although 8 years later, it's a west to east night flight...
San Francisco, California December 31, 1932 at 6:30pm. Not only airmail but special delivery. Loaded into a plane headed east...
to arrive in Chicago on January 1, 1933 some 15 hours later at 9pm. Does anyone know how long that flight would be in 1932? Yes, this one was in the air during the ringing in of the new year! One of my favorite covers due to that!
And from Chicago it had to go to Philadelphia and arrived in Ardmore, a suburb of Philly on January 2 at 11:30 am. I believe that's 41 hours. Less than 2 days and it landed here...
And as Bob had mentioned, I like it because it was regular personal mail. I wonder what news it brought?
And the best part? I discovered this while treasure hunting through a big box of nothing covers I had purchased. The people before me just saw this as a damaged old airmail cover... nobody had noticed the significance of it being a New Years cover!
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Nice picking, Tom!
The Special Delivery is ah, rather *tenuously* tied, don't you agree?
Or, perhaps the postal clerk was just extra careful to not have the cancel obscure the address?
Was "Airmail Field" in Chicago what is now Midway airport?
On the transit time on the first leg, I make it at 21.5 hours. In 1932-33, there would have HAD to be a refueling stop or three between SF and Chi-town. And, I often have wondered about the typical time interval between the actual plane landing and the receiver cancel application. I wouldn't be surprised if it ranged between a half-hour to several hours, depending...And, the receiving PO may have been a bit short-handed on January 1!
Transit time Chicago-Ardmore was 14.5 hours. That leg would also have required a fuel stop or two, I suppose. And, not sure if Bustleton Field was still the Philadelphia terminus in 1933 (as it was in 1918). And, then, Ardmore is about 20 miles southeast of Bustleton...
-Paul
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"The Special Delivery is ah, rather *tenuously* tied, don't you agree?
Or, perhaps the postal clerk was just extra careful to not have the cancel obscure the address?"
Hi Paul-
I decided to check it out, so I reached for my "Airmail One" album and couldn't find the cover! I had a few moments of panic until I realized it's in my "Special Delivery" album! Yea!
Yes, I would have reservations about the Special Delivery stamp, but since the cancel is clearly San Francisco I think it's legit. Looking at it directly, the lowest part of the cancel is indeed tied to the cover. So yes the clerk went to great pains to not obscure the address. The stamp is cocked off the edge of the cover and the back of that still has gum on it.
I looked at a bunch of other 1931-3 airmail covers and none of them were cancelled beyond the original cancel. The multiple trip cancels are because it was Special Delivery, and really make the cover!
And as an aside, the cover is smaller than I remembered. It has a purple tissue liner, so it probably held a card. Let's hope it was a birthday card and not a death notice!
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HAPPY NEW YEAR!(by Special Delivery)...is the obvious choice!
:-)
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"HAPPY NEW YEAR!(by Special Delivery)...is the obvious choice!"
But it was delivered on January 2nd, a day late!
The other day I was trolling through some old cards and found a valentine from a man to a woman postmarked on February 15th... kinda blew that one!
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B-b-but January 1, 1933 was a SUNDAY!
:-)
-Paul
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"Dollar short, and a day late."
Now, THAT would make a really FUN exhibit subject!
See you tomorrow, I hope, Tom.
-Paul
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Really glad you started this thread, Bob, I'm lovin' it!
Here's one I picked up last week, for $20:
It's kinda a book-end to the "rolled cover" concept discussed in another thread.
Postmarked December 5, 1941 in Long Island, NY, censored, and then returned to sender due to Suspended Service (Clipper to Germany), received back in NY on July 26, 1942. I'm presuming that the reason service was suspended was that the US had declared war on Germany before the letter was delivered.
Probably not a philatelic cover. Sender and addressee seem to be relatives. No postal markings on the back.
Can anyone translate "Unterregenbach"?
Presumably, the addressee is in Wurttemburg?
This is the kind of juxtaposition with historical events that I crave in an item!
Isn't postal history intriguing?
Enjoy!
-Paul
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Unterregenbach is the town the letter was destined for. It's a part of Langenburg, which is in the state of Wurttemburg.
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Another cover made undeliverable by the Second World War:
It was posted in Liebertwolkwitz, Germany, a suburb of Leipzig, to a hotel in Kyoto, Japan on December 6, 1941, the day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Some members have seen this cover before. I've been a member of Stamporama forever, and have posted images of it in the past. I bought it in an auction here in Vancouver. It's one of those covers that I just had to have; I think that I spent $125 for it.
The front:
The back:
The back, inverted (so you don't have to stand on your head):
As you can see, it made it as far as New York City on March 23, 1942 where it was interned, but not just for the duration of the war. It was backstamped by the foreign registration office in San Francisco in April, 1948, and finally reached Japan, although there is no postmark indicating the date of receipt. (I'm sure that somewhere around here I've got a translation of the Japanese script, but I can't locate it.)
Bob
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Ya, and double-censored covers are very neat!
When I see them, I give them a careful look.
Clearly, the cover from Germany to Japan was first censored in Germany. One could wonder why one Axis power would censor mail to another Axis power, until you attempt to understand German-Japanese relations in the 1930s and 1940s. Very complicated and hot-and-cold.
And, then, one could wonder why a letter from Germany to Japan would be routed through the USA. A two-ocean route seems a bit tortuous, but I have not studied the alternatives.
Strange that it took almost 4 months to get from Germany to NYC. The US declared war on Germany on December 11, 1941. I wonder if this cover went via Clipper before that date, and then sat in limbo in NYC until it was cancelled in March.
So much mystery!
Thanks for sharing, Bob!
-Paul
-Paul
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I will share a cover from my collection, a "rerun" on Stamporama like Bob's cover, but perhaps some newer members have not seen it. The photo shown below the cover is the man who flew it and behind him is the plane he flew. It is a philatelic cover in nature, but I like it for the history involved of a famous American, Charles Lindbergh.
Linus
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I have been acquiring a fair bit of material documenting South American airmail. The earlier the better! Here's one:
Posted from Sao Paolo, Brazil on May 19, 1932. This was the day before the scheduled arrival of the northbound flight at Santos, the nearest stop of the Pan American Airways/PANAIR do Brasil regular service, on its way to an overnight stopover in Rio, that evening. The aircraft carrying this item was either a Sikorsky S-38 or a Consolidated Commodore flying boat, of which 4 of each were in service with PANAIR at that time.
There is a nice reference for early Pan Am timetables, here:
PanAm Timetables
PANAIR regular service began on March 2, 1931.
California Fruit Wrapping Mills produced paper wraps for fruit, beginning in 1926; established by the Swedish Fernstrom family, an example of foreign investment in the US. Bocciarelli & Betti was an engineering firm. Makes me wonder if the letter was correspondence exploring the feasibility of acquiring equipment to manufacture fruit packaging materials, or inviting the Fernstroms to invest in Brazil.
This rather modest cover checks a few boxes for me:
- It's not a philatelic cover
- It documents early international airmail service
- It reflects commerce
- It has two neat PAA/PANAIR handstamps.
- It has that neat Santos-Dumont commemorative stamp (C20).
Kinda wish it had an arrival backstamp, but from PanAm's timetables again, it would have arrived in Miami on Thursday evening, May 26.
-Paul
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Nice cancels and markings on that Brazil cover, Paul. Also, thanks for the link to the Pan Am timetables.
From my collection, scanned below, is an Indian airmail cover that I haven't had much luck figuring out how it went by air from India to Paris, France in 1930. There are no postal markings on the back, just a French customs form, as this item went stamp dealer to stamp dealer. Maybe somebody knows?
UPDATE...I received an answer to my question on another forum. Check out this link:
http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/iaw3105.htm
I love the Imperial Airways slogan: "Save Wear and Tear - Go there by Air"
Linus
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This is a facsimile of the cinderella stamp used in 1919 depicting the Vickers Vimy bomber G-EAOU (God Elp All Of Us) piloted from England to Australia by Captain Ross Smith. Letters were delivered with this stamp affixed, so it really was the first England to Australia delivery, albeit not an official postal run, but still.
I have a copy of a book describing this adventure, The Ross Smith England-Australia Flight -- A Postal History, by Col. Leonard H. Smith Jr. (1968) that depicts some murky photos of covers with the above "stamp" affixed. It was a harrowing journey to say the least. Not a lot of airports in 1919 to allow for cavorting around the world in an old World War 1 bomber. A lot of time digging out of mud, etc.
Eric
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We cannot let the Alcock & Brown flight of the Vickers Vimy go without mention! This was the first transatlantic airmail flight, June, 1919. It is commemorated by Newfoundland C2:
This one is not in my collection...yet. Prices for these stamps vary widely, from the sublime to the absurd. Would really like to own one on cover. Still waiting and watching...
Anyway, there is a very good, very immersive program on a replica of the Alcock & Brown Vimy in a British series, now on youtube:
Britain's Greatest Machines S01E02
Starts 39 minutes in.
And, there are many other videos on youtube of this remarkable machine.
-Paul
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In 1928 airmail rate was reduced from 10¢ to 5¢ regardless of distance, as Bob pointed out.
This cover sent from Atlanta, GA. Dec.1 1928 at 4am arrived in New York Dec 2 1928 at 10am.
Does 18 hours sound right?
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04:48:53pm
"Does 18 hours sound right?"
30 hours.
Distance : about 800 miles
Average speed : probably about 75mph not counting headwinds
Best anticipated flight time: 11 hours
Average endurance: about 2 hours
plus handling at each end + refueling or hand-over stops (probably 4 or 5)
Sounds about right.
Roy
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Hadn't really thought about it that way roy. I guess 18 hours in 1928 was pretty good.
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"Hadn't really thought about it that way roy. I guess 18 hours in 1928 was pretty good."
2019- 2 seconds via email!
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Veering this thread back on-topic, today I'll highlight the L.A.T.I. - Linea Aeree Transcontinentali Italiane. LATI was founded on September 11, 1939, in the immediate aftermath of Hitler's Blitzkreig into Poland, and after failed negotiations for technical support with France and Germany. The inaugural flight was made on December 21. The Savoia-Marchetti SM-83 flown on the return flight crashed near Marrakesh. Weekly service was provided until June, 1940, when after declaration of war by Italy on France and Britain, service had to be reduced to monthly crossings. Finally, service was permanently terminated on December 19, 1941 following the entry of the US into the war.
Equipment used were exclusively, Savoia-Marchetti land-based planes.
Here are a couple of covers:
I don't have this one in-hand yet, so I don't know if it has a backstamp or not. So, I can't establish the date. I did some research on the sender, and the company sold medical supplies (patent medicines and bandages). I found an advertisement in a 1936 German-language Nazi newspaper, Deutsche Morgen, published in Rio. I believe "Verbandstoffabrik" translates to bandage material fabricator. Molinari had a patented plaster cast material.
I agressively pursued this one, paying the princely sum of $10.98, because the backstamp appears to indicate that it was carried on the last flight.
Enjoy!
-Paul
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Here's another, just received today:
I love covers with maps! Interesting that the plane in the cachet faced East on southbound covers, West in northbound covers.
Flown by B.L. Rowe, in a Fokker-10:
The plane on this flight was NC-5192, of which I could not find an image.
Here's a corner of the reverse:
I am attracted to covers with receiver cancellations, which document the transit time. The smudge on the obverse of this cover is a transferred impression of the same cancellation from a cover placed on top, ink still wet.
Enjoy,
-Paul
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These were part of a Nicaragua collection I purchased back in the 1980s.
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Time to revive this topic (moved posting to this more appropriate topic)!
Sharing today's purchases:
This is the first of a pair of postcards which were issued to be used around the end-of-year holidays. In an apparent effort to generate volume, Air France offered a discounted rate for 5 words or less. This one says "Best wishes for 1937" and is postmarked January 2, 1937. From Hanoi, Tonkin, to Paris. These were the very early days of air service to Indochina. I believe at this time, flights were via Vientiane, Laos to Hanoi. The design is striking for its beauty, by noted graphic artist Herve Baille. Caption translates to "In all the skies". Depicts a Potez 62 which first flew in January, 1935. This plane was reliable, but slow, carrying 14-16 passengers at a cruise speed of 174MPH. I like this card because it has a receiver cancel, documenting the length of the voyage at 8 days.
Here's the second card of the pair:
Again, posted from Hanoi, Tonkin, late in December, 1937. These cards were valid for just a couple of weeks during the end-of-year holidays. I believe this one was issued for 1937-1938 and depicts a Dewoitine 338, which first flew in 1936, and carried 22 passengers. Just 30 of these airplanes were built. They were no faster than the Potez 62, cruising at 162 MPH. Design of card again by Herve Baille.
The winged horse emblem on both cards was the logo for Air France Cargo.
-Paul
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The years in which both the Potez 62 and Dewoitine 338 made their maiden flights, 1934 and 1936, were in the some short period that Donald Douglas and his company took command of the emerging airliner market. They didn't relinquish their leadership until the beginning of the jet age when Boeing took over with the 707 launched in 1957. The Douglas aircraft were the pinnacle of piston engine airliners right up to the DC-6 and DC-7.
The impetus for Douglas to get involved with the market came in 1933 after Boeing had launched the modern looking 247 with an all metal construction. The Douglas prototype, the DC-1 changed the economics of commercial aviation when it was designed to compete with the Being offering. Looking at some specifications show that others ended playing catch up with Douglas from then on. Even the beautiful sleek French Dewoitine 338 trailed behind the DC-3 in both speed, range and probably cabin comfort as the central third propeller would have added to the cabin noise. (TWA who pushed Donald Douglas into the new design was looking for a three engine plane able to fly on just two of them as a safety feature. Instead Douglas gave them two engine aircraft that could fly on just one.)
The specifications listed are number of passengers, maximum speed and maximum range:
1933 Boeing 247 - 10 passengers - 200 mph - 745 miles
1933 Douglas DC-1 - 12 passengers - 210 mph - 1,000 miles
1934 Douglas DC-2 - 14 passengers - 210 mph - 1,000 miles
1934 Potez 62 - 14-16 passengers - 174 mph - 621 miles (Still constructed with wood)
1935 Douglas DC-3 - 21–32 passengers - 230 mph - 1,500 miles
1936 Dewoitine 338 - 22 passengers - 187 mph - 1,212 miles
I think you can see in the two years 1933-1935 modern commercial aviation is pretty well invented. It should be added that another impetus, this time for both Boeing and Douglas, was the encouragement given by the USPS and the US government by using air mail contracts to subsidize early commercial aviation.
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Danny,
Thanks for your informative comments. Do you have any postal history to document the introduction of these airplanes?
You said:
"another impetus...was the encouragement given by the USPS and the US government by using air mail contracts to subsidize early commercial aviation."
Just to contribute to that assertion, it is widely held that PanAm received FIVE TIMES the revenue per loaded mile for hauling the mails as compared to hauling passengers. Furthermore, there was a breakpoint in the payment scheme and so reaching that threshold was incentivized. So, US government-contracted carriers were carrying out various schemes to put their "thumbs on the scale", so to speak. Here are a couple of items seeming to evidence that PanAm itself was creating covers to add to the mail volume. The cost of the covers was offset (at least in part) by the return in government payments to haul them!
I kind of have mixed feelings about the collectability of these covers. On the one hand, they document the times and places of these events as well as transit times. They're technically Genuine Postally Used, but all they contain is a thin sheet of cardboard. So, they made no contribution to communications, the penultimate mission of the POD.
The Air France cards I posted above represent a similar scheme to increase (artificially?) the volume of airmail, probably to boost the probability of success of the venture. I haven't studied French government airmail contracting, but these cards were sent at 1/5 the regular rate, plus the airmail surcharge - 7 or 8 centimes total - a pittance. I felt compelled to collect them for the curiosity of their existence as such, plus that they're early examples of Indochina airmail, plus the stunning beauty of the graphic design which also accurately documents the equipment used on the route.
-Paul
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Here's another cover, mostly just caught my eye because it looked attractive. I think this must have carried on one of the FAM 9 flights by PANAGRA, it's dated 1936.
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Answering Paul, I'm afraid not much in the way of postal history, but I do have a good stamp collection on the history of the Douglas Company. The collection is intended to be used to illustrate a book I have written on the history of DC-3 and story of Douglas aircraft in general. At the moment my publishing workload has stopped me from finishing the fairly complicated type-setting, but hopefully later in the year it will be out as both an ebook and an unfortunately rather expensive full colour print on demand book at Amazon.
The history of government help in getting commercial aviation 'off the ground' so as to speak, using mail carrying contracts is well known and they certainly played a part in encouraging passenger carrying aircraft designs. Herbert Hoover in particular is often picked out for this encouragement although not well know for government help in other areas of policy.
So apologies for butting into your postal history thread, but the temptation to show why it is only in recent years we are more often in the air on French designed airliners rather than back in years surrounding WW2. In both cases the government subsidies or lack were at least one of the reasons.
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Hi Bob,
Your 1918 cover was sent from the city of Philadelphia. The route at the time looped from Philadelphia to Washington to New York and back again. Given that the sender wrote the other cities his letter would pass through he is telling us he is in Philadelphia.
I think the letter is overpaid. I suspect that the sender was under the impression that the air mail postage only paid for the air mail coverage and then he had to add a first class stamp for first class service from New York to New Jersey. Such misunderstandings would have been understandable in the first few months of the service. No additional postage was needed for the cover to get from one of the three Air Mail destinations to the final destination.
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"... Here are a couple of items seeming to evidence that PanAm itself was creating covers to add to the mail volume ..."
I think that this places what is important to us before what was important to Pan Am.
First flight covers made nice advertising specialties for travel agents, for example ... better than another ball point pen, and way cheaper than another calendar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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ikey, I can't see how you reached your conclusion about "what's important", but that's OK.
I did write (peripherally) about what is important to ME when I said, "I kind of have mixed feelings...", but I'm not intending to generalize to "us" (presuming that refers to the community of postal history collectors).
Honestly, I just think what Pan Am was doing to maximize the value of its contract with the US government is a curious phenomenon. I wonder if the government negotiators anticipated that the generosity of their contracts would stimulate Pan Am to directly add to the mail volume. The overriding importance of fostering the strategic goals probably overrode any other concerns. I guess it's hard to say if Pan Am had the objective of capitalizing on some dimension of 'collectability', although the neatness of the covers and cachets would appear to suggest that was the case. Or, was Pan Am just engaging in some PR?
My preference in collecting items documenting the history of airmail are the more workaday covers that were (legitimate) communications rather than intended as keepsakes. It's also more challenging than collecting ceremonial First Flight covers, which are generally plentiful, once you get past the mid-1920s, when air travel developed beyond the experimental stage. At least one Pan Am Clipper pilot expressed disgust that a large portion of his payload was material created to serve the desires of collectors, in lieu of strategic materiel for the war effort, at a time when the logistics of getting materiel to North Africa and South Asia were extremely challenging.
It's also interesting that soon after the very earliest days, First Flight cover collecting became like a subscription service. In many ways, similar to the First Day cover collecting area.
-Paul
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nlroberts1961 posted a couple Pan Am/Panagra "test covers" in the Recent Acquisitions 16 topic. Some time ago, I acquired several that are very similar:
I gathered these as nice collateral items for my Mixed Franking collection. I don't consider these true mixed frankings, because the different country's stamps were applied for different routes. They're more 'return mail', I guess. I also like these covers for their markings, and because they document the duration of the voyages, which is what I think was their intended purpose.
Anyway, it's interesting to me that the top two covers appear to be return addressed by the same hand, only to different places. Looks like they were mailed at the same time, same place. The manuscript notation on the reverse of the middle cover is also interesting.
And, check out that cool Spanish Return to Sender pointing finger handstamp on the bottom cover!
Is the fact that these covers were all mailed on November 1 coincidence? nlroberts' two covers were mailed on October 30 and November 16. What was the deal with Pan Am?
Thanks,
-Paul
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Per Roy Lingen October 2003:
Prior to November 1, 1946, airmail rates from the US to points south of Mexico varied from 25c to 40c per 1/2 ounce, depending on the destination country . On November 1, 1946 the US Post Office dropped all airmail rates to points in the Western Hemisphere (except Canada, Mexico and Cuba, which were already lower) to 10c per 1/2 oz. This was an enormous rate drop and was worthy of promotion to the public.
On Oct 23, the USPO issued a press bulletin announcing an opportunity for the public to test the speed and efficiency of the new, cheaper airmail service in cooperation with Pan Am Airways.
On one day only, November 1, 1946, collectors and other interested parties were invited to send covers to the Pan Am offices in 28 Latin American and Caribbean cities at the new 10c rate which took effect that day. Officials in the various Pan Am offices would mark the date the covers were received (generally with a dated handstamp), apply local postage to the front of the cover (at Pan Am's expense), mark the cover "Return to Sender" and hand the cover back to the local post office for airmail transmission back to the sender in the United States.
This was an opportunity for the sender to receive documented proof of the rapid turn-around time for airmail service, and marked a milestone in the rapid development in post-war air transport. Not everybody was happy, though. The philatelic press complained that the Post Office's notice was so short that their readers would find out about the event only after it occurred. I searched the weekly stamp column of the New York Times for the months of October and November 1946 and could find no mention of the event at all.
The Pan Am offices were instructed as follows:
1) Mark the cover "Return to Sender"
2) Draw a line through the address
3) Place proper airmail postage on the front lower left of the cover.
4) Stamp the back of the envelope with the date it was received in your office.
5) Return to the local post office
A total of 28 cities were involved in the test:
Caribbean
St. John's, Antigua
Willamstad, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles
Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic
Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe
Port au Prince, Haiti
Kingston, Jamaica
Fort de France, Martinique
Castries, St. Lucia, British West Indies
Port of Spain, Trinidad
Central America
San Jose, Costa Rica
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Tegucipala, Honduras
Managua, Nicaragua
Panama City, Panama
San Salvador, El Salvador
South America
Buenos Aires, Argentina
La Paz, Bolivia
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Georgetown, British Guiana
Santiago, Chile
Bogota, Colombia
Quito, Ecuador
Cayenne, French Guiana
Asuncion, Paraguay
Lima, Peru
Paramaribo, Suriname
Montevideo, Uruguay
Caracas, Venezuela
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Nice cover. I used to buy stamps from J&H Stolow back in the 1960s and early 70s when I was still collecting U.S.
FF
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Have just added a couple more Air France holiday postcards to the collection:
First one is another by artist Herve Baille for 1939-1940:
Probably a philatelic item, but genuine postally used, nonetheless.
Took 6 days to go from Syria to St-Mars-la-Jaille, near Nantes near the coast.
Airliner depicted is the Bloch 220, an obvious competitor of the early Douglas DCs. Distinctive for the squared-off wingtips. First flew in 1935, 16 passenger capacity, Gnome-Rhone 14-cylinder radial engines, cruise speed 186MPH. 17 total were built. Air France introduced these to service in 1938, using them on short routes until they were appropriated for service in WWII. Six survived the war to be re-engine with Wright Cyclone engines.
And, this one from 1938-1939:
Probably also a philatelic item. Posted on the first day of use, in Algeria. Arrived Paris 4 days later. Airliner depicted in the drawing is too stylized to type. But, the route probably would have also been flown by the Bloch 220. Artist is not Baille, initials are in the upper right corner. Design seems to be a tribute to migration, suggesting seasonal vacationing?
I have become attracted to this series by Air France, both for the interesting purpose (end-of-year holiday greetings at a discount/generation of mail volume). The deal was, you got to send them for 1/5 of the postage in exchange for 5 words or less in a limited time frame, usually December 1 through January 15. I am also attracted to the stunning artwork. Not often seen, even at premium pricing. These are both in French, but I have seen others in the same time period with a South American theme in Spanish.
-Paul
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The Air France cards are very striking. I have seen a bunch of them with south american origins, the Syrian one is new to me. 
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Just out of interest it would seem to me that the Bloch 220 shown in the postcard above should show up in some French stamps, but if it does I can't find them. Strange as it was French built and flying for Air France both before and after the war. Where it does show up is in at least one ex-French colony, Djibouti. Below is my CTO copy of a 1983 issue.
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Given its very similar layout and design, it would seem that the Bloch 220 was potentially, a worthy competitor to the Douglas DC-2. Interestingly, the Bloch's 'payload' (difference between loaded and empty weight) was rated greater than the DC-2's, 6600 lbs vs 6150 lbs, though it had 35% greater wing-loading than the DC-2. The circumstances of WWII probably doomed the Bloch 220 to also-ran legacy. I suspect another significant difference was the engines, as the Bloch 220s that survived the war were re-engined with the DC-2's engines. This probably improved fuel efficiency and hence, range as the original Gnome-Rhones had 14 cylinders and the Wright Cyclones had 9 cylinders.
I also wonder if some of the 10 Bloch 220s lost after France was occupied by the Nazis were co-opted for use by the Nazis, as they did other aircraft and tanks produced in occupied territory.
-Paul
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According to
passionair1940 ten Bloch 220's were sold to Lufthansa and operated on Vienna - Berlin runs until 1944. If you check the list there it shows the fate of all the production models. The lufthansa histories makes little mention of the Bloch's although it lists a lot of other non-german types. Vienna was evacuated April 5, 1945 Lufthansa had only 3 aircraft and no mention is made of the Blochs so they must have been destroyed (confiscated by the soviets?).
The Bloch Company was nationalized in the pre-war shakeup of the French aviation industry and Marcel Bloch-Dassault was fired twice - 1939 being the last time. The reason the Bloch's went out of service likely was due to there being no spare parts.
The nationalization occurred because there many small manufacturers that were considered very inefficient and the goal was too boost production, though this was not really achieved.
One interesting highlight I did pick up from passionair data was the "Poitou", the aircraft that flew Daladier to Munich was a Bloch 220.
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Here's another interesting Air France picture postcard:
It depicts the Bleriot 5190, built under contract by the French government. First flew in August, 1933. Put into transatlantic service in February, 1935. For the next couple of months, this plane carried all of France's transatlantic mail, making one crossing per week. The Santos Dumont, the only example built, continued in this role until June, 1937. By then, she had made 38 crossings. Louis Bleriot died in August 1936, and while there were 3 additional examples of this plane planned, the contract was ultimately cancelled, forcing the builder into bankruptcy.
The plane is remarkable in several other aspects. Note the tiny size of the crew compartment, in the pylon. It looks to be no larger than about 72 square feet, housing three crewmen, and a couple of sleeping berths. My bathroom is larger. At a top speed of 131 MPH, that must have felt like an incredibly long journey! It's actually a 4-engine plane, with a pusher engine in the center nacelle. It is named for Alberto Santos Dumont, a Brazilian aviation pioneer, credited for making the first officially observed flight in Europe in October, 1906 - length, 60 meters - for which he was recognized by the Aero Club of France and received a price of 3000 francs (about $12,000 in today's money).
I like the card's image, as it shows Paris and Rio de Janiero. Also, the stamp shows the same view of Rio. The card was not flown on the Santos Dumont as it was posted after its last flight. I like how it has a receiver cancellation, showing that it took 6 days to get to Prague.
Enjoy!
-Paul
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Another great card.
According to David Crotty's article in Postal History Journal 149 June 2011. Air France did the Rio departures on Saturdays so your card was on an AF flight (as opposed to the Wed Lufthansa). The aircraft was one of 3 types - Farman 220, 2200 (F221.BN5) or 2220 all of which were 4 engine (paired push-pull) land based aircraft. I don't see any evidence of an F2220 with Air France, but the data is incomplete. There was 1 F-220 (The Centaur) and 4 F2200 according to Passionair website. The dates there seem a little confusing, but as best I can infer it looks like the F2200 was in service with Air France commencing in April 1937 and would be the best bet for your post card. It would have gone via Natal (Brazil), Dakar and Casablanca and then on to Europe though likely on different aircraft. And 6 days seems about right on schedule given it had to track to Prague. (Per the Air France Winter Scedule for 1937-38).
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The blessing of the fleet ~ common practice in the fishing industry but very neatly transformed ...
I've been to Shoal Harbour NL where the Balboa flight stopped over back in the day working for Canada Fisheries and Oceans Research ... that wasn't yesterday... where does the time go....
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I wonder the same thing...could it have been 13 years since the big Washington 2006 show ? i had been going to the mega shows in Manhatten and the Javits Center since the mid 1980s but when i looked down on the floor of the Washington show...it looked like all creation !
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12:10:45am
"... another interesting Air France picture postcard: ..."
That is one beautiful postcard, Paul. And your details flesh out
the craft's story . I hadn't seen the fourth engine. And the
"Bi-Wing"elevator must be a singularity.
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07:53:26am
Here are a few Air France promotional picture postcards from my "Sold Database":
These are all pre-war. I have more from the 1940s-50s.
Roy
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Nice cards, Roy!
Lately, I have been getting more interested in pioneering trans-Atlantic airmail. Here is a cover I just picked up for my collection, very reasonably priced:
"Aeropostale" was the shorthand name for "Compagnie générale aéropostale" a French company which began servicing its first route on December 25, 1918. By 1930 "the Line" was serving South America. Until May 12, 1930, mail was steamed across the Atlantic on a destroyer, and then distributed at either end with a variety of aircraft. On that date, the very famous pilot Rene Mermoz whisked across, eastbound, in a Latécoère 28.3 mailplane, in about 19-1/2 hours, accompanied by his co-pilot and expert radio navigator. The craft, outfitted with a 650hp Hispano-Suiza, and floats was the prototype (No. 919):
This was the first non-stop flight across the South Atlantic. There is an excellent page here: Latecoere 28.3 There were 10 built in the float plane configuration.
Mermoz made the return flight on June 8. The plane developed engine trouble about 14 hours out and was landed and set adrift after the mail was rescued, along with the crew.
The cover here appears to have been postmarked in 1930. Postmark is very difficult to read, typical of covers of this era. I think I see a "V" just to the left of the "30". Can anyone shed light on this postmark? The characters at the bottom appear to be "R.G.SUL". No back cancel. Stamps were issued in 1920 (Sc206), 1927 (C11) and 1929 (C20).
The thing that is most compelling about this cover is the handwritten "par avion Latécoère". Makes me wonder: could this be a cover carried on that return flight? It was certainly carried on one of the earliest flights if carried by an L.28.
When I get the cover under some magnification, maybe some more detail will appear in the cancellation...
-Paul
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looking at this further i think my info is just redundant ... c'est la vie
just a repost from a wiki but .... Finally, on May 12–13, 1930, the trip across the South Atlantic by air finally took place: a Latécoère 28 mail plane fitted with floats and a 650 horsepower (480 kW) Hispano-Suiza engine made the first nonstop flight. Aeropostale pilot Jean Mermoz flew 3,058 kilometres (1,900 mi) from Dakar to Natal in 19 hours, 35 minutes, with his plane holding 122 kilograms (269 lb) of mail.
Could that be your V ~ May...
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I found a nicer example of the cancellation on the 1930 Aeropostale cover above:
Its Porto Alegre, the capital and largest city in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, hence "R.G.Sul".
-Paul
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Found this EXCELLENT book:
History of Air Cargo and Airmail from the 18th Century
French author, expertly translated to English. Extremely detailed and insightful history of airmail, with a worldwide focus.
-Paul
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Pursuant to phil's book on Italo Balbo above, here is a complete set of poster stamps issued to commemorate the accomplishment:
It looks like they may have been done by different artists, but in my opinion, these are some of the most beautiful poster stamps of the era. Note that the architecture of Balbo's actual plane is faithfully reproduced in the images. These poster stamps are highly sought by collectors. I'm usually a stickler for postal context, but the graphic artistry of these just melts my resolve!
I'm not much of a student of this event in history, but I know it is a compelling story and it certainly generated a lot of excitement in its day!
Enjoy!
-Paul
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Pigdoc's post reminds me that I am separated just a couple of degrees from the Balbo flight. But first, some background:
I've always found the idea of "degrees of separation" — knowing someone who know or knew someone else who knows or knew a third person and so on — quite fascinating. l am two degrees of separation from Joe Rosenthal, the photographer who took the famous photograph of Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima. That photograph was reproduced on one to the most common American wartime stamps:
In the early 1950s, my father, a newspaper editor, met Joe Rosenthal when he came to Silver City, New Mexico, to photograph survivors of the Bataan Death March; many of the victims of the march were ill-trained members of Silver City's National Guard unit which was sent to the Philippines before the Second World War. I was also separated by just two degrees from one of the survivor of the death march, Bobby Jackson Jr.; he was my boss when I was in high school and worked in his drugstore selling cameras.
ln 2002, I interviewed and photographed Basil Hunter, a prominent member of the BC Philatelic Society:
Basil, who died a couple of years later, had visited the Chicago World's Fare as a teenager and was "treated" to a ride in one of Balbo's planes. He told me he had never been so frightened! Basil was an interesting man. He was the most openly gay man I've ever known. He was conscripted into the Canadian Army early in the Second World War, and had probably the shortest possible tour of duty. On the first day of basic training, he told an officer that he was homosexual and had no interest in being in the army. The next day was once again a civilian.
I have long coveted the key — expensive! — Italy stamps commemorating the Balbo flight to Chicago:
Bob
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and, I think that NM NG unit was the 200th AAFA, which had just beeen converted from cavalry to Anti-Aircraft artillery. I have a cover sent to one of the members of the unit who was among those captured, but who didn't survive. His cover is a Service Suspended cover. There's also a society devoted to honoring this unit.
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David said, "I have a cover sent to one of the members of the unit…" What was the member's name, David? Several of the surviving members returned home. One, Tommy Foy, became District Attorney. In the 1940s and 1950s, the population of Silver City and the surrounding "Mining District" was probably no more than 12,000, small enough that "everyone knew everyone else, sort of". I might recognize the name. It's too bad that the U.S. apparently has nothing like the British Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which includes the name of every known military and civilian victim of wars from the Boer War through the Second World War, and possibly beyond.
There's an interesting story that resulted from the capture of the Silver City NG members. By way of introduction, a Silver City real-photo postcard (note the flagpole, which was in the middle of the intersection of the two main streets in the downtown business district, Bullard Street and Broadway Streets):
At the right is Howell Drug, owned and operated by pharmacist Bobby Jackson, who was already elderly when I was in high school. His son, Bobby Jr., was my boss when I worked for him at Sav-On Drugs, just two blocks north. Bobby Jr. was one of the members of the New Mexico National Guard unit that was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines and somehow managed to survive the Bataan Death March. When Bobby Sr. learned that his son was a POW, he vowed to raise and lower the American flag on that flagpole until his son was repatriated, which is exactly what he did. And he and several businessmen who joined him carried on that tradition well into the 1960s and possibly beyond.
The next postcard shows a view of Bullard Street, taken one block to the north and looking south; you can see the American flag on the flagpole at the intersection of Bullard and Broadway.
A third postcard, taken on Broadway Street two blocks west of Bullard Street, shows the flagpole as well as the National Guard Armoury on the horizon, which is long since gone. When I was a senior in high school, a friend talked me into joining the Air Cadets. "Sure," I said, "I love to fly!" I lasted one meeting, which involved an hour of marching back and forth in that musty old armoury. I decided I wanted nothing to do with the military. And then, less than two years later, I joined the Navy! The Clark Hotel, on the left side of the street, is where my paternal grandparents lived for a while in 1945 while they waited to be assigned a cottage in nearby Hurley, where my grandfather worked as a machinist at the Kennecott Copper Corp. smelter. My grandparents had moved to New Mexico in hopes that my grandmother's TB would be cured by the dry Southwestern climate. I guess it did, because she lived for another 40 years, and died not of TB but of terminal crankiness.
I've never known the origin of the flagpole itself. It's possible, perhaps even likely, that Bobby Jackson Sr. paid for erection of the flagpole when he vowed to raise and lower the flag until his son was repatriated. The following image shows a postcard, postmarked in 1932, that shows a stanchion that might have been used to support the flagpole. Or, possibly, a new stanchion was installed; at some point in its history, the postcard was badly scuffed, and someone used a pencil in an unsuccessful attempt to mask the scuff.
The flagpole was removed at some point after I left home to join the Navy, in 1962, and was set up again at the local hospital, which was closed several years later when a new hospital opened a couple of miles away. Here's an image grabbed from Google Street View showing the current appearance of the intersection of Bullard and Broadway Streets, looking north on Bullard Street.
Hope you enjoyed this trip down my memory lane!
Bob
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Putting this thread back on-topic.
Here's an interesting cover documenting a long distance, over-ocean delivery trip:
Picked this up at a very reasonable price yesterday. Obviously, a 'philatelic' cover, but I like it because of the mixed franking, and the fact that it's so, so early in the history of transatlantic flights (1934). Apparently, from the backstamp, this cover made the round trip, ending up back in the Netherlands in January, 1935. It's also Christmas-y!
KLM was not a big player in the Caribbean air cargo/airmail industry. "Snip" (snipe) was a Fokker XVIII, of which only 5 were built. She made a Christmas flight to Curacao, duration 55 hours, 58 minutes. She remained in service in Curacao until 1946.
A remnant of the airplane survives, in a museum in Willemstad, Curacao:
Interested an any detail others can provide!
-Paul
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Paul - I searched the internet for "KLM Snip" and came up with these old photos...
That is a really nice cover!
Linus
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Bobstamp:
Lovely postcards from your hometown. I do the same for my hometown, North Bay, Ontario.
With the downtown scenes, I try and get covers with corner cards of the businesses pictured.
David Giles
Ottawa, Ont,
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Here is some more details on the Christmas flight of the Snip:
The crew was Hondong (pilot?), van Balkom, S. v.d. Molen and L.D. Stolk.
It left Amsterdam 15 December and flew through driving snow to Marseille. The next day it flew to Casablanca and after a 12 hour flight landed in Porto Praia. Three days later (20 December) it did the ocean crossing (3612 km) to Paramaribo. On 22 December the Snip flew to La Guaira and then to Willemstad. On 24 December it went on to Aruba. 16850 covers carried Amsterdam to Willemstad.
Postage 6 cents (domestic rate) plus 1 guilder air surcharge.
Your cover went back to Amsterdam by sea, postage 6 cents (domestic rate).
Jan
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Thanks, Jan,
I see by your profile that you are perhaps a student of Netherlands postal history!
To me, the flight time that wikipedia shows as 55 hours, 58 minutes is quite fantastic. I cannot imagine the human and mechanical endurance required... That must have been the total air time, and not accumulated non-stop. If we presume that the cruising speed was something less than 200 km/hr, the ocean crossing would have required at least 18 hours, non-stop.
Non-stop ocean crossings at this time in history were a phenomenon. One must have embarked knowing that survival was not assured. Staking your survival on the engineering of the day is certainly equivalent to what we, today, can appreciate as space travel.
That is what causes me to collect covers like these!
-Paul
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Paul,
I spent some time today looking through online Dutch newspapers. In December 1934 there were hundreds of articles about this flight. It was big news at the time, just a big as spaceflight was when I was a kid.
I managed to confirm that the air surcharge was indeed 1 guilder per 5 grams. There was mention of a special letter sent by former governors to the current governor. It weighed 270 grams and required 54 guilders of postage. That is a cover I'd like to see.
Jan
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Paul,
One more detail since you were speculating on the speed. The Snip left Porto Praia 19:35 A.T. and arrived Paramaribo 12:45 A.T., so the ocean crossing took just a shade over 17 hours. This implies a speed of about 210 kph. (I don't know for sure, but I think A.T. means Amsterdam time. One reference implied it was about 20 minutes ahead of GMT.)
Jan
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Could AT possibly be Africa Time, as Porto Praia is just off the Coast of Africa.
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Coast to coast in 11 1/2 hours in 1953
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Actually, it IS a Dutch Indies cover, to Curacao. The "SURINAME" in the cachet threw you.
From wikipedia:
"Used by KLM on its Amsterdam-Batavia route, the F.XVIII became celebrated in the Netherlands due to two especially noteworthy flights. In December 1933, one aircraft (registration PH-AIP, Pelikaan - "Pelican") was used to make a special Christmas mail flight to Batavia, completing the round trip in a flight time of 73 hours 34 minutes. The following Christmas, another F.XVIII (registration PH-AIS, Snip - "Snipe") made a similar flight to Curaçao in 55 hours 58 minutes after having been specially re-engined for the journey."
My cover is from the 1934 flight.
The very next paragraph in the wikipedia entry for the Fokker XVIII starts with this sentence:
""In October 1936, the F.XVIIIs were withdrawn from the service to Batavia, replaced by the Douglas DC-2."
DC-2s were purchased by KLM in late 1934, with 22 of them on register by mid-1935. The last 3 were purchased in April, 1936.
Now, if I squint real hard, it looks like the DC-3 in the drawing on phil's cover carries the registration of PH-ALI. If I take that to Golden Years Civil Aviation Registry, here:
Golden Years Civil Aviation Registry: Europe
...I find that PH-ALI (Ibis) was The First Douglas-Fokker DC-3 acquired by KLM on August 10, 1936. It was actually the only DC-3 acquired in 1936 by KLM. There were a bunch of them that came into service in March, 1937.
NICE! Thanks!
-Paul
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Here she is:
I would dismally FAIL to come up with the correct Final Jeopardy question, "What is KONINKLYTE LUCHTVAART MAATSCHAPPY?"!
-Paul
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That was very informative. Learning all time! Thanx
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The Final Jeopardy category would be: Airline Monogram Meanings (Bet the farm!)
The answer would be: KLM
The English translation of the Jeopardy question would be: "What is the Royal Aviation Society"
-Paul
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Oh man!! You took my answer!! Lol 
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PER SECOND CLASS AIRMAIL. What is that? They don't get bourbon,peanuts,and hot towel? 
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A drug-company rep/friend told me once that the flight to South Africa is the longest there is from the US. Googlemaps says that today, it's a 26-hour direct flight between Cape Town and Tacoma, more than 10,000 statute miles!
Interestingly, sender was confused and also wrote the street name for the city. Today, that address is a vacant lot in a run-down light urban area.
Can't quite make out the year in the CDS. 1969? Or, 1960 (pre zip code)? Could have been an early 707 flight. But, it would have required at least 2 fueling stops.
-Paul
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Thank you. That was alot of information out of a single cover. 
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I believe it's 1960.
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That's a better image. You need a scanner for Christmas!
From the left most cancellation the month is XI (November) and the year is 63. From the center cancellation, the day is the characters farthest to the left - 19. November 19, 1963.
It's likely this cover was in transit when President Kennedy was in Dallas...for the last time.
-Paul
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I was reading the date all wrong..
It would help also if the cancel was applied right side up lol
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Here are a couple more KLM trans-Atlantic Christmas-flight covers, one bound for Paramaraibo, the other for Curaçao:
What intrigues me about these covers is their relationship to the crash of KLM's first DC-2 airliner, the Uiver (Old Dutch for ("Stork"). TheUiver was perhaps the most famous KLM airliner ever. It was the first DC-2 to be sold to a carrier outside the U.S. In October, 1934, it placed 1st in the handicap division of the MacRobertson International Air Race between London and Melbourne, proving that large aircraft could transport goods and passengers between continents. The following original photograph from my collection shows the Uiver landing at Melbourne.
The Uiver returned to Amsterdam and was made ready for what would be its first commercial flight from Amsterdam to the Dutch colony of Java. With a crew of four and three paying passengers, the Uiver left Amsterdam on December 19, 1934. By that evening, after refuelling in Cairo and giving the passengers a break for a meal, the Uiver took off for Baghdad, but never arrived. The next morning, after violent storms had blanketed the Middle East, the burned wreckage of the Uiver was found near the village of Rutbah Wells in the Syrian Desert. This photo was published the next day in the London Times.
There were no survivors, and the cause of the crash was never determined. KLM carried out an "official" investigation, has never released the findings, and to this day does not publicly acknowledge that the crash happened.
Much of the mail on board the Uiver, comprised largely of specially printed Christmas envelopes and stationery, was severely damaged by fire, smoke, oil, water, and mud. This is the first Uivercrash cover I obtained, from my friend Ben Guilliamse, whose father posted it to Java; the mail bag it was in had apparently burst open on impact.
Some mail bags on the Uiver remained intact, and others were partially intact. These images show a cover in my collection that is undamaged, and another that has some light damage. Some mail was looted from the crash site, later to appear in the philatelic marketplace. Mail that could be forwarded to the recipients was transferred to another KLM aircraft and was delivered; badly damaged mail was returned to the senders, if possible. (All of the philatelic mail was designed to be returned to the original senders by the recipients. The triangular stamps were required for special Christmas flights; the stamps supposedly show the "Pander-Jaeger" airplane, but no such aircraft ever existed.
Uiver crash covers regularly appear in auctions and "buy-it-now" offers, usually for prices ranging in the $75 - $125 range. Occasionally you'll see undamaged covers offered for a few dollars, apparently by dealers who don't know what they are selling.
So, how does the crash of the Uiver dovetail with the flight of the Snip to Netherlands' Caribbean/South American colonies? The Uiver crashed on December 20, the same day that the Snip arrived in Curaçao. The crew of the Snip heard of the Uiver's crash via radio, which cannot have been comforting for them, at the end of the one of the more hazardous flights in history (although trans-Atlantic crossings by aircraft, flying between Africa and South America,by French pilots, had been a thing for a few years.) It's interesting that, in those days, global short-wave radio communication was possible between aircraft and land-based stations. KLM aircraft were in continuous contact with KLM offices in Amsterdam, but it wasn't what we're used to today, because the technology hadn't yet advanced to the point that vocal conversations were possible. Instead, radio operators used Morse Code.
Bob
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Wow, Bob -- that's an amazing story and an excellent write-up!
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That's why I love this hobby!! That was great.. thank you!
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Bob said:
"The crew of the Snip heard of the Uiver's crash via radio, which cannot have been comforting for them, at the end of the one of the more hazardous flights in history. "
A reason for the discomfort, not least, must have been that Snip was a MUCH less capable aircraft than was Uiver!
I just watched a Smithsonian Channel episode of Planes that Changed the World on the development of the DC-3, which includes a lot of technical information on the DC-1 (which
DC-3 Planes that Changed the World
Thanks, Bob, for a very informative posting!
-Paul
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@ Pigdoc said, “I just watched a Smithsonian Channel episode of Planes that Changed the World on the development of the DC-3, which includes a lot of technical information on the DC-1 (which was never built, after wind tunnel testing) and the DC-2.”
The Smithsonian Channel is wrong. A single DC-1 was produced, and was flown for several years. Here’s what Wikipedia says:
"One DC-1 aircraft was produced. The prototype made its maiden flight on July 1, 1933, flown by Carl Cover. It was given the model name DC-1, derived from "Douglas Commercial". During a half-year of testing, it performed more than 200 test flights and demonstrated its superiority over the most-used airliners at that time, the Ford Trimotor and Fokker Trimotor.
It was flown across the United States on February 19, 1934, making the journey in the record time of 13 hours 5 minutes. TWA accepted the aircraft on 15 September 1933 with a few modifications (mainly increasing seating to 14 passengers and adding more powerful engines) and subsequently ordered 20 examples of the developed production model which was named the Douglas DC-2.
The DC-1 was sold to Lord Forbes in the United Kingdom in May 1938, who operated it for a few months before selling it in France in October 1938. It was then sold to Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas (L.A.P.E.) in Spain in November 1938 and was also used by the Spanish Republican Air Force as a transport aircraft. Later operated by Iberia Airlines from July 1939 with the name Negron, it force-landed at Málaga, Spain, in December 1940 and was damaged beyond repair."
I have some interesting postcards of the DC-1 in my collection, as well as what appears to be a photograph of the DC-1 in early stages of testing.
• Two postcards picturing the DC-1 in TWA livery. The one at the bottom is a real photo postcard, the one at the top a poor half-tone reproduction:
• Detail image of the real-photo postcard showing the TWA registration number:
• Photograph taken on the day of the DC-1's first flight (I found it at an aviation show here in Vancouver); note the curious "fillet" between the left-engine and the fuselage. I assume that it was thought that such fillets would improve flight characteristics; I've never seen another DC-1 photo showing fillets, and they certainly aren't a part of the DC-2 or DC-3:
• A detail image of the wing fillet:
Thanks, Pigdoc, for the YouTube link. I'll be watching that!
Bob
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At the risk of turning this from a stamp collecting thread into an airplanes thread, in the Smithsonian 'documentary' (docu-drama?), it was discussed that the design problem with the DC-1 was associated with the straight (non-swept) wings. And, secondarily, it was discovered through wind-tunnel testing that wing root fillets greatly improved aerodynamics. Again, from the show, it was stated that this was the first airplane that benefitted from the research enabled by wind tunnel testing.
The chief innovation on the DC-2, over the DC-1 built prototype of the DC-1 over early design of the DC-1 was swept wings. This served simply to improve the location of the center of lift, relative to the center of gravity, and the change resulted in an immense improvement in handling. In the Smithsonian show, a pilot comments on how easy it was to fly the DC-3.
So, distinguishing DC-1 from DC-2 in images would simply be a matter of determining if the wings are swept, or not. Wing sweep angles between DC-1 as built, the DC-2 and the DC-3 were similar. In the image I posted above of first KLM DC-3 (sideview), you can see the elegance of the swept wings. Reminds me of what how the planform of a European Starling looks when it's in gliding flight! I would concur with Bob that the images he posted are of the DC-1. The "fillets" that Bob speaks to look like an experimental modification, perhaps to alleviate turbulence resulting from early attempts at wing root fairing (more commonly called fillets), or lack of same. In that picture, it's tough to tell because of the shadows, but it could be that the wing root fillets were a post-production modification. Just to the left of the line of shadow, at mid-chord, I see a line of new metal against more weathered metal to the left.
And to speak to phil's comment on the cost of flying in the early days, that was perhaps the innovation that cemented the DC-3's success - the airplane served to greatly increase accessibility of air travel to the general public...and made it "Great"!
-Paul
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It's easier to think of the DC-1 as the prototype of the DC-2. It did have the sweptback wings and did end up as a wreck during the Spanish civil war. Of course it could be called the prototype for the DC-3 also as the DC-3 was a derivative of the DC-2. If we compared it to the more recent Boeing 737 and all the versions that have followed from the original, all three of the first Douglas airliners would be DC-1s
Of the top of my head I think the only stamp showing the DC-1 is from the Samoa 1983 miniature sheet. The TWA markings are because the plane was made in answer to a TWA request as the waiting list for the Boeing 247 was too long.
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I remember as a child living in CA as my parents would drive by and remark "there's the McDonnel Douglas factory and I remember how huge the place was.(in the mind of a child). Good memories. I remember the Mattel factory also.
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I was a little kid on Long Island during WW2, anyone with a pulse was working in the defense industry. My father and grandfather were working for Sperry on the Norden bombsight (hush hush). Odd how you can remember being 5 years old but not what happened yesterday.
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DannyS, thanks for your post, challenging some of the things in my postings. You have kept me busy, attempting to delve deeper into the sequence of designing the DC-1.
First, though, you are absolutely correct. The single DC-1 that was built, the DC-2, and the DC-3 all had swept wings. I tried to find the wing sweep angle specifications, somewhat unsuccessfully. But, the two references I found indicated that the leading edge sweep angle of the outer wing panels of the DC-1 and the DC-3 were very similar - 14 to 15 degrees. I think the fact that the DC-3 wingspan is some 10 feet (~13%) greater than the DC-1 wingspan makes the sweep angle of the DC-3 look greater if you're not looking at a wing planform. The longer wingspan of the DC-3 would also shift the center of lift aft, relative to the DC-1, improving stability and handling.
I found an article in a 1935 issue of Popular Aviation (by no means a primary source!), that mentioned that 3 different wings were tested in development of the DC-1. And, in what looks to be contemporary footage in the Smithsonian docu-drama shows a straight (not swept) wing on a scale model of the DC-1, hanging in a wind-tunnel. This is at 14:05 in on the video. The narration from that point to 15:00 states: "Raymond discovers that sweeping back the wings shifts the center of gravity, dramatically improving the plane's stability." (Actually, it shifts the center of lift relatively more than the center of gravity.)
And, I misquoted the Smithsonian show by saying the DC-1 "was never built". It never went into production. There is a short clip of the DC-1 taxiing at 17:10 of the video.
Thanks!
-Paul
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Paul, I have an advantage in that I have written a manuscript on the DC-3 which will be illustrated with postage stamps. It really covers the history of Douglas also. All I need to do is get the final 20-30 stamps and design the layout. I then need to find a publisher, but seeing that I'm a publisher that shouldn't be too hard. Problem is that for the last couple of years I spent far too much of my time publishing other peoples books. Next year my semi-retirement should involve less work so hopefully...
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I'm glad that the question of DC-1/2/3 wing sweep has been cleared up. I was beginning to doubt my memory!
DannyS is correct, I believe, that Samoa is the only country to have issued a stamp showing the DC-1. I've looked through my own collection of aircraft (mostly airliners) on stamps and failed to find a single one, not even the Samoa stamp! Which isn't surprising, considering that the DC-1 was on "public view" for such a short time before the DC-2 took flight.
For a dive into what it was like to fly the DC-2, you can't go wrong with Ernest K Gann's book, Flying Circus. Chapter 15, "The Dutch East India Men," is devoted to the DC-2 and contains fascinating information that I've not seen elsewhere. It includes a beautiful double-spread DC-2 painting, as well. Go to this ABE.com page for reasonably priced copies. (The entire book is well worth reading.)
There is certainly no question that the DC-2 and DC-3 ushered in the age affordable flight, but American Airlines, seems to have been slow to realize the full potential of the aircraft. The first DC-3s weren't DC-3s at all. They were DSTs, or Day Sleeper Transports, built with sleeping berths above the seats and little windows for the sleepers to look out of before they went to sleep or when they woke up. On a coast-to-coast flight across the U.S., passengers could sleep through necessary nighttime landings for fuel and supposedly wake up refreshed on arrival necessary. Sounds great! Probably was great! But it wasn't long before the airline realized that it could make more money by removing the sleeping berths and installing more passenger seats. That was probably one of the first steps toward making airline flight for the common man a pain rather than a pleasure.
Here's a real photo postcard, which arrived in the mail just last week, showing DSTs lined up at La Guardia in 1941. The sender notes, "It's a beautiful sight to see at night." Wish I could have seen it! Looks like the plane is ready for take-off — the propellers are whirling.
This detail image shows the small sleeping birth windows above the main passenger windows:
Bob
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Great postcard of the DSTs Bob.
Another interesting fact I've posted before that Shirley Temple's song The Good Ship Lollipop is about a DC-2. Fortunately there is a US stamp of the young (at the time, 1934 I think) actress.
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There is a website devoted to memorializing the 50th anniversary of Uiver's record-making flight in the MacRobertson Air Race, in 1934:
Uiver Memorial
Apparently, Uiver has been reproduced.
Interestingly, I can find nothing on the website referring to her loss, as documented by Bob.
-Paul
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Paul(PigDoc) said, "Apparently, Uiver has been reproduced. Interestingly, I can find nothing on the website referring to her loss, as documented by Bob."
The Uiver has indeed been "reproduced," which means that a DC-2 was refurbished in the 1980s to resemble the Uiver, and has been flown on many occasions. A few years ago it was damaged when one of its main landing gears collapsed; a collapsing landing gear was not a serious problem for the DC-1/2/3 because, intentionally, the wheels do not fully retract into the wheel wells, but will act as "bumpers" if a collapse does occur. The Uiver II is currently on display at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. Here is a photo showing the arrival of the Uiver II at Schiphol Airport following its maiden flight (as Uiver II) from the U.S.:
One of the difficulties with documenting the Uiver's crash is that there has been little translation of Dutch newspapers articles and books about the plane.
The Uiver's first place win in the handicap division of the MacRobertson International Air Race between London and Melbourne put the Netherlands in the lead in the international race to develop profitable commercial and airliners and routes for passengers, cargo, and airmail. With its landing in Melbourne, following a perilous nighttime landing on a racetrack at Albury, Australia, the previous night, Uiver became an "aviation rock star" back in the Netherlands and put KLM Airlines at the forefront of the industry. Then, when the Uiver crashed in the Syrian Desert on its maiden commercial flight, the Dutch people were plunged from national aviation pride and ecstasy into days of national grief. As I wrote in my previous post about the Uiver, KLM has never released the findings of the team of investigators it sent to the crash site, and does not acknowledge the crash.
There is no question in my mind the the people of the Netherlands were heavily invested emotionally in the Uiver. I have made a habit of asking Dutch citizens that I meet if they know about the Uiver. I've never met one who isn't familiar with its story.
Most of the information I learned about the Uiver came to me via translations from Dutch to English by my friend Ben Guilliamse, whose father mailed my first Uiver cover to a friend in Java.
In 2004, three years after my wife and I moved to Vancouver, we were saddened to learn of Ben's death in Prince George, where we had lived for 28 years. Ben and his wife were our landlords in our early years in Prince George.
We were living in a house trailer ("mobile home") near my school; when we asked if we could buy it, they readily agreed, and used the money we had paid for rent as a down payment.
After a career as a technician for BC Telephone, Ben had learned to fly and started a one-man bush-plane service for visiting American hunters. Here's a photo of Ben in his rather spiffy bush pilot uniform!
On June 7, Ben had taken off beneath a low ceiling, with permission to fly VFR (Visual Flight Rules) to a remote hunting camp in northern BC. Moments after he took off and entered low clouds, a witness saw his Cessna plunge straight down out of the clouds and crash into a bog just off the end of the runway. Ben was killed instantly. His body was retrieved moments before the plane sank out of sight in the bog; the plane could not be recovered because the bog was in an ecologically protected area. No cause for the crash was ever determined, but I suspect that Ben experienced vertigo, and wasn't experienced enough to rely on his instruments.
I have developed some of my own theories about the Uiver's crash. The crash flight took place during the transition from fall to winter in the Middle East. At that time, prevaiing winds carry a heavy burden of moisture from the Atlantic across the Mediterranean and into the Middle East, where it collides with the cold continental air mass being pushed down from Siberia. On the night of the crash, a series of huge storm cells had developed over most of the Middle East; the search for the Uiver, in fact, was delayed because of those storms.
I think that the Uiver might have caught fire because it was struck by lightning. In those days, before static wicks were invented, aircraft could build up huge charges of static electricity. Normally, because aircraft are not grounded, the electricity just bleeds off any "sharp" edges, such as the trailing edges of wings and tails. But the Uiver's control surfaces were covered with linen coated with a plasticized lacquer called "dope". Dope is highly flammable. I think that the Uiver's control surfaces could have been struck by lightning and burst into flame in the air, which guaranteed its crash. The following photograph provides evidence the severity of the fire:
I spoke once with a Transport Canada air crash investigator about my theories. He mentioned one thing about the early "DC" aircraft — their engines leaked oil and gas like a sieve, which might have made the DC-2 especially vulnerable to lightning strikes.
Bob
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I just had the good fortune to see the first two episodes (of three) of a new documentary series produced by American Public Television. It was released in May of this year. Details here:
Across the Pacific
There are detailed descriptions of the episodes and some 30-second previews on the website. Doesn't look like its been bootlegged on youtube yet.
It chronicles the development of air travel across the oceans, focusing around Pan Am. A little over-dramatized, but very informative, with lots of great period footage. Well laid out, chronologically. And, it captures the excitement of the early breakthroughs. Lots of technical detail. Richly embedded in the culture of the times.
Look for it in your local PBS TV listings!
-Paul
PS, also can be seen on Amazon Prime!
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Just arrived today:
Flown Washington,DC to Philadelphia, received July 29, 3:XXPM.
(You can tell the departure city from the postmark - it's the one on the bottom. In this era, there were only 3 departure cities.)
Anyway, I thought the markings were curious. July 29, 1918 was a Monday, and I presume "Closed 4:25 PM" in pencil indicates that the delivery address was closed when the postman arrived. As far as I can tell, this was a dentist's office in 1918. It's been subsumed by the Convention Center. Francis H. Earp appears to have been a book collector, and perhaps a dentist. He specialized in Civil War and Erotica, and maybe stamp collecting. I believe he was in his early 50s at the time.
I know that the 16c rate paid for Special Delivery, but I don't understand the meaning of the "FEE CLAIMED..." marking. I presume it's a claim for the Special Delivery charge. There's also an illegible marking in purple below the "CLOSED" at the bottom.
The stamp is not clipped at the top, I just cropped the image a bit too closely.
Nice addition to the collection!
I thought $30 was not unreasonable...
Enjoy!
-Paul
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30th Street train station ?
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You can find the 3 part documentary Across the Pacific at the following address.
https://www.kpbs.org/news/2020/aug/13/across-pacific/
I watched the first episode and it seems to be a good docu-drama. Again it pushes that it was friendly government airmail contracts that supported early commercial aviation in the US.
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This morning, as I was watching the news on TV, they showed a clip of New Year's fireworks, in Perth, Australia. That got me to thinking, "International Date Line...hmmm..."
I prefer the airmail covers I collect to have receiver cancellations on the back. That way, the duration of the delivery and flight are documented. So, I went to my collection and pulled out these two.
First, the westbound first flight:
Seven days and 4 hours.
Then, the eastbound first flight:
No time in the cancellation on the front, but four days (and change).
How'd they do that? The International Date Line! Added a day to the westbound trip, saved a day on the eastbound trip! (Not accounting for intervals from processing to take-off, or for delays, or for prevailing winds which would have shortened the eastbound trip).
Flights were made by China Clipper, a Martin M-130:
First flew December, 1934, one of three total built. She crashed on January 8, 1945 on approach to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on her way to Leopoldville, Belgian Congo, in Africa. 23 passengers and crew were killed, there were 7 survivors, including the pilot.
Happy New Year!
-Paul
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Don't have any postal history to go with this posting, but for the interest of the Douglas transport fans who have contributed to this topic, here goes. It is a story that appeared in the March 2021 issue of Smithsonian's Air & Space magazine:
FRANKENPLANE
The big silver airplane parked in an open field was the only worthy target for miles. The Japanese bombers quickly sieved the exposed Douglas DC-3 with hundreds of machine gun bullets. Hugh Woods, a pilot with China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) was watching from a nearby hillside. His heart sank as a 100-kilogram bomb detonated under the right wing of his aircraft, throwing dirt, grass, and splintered aluminum across Suifu airfield.
His crew and passengers were alive and unharmed, but his precious airplane was gone. With the wing mangled, there would be no chance of escape. More attackers would soon return to finish the job. The best Woods and his men could do was hide the wounded airliner among the trees, radio back to base, and hope for a miracle.
In the spring of 1941, Douglas transport aircraft were nearly priceless in China. When CNAC’s chief of maintenance Zygmund “Sol” Soldinski received the news in Hong Kong, he decided it was well past time to start drinking. As Sol downed a few glasses of White Horse whiskey, he deliberated the problem with managing director P. Y. Wong.
There was no spare DC-3 wing in China. Douglas Aircraft Company would take months to make another one. And then they couldn’t ship it, at least not on an American vessel. There were wartime neutrality laws. Even if they had a wing, and it was in Hong Kong, how would they get it 860 miles into the middle of nowhere? There was seemingly no practical way to get the job done.
Shuffling back through CNAC’s hangar, Soldinski approached a group of mechanics, overhauling a Douglas DC-2. When he suddenly asked the men if a DC-2 wing might fit on a DC-3, they gawked at him, speechless. Surly old Sol had finally gone mad.
But as they measured, calculated, and experimented, it soon became clear that Sol, even slightly tipsy, had pretty good instincts. Thrifty Donald Douglas and his engineers had in fact used the DC-2 wing and center section butt plate jigs for their newer DC-3. It wasn’t a perfect fit, but it would work, assuming that the repaired aircraft could fly safely with a replacement wing that was almost five feet shorter than the original.
Reinvigorated, they hatched a plan to sling the spare wing under the belly of a CNAC DC-2 with the tip facing aft. Crewmen built a temporary fairing over the exposed wing butt to maximize aerodynamic flow over the unusual load.
When the replacement wing finally arrived at Suifu, it took crews several days to patch up the DC-3, remove the maimed right wing, and put the new one in place with the help of shims, freshly drilled holes, and more than a little prayer. All the while, the men watched the skies, hoping the Japanese wouldn’t appear again to spoil their work.
Though seemingly hopeless at the start, Sol’s hare-brained plan succeeded. CNAC pilot Hal Sweet took off in the battered bird and reported it flew surprisingly well, though the airplane constantly pulled off to one side like a car that was severely out of alignment. Upon safe arrival in Hong Kong, CNAC mechanics took several photos of what they jokingly called “The DC-2½” before they began the long job of repairing the aircraft.
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After Mao's revolution CNAC was nationalized. We can be pretty sure even the DC-2s were still in use much later as they show up on a set of four airmail stamps in 1957. On the stamp below the tail fin join to the fuselage of the flying plane shows it to be a DC-2 rather than a DC-3 which they also had.
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Further to earlier discussion of the Piper Cub, here's an autograph of the artist, Ren Wicks, who designed the Piper stamp (and the Igor Sikorsky stamp as well).
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Three of my favourite airmail covers:
Homemade cover featuring cutout of Douglas DC-3
Lockheed Constellation Air India FFC
Illustrated commercial cover picturing a Trans-Canada Airlines Lockheed Elecetra (like the plane Amelioa Earhart was flying when she disappeared over the Pacific.
Bob
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When I was six years old, my father arranged for a neighbour who owned a Piper Cub to take my sister, Helen, and me on a ride over our home town, Savona, in Upstate New York. It was our first flight:
And here’s an FDC franked with a U.S. stamp commemorating the designer of the Piper Cub, William Piper:
Ever since my first flight, I’ve rarely turned down a chance to fly, even after a plane I was flying in crashed in 1962 in New Mexico’s Black Range mountains. It’s not surprising that I turned to topical stamps and covers when I resumed stamp collecting in the early 1980s. I especially learned to appreciate airmail stamps and covers, which so often feature aviation-related stamps, etiquettes, postmarks and cachets.
The cover below is the oldest one in my collection. It was postmarked on June 1, 1918, just 16 days after the inauguration of official airmail flights in the United States. I have no idea if the rate paid is correct for international airmail to Canada — postage rates aren't my forte.
These first American airmail flights flew between Washington and New York City, with a stop in Philadelphia. My cover was backstamped in Philadelphia and at its destination, Riverside, New Brunswick. I don't know why it wasn't backstamped in New York City.
Bob
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
I'm on a board for car guys, mostly in our age group and crass old dudes. They'll tell you that they stopped making cars in 1973 and anyone who drives an automatic is a pansy.
So the discussion was on self driving cars. Most of these guys agreed that we'd never see these cars replace regular cars in our lifetime. They seem to ignore that these cars already exist.
That got me thinking about aviation...
Wright Brothers first flight was December 17, 1903 and things moved rapidly. The first official American airmail delivery was made on September 23, 1911, by pilot Earle Ovington under the authority of the United States Post Office Department, seven years later.
On January 1, 1914, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line became the world's first scheduled passenger airline service, operating between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida.
All of this was accomplished in TEN years. Without super computers or modern materials, just man and mechanical equipment, back when Model Ts were still the "bee's knees"!
So I just laugh at my car friends. Before they know it they'll be back seat passengers in a self driving car!
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
...how long until we have pilot-less air transport?
After all, we already have 'drones'!
just food for thought/discussion.....!
Maybe they could deliver the mail that way!
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01:40:57pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Drones delivering mail ?
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Sure!
Why not?
Look at all the things we made fun of in years gone by,
only to see them actually happen in later years.
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Yes, why not. I have heard it said that 'if it can be perceived in the mind, it can be possible in actuality'.
Chimo
Bujutsu
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BuckaCover.com - 80,000 covers priced 60c to $1.50 - Easy browsing 300 categories
07 Mar 2018
02:01:45pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
You guys are missing the irony implied in sleepy's post!
Roy
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
07 Mar 2018
03:55:06pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Yes, the "double entendre."
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
09 Mar 2018
01:11:48am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Or a subbookkeepper.
A favorite word I just wanted to see in print.
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10:58:57am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
No,I don't keep bees. I slap 'em if they sting and eat the honey.
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
And now, could we get back to the original reason for this thread? I'd really like to see other airmail covers and learn their stories.
Bob
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04:21:43pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Sorry Bob.
To repent, here you go:
This is a very recent acquisition to my Clipper mail collection. It's a first-flight philatelic cover for FAM-22, but the interesting aspect (to me) is the dates. This cover made the entire trip - Miami; San Juan, PR; Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago; Belem, Brazil; Natal, Brazil; Bathurst, Gambia; Lagos, Nigeria; and Leopoldville, Congo. All that way in just 6+ days! By the way, that trip was 197 flying hours for the round trip, just 3 hours short of the mandatory 200-hour service interval on the airplane.
The inaugural flight of FAM-22 was by a Boeing 314-A, Capetown Clipper, NC18612 piloted by William Masland. NC18612 was the twelfth and last Boeing Clipper built. Of course, it is notable that the interval between posting and receipt included the Pearl Harbor attack. The first flight crossed the Atlantic on December 9. I must presume that the penciled note on the backside is by the recipient (who was probably also the sender): "red 2-10-42" indicates when this cover was received, back in Windham, CT. Interesting that much of the mail returning with this item was censored in Havana, on or around February 13, 1942. Unsealed philatelic covers were allowed to bypass the censoring process, but this cover was obviously sealed - a bit of ink from the backstamp is on the flap. This item would have been delivered to New York on the return trip of the Capetown Clipper, on January 17, 1942
Very soon after this inaugural flight, this run stopped going to Leopoldville, but instead terminated at Calcutta, the easternmost port considered safe from Japanese attack, eventually becoming known as the "Cannonball Run" for its importance to the war effort.
This one FAM, alone, could be the subject of an extensive postal history exhibit.
Ken Lawrence did a very informative two-part series in the American Philatelist on this FAM:
Part I: https://stamps.org/userfiles/file/AP/feature/Feature_01_15.pdf
Part II: http://digital.ipcprintservices.com/publication/?i=241954&article_id=1905659
plus: http://digital.ipcprintservices.com/publication/?i=191786&article_id=1607496
And, here is an interesting and informative site on the Boeing 314 Clippers:
http://rbogash.com/B314.html
-Paul
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04:31:34pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
And another:
Also a recent acquisition, today in fact. Paid 5 quid for it.
This isn't really a collecting area for me, but it was an item I grabbed to spread out shipping costs. Couldn't resist at that price!
Illustrates that crayon cross that was applied to Registered letters in the British Commonwealth.
-Paul
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04:53:49pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
And finally, one more:
Yet another philatelic cover, commemorating the first regular airmail service between England and Australia, by QEA, the alliance between QANTAS (Queensland And Northern Territory Air Services, Ltd.) and Empire Airways, 1934.
First departure from London was December 10, and the backstamp indicates that the passage to Brisbane consumed 11 days.
One has to admire the logistical planning prowess of these organizers, no less daunting perhaps than the 1969 moonshot.
This collecting area of postal history is not as well represented as the Pan Am Clippers, but at least as interesting...
-Paul
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Pig, seldom see multiple AMSDs on a single cover, and I've never seen both CE1 and 2 together.
Nice, too, that that it made it at that late juncture.
Nice cover, for sure
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03:40:25pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Well, I'm not that excited about the FAM-22 cover. Here's an excerpt from Ken Lawrence's article linked in the original posting:
"The Clipper’s pilot, Captain William M. Masland, was
not happy that his load included souvenirs for collectors —
thousands of covers that collectors had sent to Pan Am for
servicing at each stop along the way. He wrote in his memoir:
We put out of New York with a few passengers and a
cargo of, guess what? First-flight letters, empty envelopes
(so the New York office said) covered with stamps to be
canceled at every stop for the benefit of stamp collectors. I
knew what they desperately needed in Africa. At Bathurst
Lady Hartshorn had told me: pins, needles, matches, and
soap, not first-flight covers. If you have a philatelist for
a president, you must take the good with the bad. But it
made me sick."
For one thing, my cover is missing a whole bunch of receiver cancels that would make it much more interesting. For another, it's not a cover that contained crucial communication. But, again, the postal history of just this one FAM route is incredibly rich and extremely complex, as anyone can appreciate from reading the articles that I linked to...
Pan Am's interdependence with the US government, including the POD and the Department of the Navy could easily fill a book with intrigue. The US government essentially sustained Pan Am, through probably illegal contracts to carry the mails. Pan Am received about 8X the revenue from carrying mail as from carrying passengers, pound for pound, earning about 40 dollars a pound for carrying mail from the US to China. The total revenues reach into the tens of $millions over the life of the clippers...But, again the logistical achievement in making these voyages, regardless of how they were financed, is truly awesome.
Thanks,
Paul
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I agree about the first flight covers. I've been trying to collect the early US airmail stamps on cover. I've been avoiding philatelic covers, hoping to populate my album with honest mail! Not being all that successful!
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Thanks to Pigdoc for returning this thread to its topic. I am really impressed by that PanAm cover, and fascinated by the pilot's comment about the first flight covers.
I can't but agree with Tom's post about the desirability of postally used covers as opposed to philatelic ones. That why this cover appeals to me so much:
I bought the cover on eBay; the seller told me that the recipient in La Jolla was his mother. While I wouldn't mind having a philatelic FDC representing the same flight, I would give this one a place of honour in my collection.
Bob
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05:28:39pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Oh, that's a BEAUT, Bob!
I love the winged stamp on it! And, its connection to the railroads makes it a TWOFER.
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Bob's post somehow reminded me of this cover, although 8 years later, it's a west to east night flight...
San Francisco, California December 31, 1932 at 6:30pm. Not only airmail but special delivery. Loaded into a plane headed east...
to arrive in Chicago on January 1, 1933 some 15 hours later at 9pm. Does anyone know how long that flight would be in 1932? Yes, this one was in the air during the ringing in of the new year! One of my favorite covers due to that!
And from Chicago it had to go to Philadelphia and arrived in Ardmore, a suburb of Philly on January 2 at 11:30 am. I believe that's 41 hours. Less than 2 days and it landed here...
And as Bob had mentioned, I like it because it was regular personal mail. I wonder what news it brought?
And the best part? I discovered this while treasure hunting through a big box of nothing covers I had purchased. The people before me just saw this as a damaged old airmail cover... nobody had noticed the significance of it being a New Years cover!
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07:16:20am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Nice picking, Tom!
The Special Delivery is ah, rather *tenuously* tied, don't you agree?
Or, perhaps the postal clerk was just extra careful to not have the cancel obscure the address?
Was "Airmail Field" in Chicago what is now Midway airport?
On the transit time on the first leg, I make it at 21.5 hours. In 1932-33, there would have HAD to be a refueling stop or three between SF and Chi-town. And, I often have wondered about the typical time interval between the actual plane landing and the receiver cancel application. I wouldn't be surprised if it ranged between a half-hour to several hours, depending...And, the receiving PO may have been a bit short-handed on January 1!
Transit time Chicago-Ardmore was 14.5 hours. That leg would also have required a fuel stop or two, I suppose. And, not sure if Bustleton Field was still the Philadelphia terminus in 1933 (as it was in 1918). And, then, Ardmore is about 20 miles southeast of Bustleton...
-Paul
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"The Special Delivery is ah, rather *tenuously* tied, don't you agree?
Or, perhaps the postal clerk was just extra careful to not have the cancel obscure the address?"
Hi Paul-
I decided to check it out, so I reached for my "Airmail One" album and couldn't find the cover! I had a few moments of panic until I realized it's in my "Special Delivery" album! Yea!
Yes, I would have reservations about the Special Delivery stamp, but since the cancel is clearly San Francisco I think it's legit. Looking at it directly, the lowest part of the cancel is indeed tied to the cover. So yes the clerk went to great pains to not obscure the address. The stamp is cocked off the edge of the cover and the back of that still has gum on it.
I looked at a bunch of other 1931-3 airmail covers and none of them were cancelled beyond the original cancel. The multiple trip cancels are because it was Special Delivery, and really make the cover!
And as an aside, the cover is smaller than I remembered. It has a purple tissue liner, so it probably held a card. Let's hope it was a birthday card and not a death notice!
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01:08:12pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
HAPPY NEW YEAR!(by Special Delivery)...is the obvious choice!
:-)
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"HAPPY NEW YEAR!(by Special Delivery)...is the obvious choice!"
But it was delivered on January 2nd, a day late!
The other day I was trolling through some old cards and found a valentine from a man to a woman postmarked on February 15th... kinda blew that one!
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04:51:49pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
B-b-but January 1, 1933 was a SUNDAY!
:-)
-Paul
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04:53:00pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
"Dollar short, and a day late."
Now, THAT would make a really FUN exhibit subject!
See you tomorrow, I hope, Tom.
-Paul
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05:21:19pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Really glad you started this thread, Bob, I'm lovin' it!
Here's one I picked up last week, for $20:
It's kinda a book-end to the "rolled cover" concept discussed in another thread.
Postmarked December 5, 1941 in Long Island, NY, censored, and then returned to sender due to Suspended Service (Clipper to Germany), received back in NY on July 26, 1942. I'm presuming that the reason service was suspended was that the US had declared war on Germany before the letter was delivered.
Probably not a philatelic cover. Sender and addressee seem to be relatives. No postal markings on the back.
Can anyone translate "Unterregenbach"?
Presumably, the addressee is in Wurttemburg?
This is the kind of juxtaposition with historical events that I crave in an item!
Isn't postal history intriguing?
Enjoy!
-Paul
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Unterregenbach is the town the letter was destined for. It's a part of Langenburg, which is in the state of Wurttemburg.
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Another cover made undeliverable by the Second World War:
It was posted in Liebertwolkwitz, Germany, a suburb of Leipzig, to a hotel in Kyoto, Japan on December 6, 1941, the day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Some members have seen this cover before. I've been a member of Stamporama forever, and have posted images of it in the past. I bought it in an auction here in Vancouver. It's one of those covers that I just had to have; I think that I spent $125 for it.
The front:
The back:
The back, inverted (so you don't have to stand on your head):
As you can see, it made it as far as New York City on March 23, 1942 where it was interned, but not just for the duration of the war. It was backstamped by the foreign registration office in San Francisco in April, 1948, and finally reached Japan, although there is no postmark indicating the date of receipt. (I'm sure that somewhere around here I've got a translation of the Japanese script, but I can't locate it.)
Bob
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10:02:11am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Ya, and double-censored covers are very neat!
When I see them, I give them a careful look.
Clearly, the cover from Germany to Japan was first censored in Germany. One could wonder why one Axis power would censor mail to another Axis power, until you attempt to understand German-Japanese relations in the 1930s and 1940s. Very complicated and hot-and-cold.
And, then, one could wonder why a letter from Germany to Japan would be routed through the USA. A two-ocean route seems a bit tortuous, but I have not studied the alternatives.
Strange that it took almost 4 months to get from Germany to NYC. The US declared war on Germany on December 11, 1941. I wonder if this cover went via Clipper before that date, and then sat in limbo in NYC until it was cancelled in March.
So much mystery!
Thanks for sharing, Bob!
-Paul
-Paul
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
I will share a cover from my collection, a "rerun" on Stamporama like Bob's cover, but perhaps some newer members have not seen it. The photo shown below the cover is the man who flew it and behind him is the plane he flew. It is a philatelic cover in nature, but I like it for the history involved of a famous American, Charles Lindbergh.
Linus
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11:17:46am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
I have been acquiring a fair bit of material documenting South American airmail. The earlier the better! Here's one:
Posted from Sao Paolo, Brazil on May 19, 1932. This was the day before the scheduled arrival of the northbound flight at Santos, the nearest stop of the Pan American Airways/PANAIR do Brasil regular service, on its way to an overnight stopover in Rio, that evening. The aircraft carrying this item was either a Sikorsky S-38 or a Consolidated Commodore flying boat, of which 4 of each were in service with PANAIR at that time.
There is a nice reference for early Pan Am timetables, here:
PanAm Timetables
PANAIR regular service began on March 2, 1931.
California Fruit Wrapping Mills produced paper wraps for fruit, beginning in 1926; established by the Swedish Fernstrom family, an example of foreign investment in the US. Bocciarelli & Betti was an engineering firm. Makes me wonder if the letter was correspondence exploring the feasibility of acquiring equipment to manufacture fruit packaging materials, or inviting the Fernstroms to invest in Brazil.
This rather modest cover checks a few boxes for me:
- It's not a philatelic cover
- It documents early international airmail service
- It reflects commerce
- It has two neat PAA/PANAIR handstamps.
- It has that neat Santos-Dumont commemorative stamp (C20).
Kinda wish it had an arrival backstamp, but from PanAm's timetables again, it would have arrived in Miami on Thursday evening, May 26.
-Paul
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Nice cancels and markings on that Brazil cover, Paul. Also, thanks for the link to the Pan Am timetables.
From my collection, scanned below, is an Indian airmail cover that I haven't had much luck figuring out how it went by air from India to Paris, France in 1930. There are no postal markings on the back, just a French customs form, as this item went stamp dealer to stamp dealer. Maybe somebody knows?
UPDATE...I received an answer to my question on another forum. Check out this link:
http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/iaw3105.htm
I love the Imperial Airways slogan: "Save Wear and Tear - Go there by Air"
Linus
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This is a facsimile of the cinderella stamp used in 1919 depicting the Vickers Vimy bomber G-EAOU (God Elp All Of Us) piloted from England to Australia by Captain Ross Smith. Letters were delivered with this stamp affixed, so it really was the first England to Australia delivery, albeit not an official postal run, but still.
I have a copy of a book describing this adventure, The Ross Smith England-Australia Flight -- A Postal History, by Col. Leonard H. Smith Jr. (1968) that depicts some murky photos of covers with the above "stamp" affixed. It was a harrowing journey to say the least. Not a lot of airports in 1919 to allow for cavorting around the world in an old World War 1 bomber. A lot of time digging out of mud, etc.
Eric
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10:33:07am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
We cannot let the Alcock & Brown flight of the Vickers Vimy go without mention! This was the first transatlantic airmail flight, June, 1919. It is commemorated by Newfoundland C2:
This one is not in my collection...yet. Prices for these stamps vary widely, from the sublime to the absurd. Would really like to own one on cover. Still waiting and watching...
Anyway, there is a very good, very immersive program on a replica of the Alcock & Brown Vimy in a British series, now on youtube:
Britain's Greatest Machines S01E02
Starts 39 minutes in.
And, there are many other videos on youtube of this remarkable machine.
-Paul
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In 1928 airmail rate was reduced from 10¢ to 5¢ regardless of distance, as Bob pointed out.
This cover sent from Atlanta, GA. Dec.1 1928 at 4am arrived in New York Dec 2 1928 at 10am.
Does 18 hours sound right?
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BuckaCover.com - 80,000 covers priced 60c to $1.50 - Easy browsing 300 categories
10 Jan 2019
04:48:53pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
"Does 18 hours sound right?"
30 hours.
Distance : about 800 miles
Average speed : probably about 75mph not counting headwinds
Best anticipated flight time: 11 hours
Average endurance: about 2 hours
plus handling at each end + refueling or hand-over stops (probably 4 or 5)
Sounds about right.
Roy
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Hadn't really thought about it that way roy. I guess 18 hours in 1928 was pretty good.
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"Hadn't really thought about it that way roy. I guess 18 hours in 1928 was pretty good."
2019- 2 seconds via email!
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09:52:07am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Veering this thread back on-topic, today I'll highlight the L.A.T.I. - Linea Aeree Transcontinentali Italiane. LATI was founded on September 11, 1939, in the immediate aftermath of Hitler's Blitzkreig into Poland, and after failed negotiations for technical support with France and Germany. The inaugural flight was made on December 21. The Savoia-Marchetti SM-83 flown on the return flight crashed near Marrakesh. Weekly service was provided until June, 1940, when after declaration of war by Italy on France and Britain, service had to be reduced to monthly crossings. Finally, service was permanently terminated on December 19, 1941 following the entry of the US into the war.
Equipment used were exclusively, Savoia-Marchetti land-based planes.
Here are a couple of covers:
I don't have this one in-hand yet, so I don't know if it has a backstamp or not. So, I can't establish the date. I did some research on the sender, and the company sold medical supplies (patent medicines and bandages). I found an advertisement in a 1936 German-language Nazi newspaper, Deutsche Morgen, published in Rio. I believe "Verbandstoffabrik" translates to bandage material fabricator. Molinari had a patented plaster cast material.
I agressively pursued this one, paying the princely sum of $10.98, because the backstamp appears to indicate that it was carried on the last flight.
Enjoy!
-Paul
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09:35:02pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Here's another, just received today:
I love covers with maps! Interesting that the plane in the cachet faced East on southbound covers, West in northbound covers.
Flown by B.L. Rowe, in a Fokker-10:
The plane on this flight was NC-5192, of which I could not find an image.
Here's a corner of the reverse:
I am attracted to covers with receiver cancellations, which document the transit time. The smudge on the obverse of this cover is a transferred impression of the same cancellation from a cover placed on top, ink still wet.
Enjoy,
-Paul
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These were part of a Nicaragua collection I purchased back in the 1980s.
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09:37:52pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Time to revive this topic (moved posting to this more appropriate topic)!
Sharing today's purchases:
This is the first of a pair of postcards which were issued to be used around the end-of-year holidays. In an apparent effort to generate volume, Air France offered a discounted rate for 5 words or less. This one says "Best wishes for 1937" and is postmarked January 2, 1937. From Hanoi, Tonkin, to Paris. These were the very early days of air service to Indochina. I believe at this time, flights were via Vientiane, Laos to Hanoi. The design is striking for its beauty, by noted graphic artist Herve Baille. Caption translates to "In all the skies". Depicts a Potez 62 which first flew in January, 1935. This plane was reliable, but slow, carrying 14-16 passengers at a cruise speed of 174MPH. I like this card because it has a receiver cancel, documenting the length of the voyage at 8 days.
Here's the second card of the pair:
Again, posted from Hanoi, Tonkin, late in December, 1937. These cards were valid for just a couple of weeks during the end-of-year holidays. I believe this one was issued for 1937-1938 and depicts a Dewoitine 338, which first flew in 1936, and carried 22 passengers. Just 30 of these airplanes were built. They were no faster than the Potez 62, cruising at 162 MPH. Design of card again by Herve Baille.
The winged horse emblem on both cards was the logo for Air France Cargo.
-Paul
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
The years in which both the Potez 62 and Dewoitine 338 made their maiden flights, 1934 and 1936, were in the some short period that Donald Douglas and his company took command of the emerging airliner market. They didn't relinquish their leadership until the beginning of the jet age when Boeing took over with the 707 launched in 1957. The Douglas aircraft were the pinnacle of piston engine airliners right up to the DC-6 and DC-7.
The impetus for Douglas to get involved with the market came in 1933 after Boeing had launched the modern looking 247 with an all metal construction. The Douglas prototype, the DC-1 changed the economics of commercial aviation when it was designed to compete with the Being offering. Looking at some specifications show that others ended playing catch up with Douglas from then on. Even the beautiful sleek French Dewoitine 338 trailed behind the DC-3 in both speed, range and probably cabin comfort as the central third propeller would have added to the cabin noise. (TWA who pushed Donald Douglas into the new design was looking for a three engine plane able to fly on just two of them as a safety feature. Instead Douglas gave them two engine aircraft that could fly on just one.)
The specifications listed are number of passengers, maximum speed and maximum range:
1933 Boeing 247 - 10 passengers - 200 mph - 745 miles
1933 Douglas DC-1 - 12 passengers - 210 mph - 1,000 miles
1934 Douglas DC-2 - 14 passengers - 210 mph - 1,000 miles
1934 Potez 62 - 14-16 passengers - 174 mph - 621 miles (Still constructed with wood)
1935 Douglas DC-3 - 21–32 passengers - 230 mph - 1,500 miles
1936 Dewoitine 338 - 22 passengers - 187 mph - 1,212 miles
I think you can see in the two years 1933-1935 modern commercial aviation is pretty well invented. It should be added that another impetus, this time for both Boeing and Douglas, was the encouragement given by the USPS and the US government by using air mail contracts to subsidize early commercial aviation.
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11:56:39am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Danny,
Thanks for your informative comments. Do you have any postal history to document the introduction of these airplanes?
You said:
"another impetus...was the encouragement given by the USPS and the US government by using air mail contracts to subsidize early commercial aviation."
Just to contribute to that assertion, it is widely held that PanAm received FIVE TIMES the revenue per loaded mile for hauling the mails as compared to hauling passengers. Furthermore, there was a breakpoint in the payment scheme and so reaching that threshold was incentivized. So, US government-contracted carriers were carrying out various schemes to put their "thumbs on the scale", so to speak. Here are a couple of items seeming to evidence that PanAm itself was creating covers to add to the mail volume. The cost of the covers was offset (at least in part) by the return in government payments to haul them!
I kind of have mixed feelings about the collectability of these covers. On the one hand, they document the times and places of these events as well as transit times. They're technically Genuine Postally Used, but all they contain is a thin sheet of cardboard. So, they made no contribution to communications, the penultimate mission of the POD.
The Air France cards I posted above represent a similar scheme to increase (artificially?) the volume of airmail, probably to boost the probability of success of the venture. I haven't studied French government airmail contracting, but these cards were sent at 1/5 the regular rate, plus the airmail surcharge - 7 or 8 centimes total - a pittance. I felt compelled to collect them for the curiosity of their existence as such, plus that they're early examples of Indochina airmail, plus the stunning beauty of the graphic design which also accurately documents the equipment used on the route.
-Paul
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07:15:31pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Here's another cover, mostly just caught my eye because it looked attractive. I think this must have carried on one of the FAM 9 flights by PANAGRA, it's dated 1936.
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Answering Paul, I'm afraid not much in the way of postal history, but I do have a good stamp collection on the history of the Douglas Company. The collection is intended to be used to illustrate a book I have written on the history of DC-3 and story of Douglas aircraft in general. At the moment my publishing workload has stopped me from finishing the fairly complicated type-setting, but hopefully later in the year it will be out as both an ebook and an unfortunately rather expensive full colour print on demand book at Amazon.
The history of government help in getting commercial aviation 'off the ground' so as to speak, using mail carrying contracts is well known and they certainly played a part in encouraging passenger carrying aircraft designs. Herbert Hoover in particular is often picked out for this encouragement although not well know for government help in other areas of policy.
So apologies for butting into your postal history thread, but the temptation to show why it is only in recent years we are more often in the air on French designed airliners rather than back in years surrounding WW2. In both cases the government subsidies or lack were at least one of the reasons.
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Hi Bob,
Your 1918 cover was sent from the city of Philadelphia. The route at the time looped from Philadelphia to Washington to New York and back again. Given that the sender wrote the other cities his letter would pass through he is telling us he is in Philadelphia.
I think the letter is overpaid. I suspect that the sender was under the impression that the air mail postage only paid for the air mail coverage and then he had to add a first class stamp for first class service from New York to New Jersey. Such misunderstandings would have been understandable in the first few months of the service. No additional postage was needed for the cover to get from one of the three Air Mail destinations to the final destination.
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
"... Here are a couple of items seeming to evidence that PanAm itself was creating covers to add to the mail volume ..."
I think that this places what is important to us before what was important to Pan Am.
First flight covers made nice advertising specialties for travel agents, for example ... better than another ball point pen, and way cheaper than another calendar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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09:27:34am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
ikey, I can't see how you reached your conclusion about "what's important", but that's OK.
I did write (peripherally) about what is important to ME when I said, "I kind of have mixed feelings...", but I'm not intending to generalize to "us" (presuming that refers to the community of postal history collectors).
Honestly, I just think what Pan Am was doing to maximize the value of its contract with the US government is a curious phenomenon. I wonder if the government negotiators anticipated that the generosity of their contracts would stimulate Pan Am to directly add to the mail volume. The overriding importance of fostering the strategic goals probably overrode any other concerns. I guess it's hard to say if Pan Am had the objective of capitalizing on some dimension of 'collectability', although the neatness of the covers and cachets would appear to suggest that was the case. Or, was Pan Am just engaging in some PR?
My preference in collecting items documenting the history of airmail are the more workaday covers that were (legitimate) communications rather than intended as keepsakes. It's also more challenging than collecting ceremonial First Flight covers, which are generally plentiful, once you get past the mid-1920s, when air travel developed beyond the experimental stage. At least one Pan Am Clipper pilot expressed disgust that a large portion of his payload was material created to serve the desires of collectors, in lieu of strategic materiel for the war effort, at a time when the logistics of getting materiel to North Africa and South Asia were extremely challenging.
It's also interesting that soon after the very earliest days, First Flight cover collecting became like a subscription service. In many ways, similar to the First Day cover collecting area.
-Paul
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09:17:20am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
nlroberts1961 posted a couple Pan Am/Panagra "test covers" in the Recent Acquisitions 16 topic. Some time ago, I acquired several that are very similar:
I gathered these as nice collateral items for my Mixed Franking collection. I don't consider these true mixed frankings, because the different country's stamps were applied for different routes. They're more 'return mail', I guess. I also like these covers for their markings, and because they document the duration of the voyages, which is what I think was their intended purpose.
Anyway, it's interesting to me that the top two covers appear to be return addressed by the same hand, only to different places. Looks like they were mailed at the same time, same place. The manuscript notation on the reverse of the middle cover is also interesting.
And, check out that cool Spanish Return to Sender pointing finger handstamp on the bottom cover!
Is the fact that these covers were all mailed on November 1 coincidence? nlroberts' two covers were mailed on October 30 and November 16. What was the deal with Pan Am?
Thanks,
-Paul
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04:13:40pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Per Roy Lingen October 2003:
Prior to November 1, 1946, airmail rates from the US to points south of Mexico varied from 25c to 40c per 1/2 ounce, depending on the destination country . On November 1, 1946 the US Post Office dropped all airmail rates to points in the Western Hemisphere (except Canada, Mexico and Cuba, which were already lower) to 10c per 1/2 oz. This was an enormous rate drop and was worthy of promotion to the public.
On Oct 23, the USPO issued a press bulletin announcing an opportunity for the public to test the speed and efficiency of the new, cheaper airmail service in cooperation with Pan Am Airways.
On one day only, November 1, 1946, collectors and other interested parties were invited to send covers to the Pan Am offices in 28 Latin American and Caribbean cities at the new 10c rate which took effect that day. Officials in the various Pan Am offices would mark the date the covers were received (generally with a dated handstamp), apply local postage to the front of the cover (at Pan Am's expense), mark the cover "Return to Sender" and hand the cover back to the local post office for airmail transmission back to the sender in the United States.
This was an opportunity for the sender to receive documented proof of the rapid turn-around time for airmail service, and marked a milestone in the rapid development in post-war air transport. Not everybody was happy, though. The philatelic press complained that the Post Office's notice was so short that their readers would find out about the event only after it occurred. I searched the weekly stamp column of the New York Times for the months of October and November 1946 and could find no mention of the event at all.
The Pan Am offices were instructed as follows:
1) Mark the cover "Return to Sender"
2) Draw a line through the address
3) Place proper airmail postage on the front lower left of the cover.
4) Stamp the back of the envelope with the date it was received in your office.
5) Return to the local post office
A total of 28 cities were involved in the test:
Caribbean
St. John's, Antigua
Willamstad, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles
Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic
Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe
Port au Prince, Haiti
Kingston, Jamaica
Fort de France, Martinique
Castries, St. Lucia, British West Indies
Port of Spain, Trinidad
Central America
San Jose, Costa Rica
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Tegucipala, Honduras
Managua, Nicaragua
Panama City, Panama
San Salvador, El Salvador
South America
Buenos Aires, Argentina
La Paz, Bolivia
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Georgetown, British Guiana
Santiago, Chile
Bogota, Colombia
Quito, Ecuador
Cayenne, French Guiana
Asuncion, Paraguay
Lima, Peru
Paramaribo, Suriname
Montevideo, Uruguay
Caracas, Venezuela
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Nice cover. I used to buy stamps from J&H Stolow back in the 1960s and early 70s when I was still collecting U.S.
FF
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03:07:25pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Have just added a couple more Air France holiday postcards to the collection:
First one is another by artist Herve Baille for 1939-1940:
Probably a philatelic item, but genuine postally used, nonetheless.
Took 6 days to go from Syria to St-Mars-la-Jaille, near Nantes near the coast.
Airliner depicted is the Bloch 220, an obvious competitor of the early Douglas DCs. Distinctive for the squared-off wingtips. First flew in 1935, 16 passenger capacity, Gnome-Rhone 14-cylinder radial engines, cruise speed 186MPH. 17 total were built. Air France introduced these to service in 1938, using them on short routes until they were appropriated for service in WWII. Six survived the war to be re-engine with Wright Cyclone engines.
And, this one from 1938-1939:
Probably also a philatelic item. Posted on the first day of use, in Algeria. Arrived Paris 4 days later. Airliner depicted in the drawing is too stylized to type. But, the route probably would have also been flown by the Bloch 220. Artist is not Baille, initials are in the upper right corner. Design seems to be a tribute to migration, suggesting seasonal vacationing?
I have become attracted to this series by Air France, both for the interesting purpose (end-of-year holiday greetings at a discount/generation of mail volume). The deal was, you got to send them for 1/5 of the postage in exchange for 5 words or less in a limited time frame, usually December 1 through January 15. I am also attracted to the stunning artwork. Not often seen, even at premium pricing. These are both in French, but I have seen others in the same time period with a South American theme in Spanish.
-Paul
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05:46:19pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
The Air France cards are very striking. I have seen a bunch of them with south american origins, the Syrian one is new to me.
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Just out of interest it would seem to me that the Bloch 220 shown in the postcard above should show up in some French stamps, but if it does I can't find them. Strange as it was French built and flying for Air France both before and after the war. Where it does show up is in at least one ex-French colony, Djibouti. Below is my CTO copy of a 1983 issue.
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06:55:08am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Given its very similar layout and design, it would seem that the Bloch 220 was potentially, a worthy competitor to the Douglas DC-2. Interestingly, the Bloch's 'payload' (difference between loaded and empty weight) was rated greater than the DC-2's, 6600 lbs vs 6150 lbs, though it had 35% greater wing-loading than the DC-2. The circumstances of WWII probably doomed the Bloch 220 to also-ran legacy. I suspect another significant difference was the engines, as the Bloch 220s that survived the war were re-engined with the DC-2's engines. This probably improved fuel efficiency and hence, range as the original Gnome-Rhones had 14 cylinders and the Wright Cyclones had 9 cylinders.
I also wonder if some of the 10 Bloch 220s lost after France was occupied by the Nazis were co-opted for use by the Nazis, as they did other aircraft and tanks produced in occupied territory.
-Paul
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08:12:54am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
According to
passionair1940 ten Bloch 220's were sold to Lufthansa and operated on Vienna - Berlin runs until 1944. If you check the list there it shows the fate of all the production models. The lufthansa histories makes little mention of the Bloch's although it lists a lot of other non-german types. Vienna was evacuated April 5, 1945 Lufthansa had only 3 aircraft and no mention is made of the Blochs so they must have been destroyed (confiscated by the soviets?).
The Bloch Company was nationalized in the pre-war shakeup of the French aviation industry and Marcel Bloch-Dassault was fired twice - 1939 being the last time. The reason the Bloch's went out of service likely was due to there being no spare parts.
The nationalization occurred because there many small manufacturers that were considered very inefficient and the goal was too boost production, though this was not really achieved.
One interesting highlight I did pick up from passionair data was the "Poitou", the aircraft that flew Daladier to Munich was a Bloch 220.
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09:49:37pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Here's another interesting Air France picture postcard:
It depicts the Bleriot 5190, built under contract by the French government. First flew in August, 1933. Put into transatlantic service in February, 1935. For the next couple of months, this plane carried all of France's transatlantic mail, making one crossing per week. The Santos Dumont, the only example built, continued in this role until June, 1937. By then, she had made 38 crossings. Louis Bleriot died in August 1936, and while there were 3 additional examples of this plane planned, the contract was ultimately cancelled, forcing the builder into bankruptcy.
The plane is remarkable in several other aspects. Note the tiny size of the crew compartment, in the pylon. It looks to be no larger than about 72 square feet, housing three crewmen, and a couple of sleeping berths. My bathroom is larger. At a top speed of 131 MPH, that must have felt like an incredibly long journey! It's actually a 4-engine plane, with a pusher engine in the center nacelle. It is named for Alberto Santos Dumont, a Brazilian aviation pioneer, credited for making the first officially observed flight in Europe in October, 1906 - length, 60 meters - for which he was recognized by the Aero Club of France and received a price of 3000 francs (about $12,000 in today's money).
I like the card's image, as it shows Paris and Rio de Janiero. Also, the stamp shows the same view of Rio. The card was not flown on the Santos Dumont as it was posted after its last flight. I like how it has a receiver cancellation, showing that it took 6 days to get to Prague.
Enjoy!
-Paul
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02:02:17pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Another great card.
According to David Crotty's article in Postal History Journal 149 June 2011. Air France did the Rio departures on Saturdays so your card was on an AF flight (as opposed to the Wed Lufthansa). The aircraft was one of 3 types - Farman 220, 2200 (F221.BN5) or 2220 all of which were 4 engine (paired push-pull) land based aircraft. I don't see any evidence of an F2220 with Air France, but the data is incomplete. There was 1 F-220 (The Centaur) and 4 F2200 according to Passionair website. The dates there seem a little confusing, but as best I can infer it looks like the F2200 was in service with Air France commencing in April 1937 and would be the best bet for your post card. It would have gone via Natal (Brazil), Dakar and Casablanca and then on to Europe though likely on different aircraft. And 6 days seems about right on schedule given it had to track to Prague. (Per the Air France Winter Scedule for 1937-38).
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10:46:39pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
The blessing of the fleet ~ common practice in the fishing industry but very neatly transformed ...
I've been to Shoal Harbour NL where the Balboa flight stopped over back in the day working for Canada Fisheries and Oceans Research ... that wasn't yesterday... where does the time go....
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
I wonder the same thing...could it have been 13 years since the big Washington 2006 show ? i had been going to the mega shows in Manhatten and the Javits Center since the mid 1980s but when i looked down on the floor of the Washington show...it looked like all creation !
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
13 Jul 2019
12:10:45am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
"... another interesting Air France picture postcard: ..."
That is one beautiful postcard, Paul. And your details flesh out
the craft's story . I hadn't seen the fourth engine. And the
"Bi-Wing"elevator must be a singularity.
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BuckaCover.com - 80,000 covers priced 60c to $1.50 - Easy browsing 300 categories
13 Jul 2019
07:53:26am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Here are a few Air France promotional picture postcards from my "Sold Database":
These are all pre-war. I have more from the 1940s-50s.
Roy
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09:31:06pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Nice cards, Roy!
Lately, I have been getting more interested in pioneering trans-Atlantic airmail. Here is a cover I just picked up for my collection, very reasonably priced:
"Aeropostale" was the shorthand name for "Compagnie générale aéropostale" a French company which began servicing its first route on December 25, 1918. By 1930 "the Line" was serving South America. Until May 12, 1930, mail was steamed across the Atlantic on a destroyer, and then distributed at either end with a variety of aircraft. On that date, the very famous pilot Rene Mermoz whisked across, eastbound, in a Latécoère 28.3 mailplane, in about 19-1/2 hours, accompanied by his co-pilot and expert radio navigator. The craft, outfitted with a 650hp Hispano-Suiza, and floats was the prototype (No. 919):
This was the first non-stop flight across the South Atlantic. There is an excellent page here: Latecoere 28.3 There were 10 built in the float plane configuration.
Mermoz made the return flight on June 8. The plane developed engine trouble about 14 hours out and was landed and set adrift after the mail was rescued, along with the crew.
The cover here appears to have been postmarked in 1930. Postmark is very difficult to read, typical of covers of this era. I think I see a "V" just to the left of the "30". Can anyone shed light on this postmark? The characters at the bottom appear to be "R.G.SUL". No back cancel. Stamps were issued in 1920 (Sc206), 1927 (C11) and 1929 (C20).
The thing that is most compelling about this cover is the handwritten "par avion Latécoère". Makes me wonder: could this be a cover carried on that return flight? It was certainly carried on one of the earliest flights if carried by an L.28.
When I get the cover under some magnification, maybe some more detail will appear in the cancellation...
-Paul
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12:18:00am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
looking at this further i think my info is just redundant ... c'est la vie
just a repost from a wiki but .... Finally, on May 12–13, 1930, the trip across the South Atlantic by air finally took place: a Latécoère 28 mail plane fitted with floats and a 650 horsepower (480 kW) Hispano-Suiza engine made the first nonstop flight. Aeropostale pilot Jean Mermoz flew 3,058 kilometres (1,900 mi) from Dakar to Natal in 19 hours, 35 minutes, with his plane holding 122 kilograms (269 lb) of mail.
Could that be your V ~ May...
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02:23:40pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
I found a nicer example of the cancellation on the 1930 Aeropostale cover above:
Its Porto Alegre, the capital and largest city in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, hence "R.G.Sul".
-Paul
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07:54:00am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Found this EXCELLENT book:
History of Air Cargo and Airmail from the 18th Century
French author, expertly translated to English. Extremely detailed and insightful history of airmail, with a worldwide focus.
-Paul
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04:18:55pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Pursuant to phil's book on Italo Balbo above, here is a complete set of poster stamps issued to commemorate the accomplishment:
It looks like they may have been done by different artists, but in my opinion, these are some of the most beautiful poster stamps of the era. Note that the architecture of Balbo's actual plane is faithfully reproduced in the images. These poster stamps are highly sought by collectors. I'm usually a stickler for postal context, but the graphic artistry of these just melts my resolve!
I'm not much of a student of this event in history, but I know it is a compelling story and it certainly generated a lot of excitement in its day!
Enjoy!
-Paul
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Pigdoc's post reminds me that I am separated just a couple of degrees from the Balbo flight. But first, some background:
I've always found the idea of "degrees of separation" — knowing someone who know or knew someone else who knows or knew a third person and so on — quite fascinating. l am two degrees of separation from Joe Rosenthal, the photographer who took the famous photograph of Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima. That photograph was reproduced on one to the most common American wartime stamps:
In the early 1950s, my father, a newspaper editor, met Joe Rosenthal when he came to Silver City, New Mexico, to photograph survivors of the Bataan Death March; many of the victims of the march were ill-trained members of Silver City's National Guard unit which was sent to the Philippines before the Second World War. I was also separated by just two degrees from one of the survivor of the death march, Bobby Jackson Jr.; he was my boss when I was in high school and worked in his drugstore selling cameras.
ln 2002, I interviewed and photographed Basil Hunter, a prominent member of the BC Philatelic Society:
Basil, who died a couple of years later, had visited the Chicago World's Fare as a teenager and was "treated" to a ride in one of Balbo's planes. He told me he had never been so frightened! Basil was an interesting man. He was the most openly gay man I've ever known. He was conscripted into the Canadian Army early in the Second World War, and had probably the shortest possible tour of duty. On the first day of basic training, he told an officer that he was homosexual and had no interest in being in the army. The next day was once again a civilian.
I have long coveted the key — expensive! — Italy stamps commemorating the Balbo flight to Chicago:
Bob
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
and, I think that NM NG unit was the 200th AAFA, which had just beeen converted from cavalry to Anti-Aircraft artillery. I have a cover sent to one of the members of the unit who was among those captured, but who didn't survive. His cover is a Service Suspended cover. There's also a society devoted to honoring this unit.
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
David said, "I have a cover sent to one of the members of the unit…" What was the member's name, David? Several of the surviving members returned home. One, Tommy Foy, became District Attorney. In the 1940s and 1950s, the population of Silver City and the surrounding "Mining District" was probably no more than 12,000, small enough that "everyone knew everyone else, sort of". I might recognize the name. It's too bad that the U.S. apparently has nothing like the British Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which includes the name of every known military and civilian victim of wars from the Boer War through the Second World War, and possibly beyond.
There's an interesting story that resulted from the capture of the Silver City NG members. By way of introduction, a Silver City real-photo postcard (note the flagpole, which was in the middle of the intersection of the two main streets in the downtown business district, Bullard Street and Broadway Streets):
At the right is Howell Drug, owned and operated by pharmacist Bobby Jackson, who was already elderly when I was in high school. His son, Bobby Jr., was my boss when I worked for him at Sav-On Drugs, just two blocks north. Bobby Jr. was one of the members of the New Mexico National Guard unit that was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines and somehow managed to survive the Bataan Death March. When Bobby Sr. learned that his son was a POW, he vowed to raise and lower the American flag on that flagpole until his son was repatriated, which is exactly what he did. And he and several businessmen who joined him carried on that tradition well into the 1960s and possibly beyond.
The next postcard shows a view of Bullard Street, taken one block to the north and looking south; you can see the American flag on the flagpole at the intersection of Bullard and Broadway.
A third postcard, taken on Broadway Street two blocks west of Bullard Street, shows the flagpole as well as the National Guard Armoury on the horizon, which is long since gone. When I was a senior in high school, a friend talked me into joining the Air Cadets. "Sure," I said, "I love to fly!" I lasted one meeting, which involved an hour of marching back and forth in that musty old armoury. I decided I wanted nothing to do with the military. And then, less than two years later, I joined the Navy! The Clark Hotel, on the left side of the street, is where my paternal grandparents lived for a while in 1945 while they waited to be assigned a cottage in nearby Hurley, where my grandfather worked as a machinist at the Kennecott Copper Corp. smelter. My grandparents had moved to New Mexico in hopes that my grandmother's TB would be cured by the dry Southwestern climate. I guess it did, because she lived for another 40 years, and died not of TB but of terminal crankiness.
I've never known the origin of the flagpole itself. It's possible, perhaps even likely, that Bobby Jackson Sr. paid for erection of the flagpole when he vowed to raise and lower the flag until his son was repatriated. The following image shows a postcard, postmarked in 1932, that shows a stanchion that might have been used to support the flagpole. Or, possibly, a new stanchion was installed; at some point in its history, the postcard was badly scuffed, and someone used a pencil in an unsuccessful attempt to mask the scuff.
The flagpole was removed at some point after I left home to join the Navy, in 1962, and was set up again at the local hospital, which was closed several years later when a new hospital opened a couple of miles away. Here's an image grabbed from Google Street View showing the current appearance of the intersection of Bullard and Broadway Streets, looking north on Bullard Street.
Hope you enjoyed this trip down my memory lane!
Bob
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09:50:32pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Putting this thread back on-topic.
Here's an interesting cover documenting a long distance, over-ocean delivery trip:
Picked this up at a very reasonable price yesterday. Obviously, a 'philatelic' cover, but I like it because of the mixed franking, and the fact that it's so, so early in the history of transatlantic flights (1934). Apparently, from the backstamp, this cover made the round trip, ending up back in the Netherlands in January, 1935. It's also Christmas-y!
KLM was not a big player in the Caribbean air cargo/airmail industry. "Snip" (snipe) was a Fokker XVIII, of which only 5 were built. She made a Christmas flight to Curacao, duration 55 hours, 58 minutes. She remained in service in Curacao until 1946.
A remnant of the airplane survives, in a museum in Willemstad, Curacao:
Interested an any detail others can provide!
-Paul
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Paul - I searched the internet for "KLM Snip" and came up with these old photos...
That is a really nice cover!
Linus
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Bobstamp:
Lovely postcards from your hometown. I do the same for my hometown, North Bay, Ontario.
With the downtown scenes, I try and get covers with corner cards of the businesses pictured.
David Giles
Ottawa, Ont,
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07:45:27pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Here is some more details on the Christmas flight of the Snip:
The crew was Hondong (pilot?), van Balkom, S. v.d. Molen and L.D. Stolk.
It left Amsterdam 15 December and flew through driving snow to Marseille. The next day it flew to Casablanca and after a 12 hour flight landed in Porto Praia. Three days later (20 December) it did the ocean crossing (3612 km) to Paramaribo. On 22 December the Snip flew to La Guaira and then to Willemstad. On 24 December it went on to Aruba. 16850 covers carried Amsterdam to Willemstad.
Postage 6 cents (domestic rate) plus 1 guilder air surcharge.
Your cover went back to Amsterdam by sea, postage 6 cents (domestic rate).
Jan
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08:50:52pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Thanks, Jan,
I see by your profile that you are perhaps a student of Netherlands postal history!
To me, the flight time that wikipedia shows as 55 hours, 58 minutes is quite fantastic. I cannot imagine the human and mechanical endurance required... That must have been the total air time, and not accumulated non-stop. If we presume that the cruising speed was something less than 200 km/hr, the ocean crossing would have required at least 18 hours, non-stop.
Non-stop ocean crossings at this time in history were a phenomenon. One must have embarked knowing that survival was not assured. Staking your survival on the engineering of the day is certainly equivalent to what we, today, can appreciate as space travel.
That is what causes me to collect covers like these!
-Paul
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10:03:54pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Paul,
I spent some time today looking through online Dutch newspapers. In December 1934 there were hundreds of articles about this flight. It was big news at the time, just a big as spaceflight was when I was a kid.
I managed to confirm that the air surcharge was indeed 1 guilder per 5 grams. There was mention of a special letter sent by former governors to the current governor. It weighed 270 grams and required 54 guilders of postage. That is a cover I'd like to see.
Jan
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10:51:50pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Paul,
One more detail since you were speculating on the speed. The Snip left Porto Praia 19:35 A.T. and arrived Paramaribo 12:45 A.T., so the ocean crossing took just a shade over 17 hours. This implies a speed of about 210 kph. (I don't know for sure, but I think A.T. means Amsterdam time. One reference implied it was about 20 minutes ahead of GMT.)
Jan
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Could AT possibly be Africa Time, as Porto Praia is just off the Coast of Africa.
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Coast to coast in 11 1/2 hours in 1953
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12:15:56pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Actually, it IS a Dutch Indies cover, to Curacao. The "SURINAME" in the cachet threw you.
From wikipedia:
"Used by KLM on its Amsterdam-Batavia route, the F.XVIII became celebrated in the Netherlands due to two especially noteworthy flights. In December 1933, one aircraft (registration PH-AIP, Pelikaan - "Pelican") was used to make a special Christmas mail flight to Batavia, completing the round trip in a flight time of 73 hours 34 minutes. The following Christmas, another F.XVIII (registration PH-AIS, Snip - "Snipe") made a similar flight to Curaçao in 55 hours 58 minutes after having been specially re-engined for the journey."
My cover is from the 1934 flight.
The very next paragraph in the wikipedia entry for the Fokker XVIII starts with this sentence:
""In October 1936, the F.XVIIIs were withdrawn from the service to Batavia, replaced by the Douglas DC-2."
DC-2s were purchased by KLM in late 1934, with 22 of them on register by mid-1935. The last 3 were purchased in April, 1936.
Now, if I squint real hard, it looks like the DC-3 in the drawing on phil's cover carries the registration of PH-ALI. If I take that to Golden Years Civil Aviation Registry, here:
Golden Years Civil Aviation Registry: Europe
...I find that PH-ALI (Ibis) was The First Douglas-Fokker DC-3 acquired by KLM on August 10, 1936. It was actually the only DC-3 acquired in 1936 by KLM. There were a bunch of them that came into service in March, 1937.
NICE! Thanks!
-Paul
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12:28:20pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Here she is:
I would dismally FAIL to come up with the correct Final Jeopardy question, "What is KONINKLYTE LUCHTVAART MAATSCHAPPY?"!
-Paul
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That was very informative. Learning all time! Thanx
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03:53:04pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
The Final Jeopardy category would be: Airline Monogram Meanings (Bet the farm!)
The answer would be: KLM
The English translation of the Jeopardy question would be: "What is the Royal Aviation Society"
-Paul
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Oh man!! You took my answer!! Lol
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
PER SECOND CLASS AIRMAIL. What is that? They don't get bourbon,peanuts,and hot towel?
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08:57:16pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
A drug-company rep/friend told me once that the flight to South Africa is the longest there is from the US. Googlemaps says that today, it's a 26-hour direct flight between Cape Town and Tacoma, more than 10,000 statute miles!
Interestingly, sender was confused and also wrote the street name for the city. Today, that address is a vacant lot in a run-down light urban area.
Can't quite make out the year in the CDS. 1969? Or, 1960 (pre zip code)? Could have been an early 707 flight. But, it would have required at least 2 fueling stops.
-Paul
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Thank you. That was alot of information out of a single cover.
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I believe it's 1960.
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08:29:29am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
That's a better image. You need a scanner for Christmas!
From the left most cancellation the month is XI (November) and the year is 63. From the center cancellation, the day is the characters farthest to the left - 19. November 19, 1963.
It's likely this cover was in transit when President Kennedy was in Dallas...for the last time.
-Paul
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
I was reading the date all wrong..
It would help also if the cancel was applied right side up lol
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Here are a couple more KLM trans-Atlantic Christmas-flight covers, one bound for Paramaraibo, the other for Curaçao:
What intrigues me about these covers is their relationship to the crash of KLM's first DC-2 airliner, the Uiver (Old Dutch for ("Stork"). TheUiver was perhaps the most famous KLM airliner ever. It was the first DC-2 to be sold to a carrier outside the U.S. In October, 1934, it placed 1st in the handicap division of the MacRobertson International Air Race between London and Melbourne, proving that large aircraft could transport goods and passengers between continents. The following original photograph from my collection shows the Uiver landing at Melbourne.
The Uiver returned to Amsterdam and was made ready for what would be its first commercial flight from Amsterdam to the Dutch colony of Java. With a crew of four and three paying passengers, the Uiver left Amsterdam on December 19, 1934. By that evening, after refuelling in Cairo and giving the passengers a break for a meal, the Uiver took off for Baghdad, but never arrived. The next morning, after violent storms had blanketed the Middle East, the burned wreckage of the Uiver was found near the village of Rutbah Wells in the Syrian Desert. This photo was published the next day in the London Times.
There were no survivors, and the cause of the crash was never determined. KLM carried out an "official" investigation, has never released the findings, and to this day does not publicly acknowledge that the crash happened.
Much of the mail on board the Uiver, comprised largely of specially printed Christmas envelopes and stationery, was severely damaged by fire, smoke, oil, water, and mud. This is the first Uivercrash cover I obtained, from my friend Ben Guilliamse, whose father posted it to Java; the mail bag it was in had apparently burst open on impact.
Some mail bags on the Uiver remained intact, and others were partially intact. These images show a cover in my collection that is undamaged, and another that has some light damage. Some mail was looted from the crash site, later to appear in the philatelic marketplace. Mail that could be forwarded to the recipients was transferred to another KLM aircraft and was delivered; badly damaged mail was returned to the senders, if possible. (All of the philatelic mail was designed to be returned to the original senders by the recipients. The triangular stamps were required for special Christmas flights; the stamps supposedly show the "Pander-Jaeger" airplane, but no such aircraft ever existed.
Uiver crash covers regularly appear in auctions and "buy-it-now" offers, usually for prices ranging in the $75 - $125 range. Occasionally you'll see undamaged covers offered for a few dollars, apparently by dealers who don't know what they are selling.
So, how does the crash of the Uiver dovetail with the flight of the Snip to Netherlands' Caribbean/South American colonies? The Uiver crashed on December 20, the same day that the Snip arrived in Curaçao. The crew of the Snip heard of the Uiver's crash via radio, which cannot have been comforting for them, at the end of the one of the more hazardous flights in history (although trans-Atlantic crossings by aircraft, flying between Africa and South America,by French pilots, had been a thing for a few years.) It's interesting that, in those days, global short-wave radio communication was possible between aircraft and land-based stations. KLM aircraft were in continuous contact with KLM offices in Amsterdam, but it wasn't what we're used to today, because the technology hadn't yet advanced to the point that vocal conversations were possible. Instead, radio operators used Morse Code.
Bob
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Wow, Bob -- that's an amazing story and an excellent write-up!
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That's why I love this hobby!! That was great.. thank you!
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12:56:08pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Bob said:
"The crew of the Snip heard of the Uiver's crash via radio, which cannot have been comforting for them, at the end of the one of the more hazardous flights in history. "
A reason for the discomfort, not least, must have been that Snip was a MUCH less capable aircraft than was Uiver!
I just watched a Smithsonian Channel episode of Planes that Changed the World on the development of the DC-3, which includes a lot of technical information on the DC-1 (which
DC-3 Planes that Changed the World
Thanks, Bob, for a very informative posting!
-Paul
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
@ Pigdoc said, “I just watched a Smithsonian Channel episode of Planes that Changed the World on the development of the DC-3, which includes a lot of technical information on the DC-1 (which was never built, after wind tunnel testing) and the DC-2.”
The Smithsonian Channel is wrong. A single DC-1 was produced, and was flown for several years. Here’s what Wikipedia says:
"One DC-1 aircraft was produced. The prototype made its maiden flight on July 1, 1933, flown by Carl Cover. It was given the model name DC-1, derived from "Douglas Commercial". During a half-year of testing, it performed more than 200 test flights and demonstrated its superiority over the most-used airliners at that time, the Ford Trimotor and Fokker Trimotor.
It was flown across the United States on February 19, 1934, making the journey in the record time of 13 hours 5 minutes. TWA accepted the aircraft on 15 September 1933 with a few modifications (mainly increasing seating to 14 passengers and adding more powerful engines) and subsequently ordered 20 examples of the developed production model which was named the Douglas DC-2.
The DC-1 was sold to Lord Forbes in the United Kingdom in May 1938, who operated it for a few months before selling it in France in October 1938. It was then sold to Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas (L.A.P.E.) in Spain in November 1938 and was also used by the Spanish Republican Air Force as a transport aircraft. Later operated by Iberia Airlines from July 1939 with the name Negron, it force-landed at Málaga, Spain, in December 1940 and was damaged beyond repair."
I have some interesting postcards of the DC-1 in my collection, as well as what appears to be a photograph of the DC-1 in early stages of testing.
• Two postcards picturing the DC-1 in TWA livery. The one at the bottom is a real photo postcard, the one at the top a poor half-tone reproduction:
• Detail image of the real-photo postcard showing the TWA registration number:
• Photograph taken on the day of the DC-1's first flight (I found it at an aviation show here in Vancouver); note the curious "fillet" between the left-engine and the fuselage. I assume that it was thought that such fillets would improve flight characteristics; I've never seen another DC-1 photo showing fillets, and they certainly aren't a part of the DC-2 or DC-3:
• A detail image of the wing fillet:
Thanks, Pigdoc, for the YouTube link. I'll be watching that!
Bob
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04:38:14pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
At the risk of turning this from a stamp collecting thread into an airplanes thread, in the Smithsonian 'documentary' (docu-drama?), it was discussed that the design problem with the DC-1 was associated with the straight (non-swept) wings. And, secondarily, it was discovered through wind-tunnel testing that wing root fillets greatly improved aerodynamics. Again, from the show, it was stated that this was the first airplane that benefitted from the research enabled by wind tunnel testing.
The chief innovation on the DC-2, over the DC-1 built prototype of the DC-1 over early design of the DC-1 was swept wings. This served simply to improve the location of the center of lift, relative to the center of gravity, and the change resulted in an immense improvement in handling. In the Smithsonian show, a pilot comments on how easy it was to fly the DC-3.
So, distinguishing DC-1 from DC-2 in images would simply be a matter of determining if the wings are swept, or not. Wing sweep angles between DC-1 as built, the DC-2 and the DC-3 were similar. In the image I posted above of first KLM DC-3 (sideview), you can see the elegance of the swept wings. Reminds me of what how the planform of a European Starling looks when it's in gliding flight! I would concur with Bob that the images he posted are of the DC-1. The "fillets" that Bob speaks to look like an experimental modification, perhaps to alleviate turbulence resulting from early attempts at wing root fairing (more commonly called fillets), or lack of same. In that picture, it's tough to tell because of the shadows, but it could be that the wing root fillets were a post-production modification. Just to the left of the line of shadow, at mid-chord, I see a line of new metal against more weathered metal to the left.
And to speak to phil's comment on the cost of flying in the early days, that was perhaps the innovation that cemented the DC-3's success - the airplane served to greatly increase accessibility of air travel to the general public...and made it "Great"!
-Paul
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It's easier to think of the DC-1 as the prototype of the DC-2. It did have the sweptback wings and did end up as a wreck during the Spanish civil war. Of course it could be called the prototype for the DC-3 also as the DC-3 was a derivative of the DC-2. If we compared it to the more recent Boeing 737 and all the versions that have followed from the original, all three of the first Douglas airliners would be DC-1s
Of the top of my head I think the only stamp showing the DC-1 is from the Samoa 1983 miniature sheet. The TWA markings are because the plane was made in answer to a TWA request as the waiting list for the Boeing 247 was too long.
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I remember as a child living in CA as my parents would drive by and remark "there's the McDonnel Douglas factory and I remember how huge the place was.(in the mind of a child). Good memories. I remember the Mattel factory also.
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I was a little kid on Long Island during WW2, anyone with a pulse was working in the defense industry. My father and grandfather were working for Sperry on the Norden bombsight (hush hush). Odd how you can remember being 5 years old but not what happened yesterday.
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09:22:37am
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
DannyS, thanks for your post, challenging some of the things in my postings. You have kept me busy, attempting to delve deeper into the sequence of designing the DC-1.
First, though, you are absolutely correct. The single DC-1 that was built, the DC-2, and the DC-3 all had swept wings. I tried to find the wing sweep angle specifications, somewhat unsuccessfully. But, the two references I found indicated that the leading edge sweep angle of the outer wing panels of the DC-1 and the DC-3 were very similar - 14 to 15 degrees. I think the fact that the DC-3 wingspan is some 10 feet (~13%) greater than the DC-1 wingspan makes the sweep angle of the DC-3 look greater if you're not looking at a wing planform. The longer wingspan of the DC-3 would also shift the center of lift aft, relative to the DC-1, improving stability and handling.
I found an article in a 1935 issue of Popular Aviation (by no means a primary source!), that mentioned that 3 different wings were tested in development of the DC-1. And, in what looks to be contemporary footage in the Smithsonian docu-drama shows a straight (not swept) wing on a scale model of the DC-1, hanging in a wind-tunnel. This is at 14:05 in on the video. The narration from that point to 15:00 states: "Raymond discovers that sweeping back the wings shifts the center of gravity, dramatically improving the plane's stability." (Actually, it shifts the center of lift relatively more than the center of gravity.)
And, I misquoted the Smithsonian show by saying the DC-1 "was never built". It never went into production. There is a short clip of the DC-1 taxiing at 17:10 of the video.
Thanks!
-Paul
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Paul, I have an advantage in that I have written a manuscript on the DC-3 which will be illustrated with postage stamps. It really covers the history of Douglas also. All I need to do is get the final 20-30 stamps and design the layout. I then need to find a publisher, but seeing that I'm a publisher that shouldn't be too hard. Problem is that for the last couple of years I spent far too much of my time publishing other peoples books. Next year my semi-retirement should involve less work so hopefully...
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I'm glad that the question of DC-1/2/3 wing sweep has been cleared up. I was beginning to doubt my memory!
DannyS is correct, I believe, that Samoa is the only country to have issued a stamp showing the DC-1. I've looked through my own collection of aircraft (mostly airliners) on stamps and failed to find a single one, not even the Samoa stamp! Which isn't surprising, considering that the DC-1 was on "public view" for such a short time before the DC-2 took flight.
For a dive into what it was like to fly the DC-2, you can't go wrong with Ernest K Gann's book, Flying Circus. Chapter 15, "The Dutch East India Men," is devoted to the DC-2 and contains fascinating information that I've not seen elsewhere. It includes a beautiful double-spread DC-2 painting, as well. Go to this ABE.com page for reasonably priced copies. (The entire book is well worth reading.)
There is certainly no question that the DC-2 and DC-3 ushered in the age affordable flight, but American Airlines, seems to have been slow to realize the full potential of the aircraft. The first DC-3s weren't DC-3s at all. They were DSTs, or Day Sleeper Transports, built with sleeping berths above the seats and little windows for the sleepers to look out of before they went to sleep or when they woke up. On a coast-to-coast flight across the U.S., passengers could sleep through necessary nighttime landings for fuel and supposedly wake up refreshed on arrival necessary. Sounds great! Probably was great! But it wasn't long before the airline realized that it could make more money by removing the sleeping berths and installing more passenger seats. That was probably one of the first steps toward making airline flight for the common man a pain rather than a pleasure.
Here's a real photo postcard, which arrived in the mail just last week, showing DSTs lined up at La Guardia in 1941. The sender notes, "It's a beautiful sight to see at night." Wish I could have seen it! Looks like the plane is ready for take-off — the propellers are whirling.
This detail image shows the small sleeping birth windows above the main passenger windows:
Bob
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Great postcard of the DSTs Bob.
Another interesting fact I've posted before that Shirley Temple's song The Good Ship Lollipop is about a DC-2. Fortunately there is a US stamp of the young (at the time, 1934 I think) actress.
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04:52:46pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
There is a website devoted to memorializing the 50th anniversary of Uiver's record-making flight in the MacRobertson Air Race, in 1934:
Uiver Memorial
Apparently, Uiver has been reproduced.
Interestingly, I can find nothing on the website referring to her loss, as documented by Bob.
-Paul
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Paul(PigDoc) said, "Apparently, Uiver has been reproduced. Interestingly, I can find nothing on the website referring to her loss, as documented by Bob."
The Uiver has indeed been "reproduced," which means that a DC-2 was refurbished in the 1980s to resemble the Uiver, and has been flown on many occasions. A few years ago it was damaged when one of its main landing gears collapsed; a collapsing landing gear was not a serious problem for the DC-1/2/3 because, intentionally, the wheels do not fully retract into the wheel wells, but will act as "bumpers" if a collapse does occur. The Uiver II is currently on display at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. Here is a photo showing the arrival of the Uiver II at Schiphol Airport following its maiden flight (as Uiver II) from the U.S.:
One of the difficulties with documenting the Uiver's crash is that there has been little translation of Dutch newspapers articles and books about the plane.
The Uiver's first place win in the handicap division of the MacRobertson International Air Race between London and Melbourne put the Netherlands in the lead in the international race to develop profitable commercial and airliners and routes for passengers, cargo, and airmail. With its landing in Melbourne, following a perilous nighttime landing on a racetrack at Albury, Australia, the previous night, Uiver became an "aviation rock star" back in the Netherlands and put KLM Airlines at the forefront of the industry. Then, when the Uiver crashed in the Syrian Desert on its maiden commercial flight, the Dutch people were plunged from national aviation pride and ecstasy into days of national grief. As I wrote in my previous post about the Uiver, KLM has never released the findings of the team of investigators it sent to the crash site, and does not acknowledge the crash.
There is no question in my mind the the people of the Netherlands were heavily invested emotionally in the Uiver. I have made a habit of asking Dutch citizens that I meet if they know about the Uiver. I've never met one who isn't familiar with its story.
Most of the information I learned about the Uiver came to me via translations from Dutch to English by my friend Ben Guilliamse, whose father mailed my first Uiver cover to a friend in Java.
In 2004, three years after my wife and I moved to Vancouver, we were saddened to learn of Ben's death in Prince George, where we had lived for 28 years. Ben and his wife were our landlords in our early years in Prince George.
We were living in a house trailer ("mobile home") near my school; when we asked if we could buy it, they readily agreed, and used the money we had paid for rent as a down payment.
After a career as a technician for BC Telephone, Ben had learned to fly and started a one-man bush-plane service for visiting American hunters. Here's a photo of Ben in his rather spiffy bush pilot uniform!
On June 7, Ben had taken off beneath a low ceiling, with permission to fly VFR (Visual Flight Rules) to a remote hunting camp in northern BC. Moments after he took off and entered low clouds, a witness saw his Cessna plunge straight down out of the clouds and crash into a bog just off the end of the runway. Ben was killed instantly. His body was retrieved moments before the plane sank out of sight in the bog; the plane could not be recovered because the bog was in an ecologically protected area. No cause for the crash was ever determined, but I suspect that Ben experienced vertigo, and wasn't experienced enough to rely on his instruments.
I have developed some of my own theories about the Uiver's crash. The crash flight took place during the transition from fall to winter in the Middle East. At that time, prevaiing winds carry a heavy burden of moisture from the Atlantic across the Mediterranean and into the Middle East, where it collides with the cold continental air mass being pushed down from Siberia. On the night of the crash, a series of huge storm cells had developed over most of the Middle East; the search for the Uiver, in fact, was delayed because of those storms.
I think that the Uiver might have caught fire because it was struck by lightning. In those days, before static wicks were invented, aircraft could build up huge charges of static electricity. Normally, because aircraft are not grounded, the electricity just bleeds off any "sharp" edges, such as the trailing edges of wings and tails. But the Uiver's control surfaces were covered with linen coated with a plasticized lacquer called "dope". Dope is highly flammable. I think that the Uiver's control surfaces could have been struck by lightning and burst into flame in the air, which guaranteed its crash. The following photograph provides evidence the severity of the fire:
I spoke once with a Transport Canada air crash investigator about my theories. He mentioned one thing about the early "DC" aircraft — their engines leaked oil and gas like a sieve, which might have made the DC-2 especially vulnerable to lightning strikes.
Bob
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12:37:04pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
I just had the good fortune to see the first two episodes (of three) of a new documentary series produced by American Public Television. It was released in May of this year. Details here:
Across the Pacific
There are detailed descriptions of the episodes and some 30-second previews on the website. Doesn't look like its been bootlegged on youtube yet.
It chronicles the development of air travel across the oceans, focusing around Pan Am. A little over-dramatized, but very informative, with lots of great period footage. Well laid out, chronologically. And, it captures the excitement of the early breakthroughs. Lots of technical detail. Richly embedded in the culture of the times.
Look for it in your local PBS TV listings!
-Paul
PS, also can be seen on Amazon Prime!
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06:08:52pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Just arrived today:
Flown Washington,DC to Philadelphia, received July 29, 3:XXPM.
(You can tell the departure city from the postmark - it's the one on the bottom. In this era, there were only 3 departure cities.)
Anyway, I thought the markings were curious. July 29, 1918 was a Monday, and I presume "Closed 4:25 PM" in pencil indicates that the delivery address was closed when the postman arrived. As far as I can tell, this was a dentist's office in 1918. It's been subsumed by the Convention Center. Francis H. Earp appears to have been a book collector, and perhaps a dentist. He specialized in Civil War and Erotica, and maybe stamp collecting. I believe he was in his early 50s at the time.
I know that the 16c rate paid for Special Delivery, but I don't understand the meaning of the "FEE CLAIMED..." marking. I presume it's a claim for the Special Delivery charge. There's also an illegible marking in purple below the "CLOSED" at the bottom.
The stamp is not clipped at the top, I just cropped the image a bit too closely.
Nice addition to the collection!
I thought $30 was not unreasonable...
Enjoy!
-Paul
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30th Street train station ?
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You can find the 3 part documentary Across the Pacific at the following address.
https://www.kpbs.org/news/2020/aug/13/across-pacific/
I watched the first episode and it seems to be a good docu-drama. Again it pushes that it was friendly government airmail contracts that supported early commercial aviation in the US.
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01:02:01pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
This morning, as I was watching the news on TV, they showed a clip of New Year's fireworks, in Perth, Australia. That got me to thinking, "International Date Line...hmmm..."
I prefer the airmail covers I collect to have receiver cancellations on the back. That way, the duration of the delivery and flight are documented. So, I went to my collection and pulled out these two.
First, the westbound first flight:
Seven days and 4 hours.
Then, the eastbound first flight:
No time in the cancellation on the front, but four days (and change).
How'd they do that? The International Date Line! Added a day to the westbound trip, saved a day on the eastbound trip! (Not accounting for intervals from processing to take-off, or for delays, or for prevailing winds which would have shortened the eastbound trip).
Flights were made by China Clipper, a Martin M-130:
First flew December, 1934, one of three total built. She crashed on January 8, 1945 on approach to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on her way to Leopoldville, Belgian Congo, in Africa. 23 passengers and crew were killed, there were 7 survivors, including the pilot.
Happy New Year!
-Paul
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05:51:08pm
re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Don't have any postal history to go with this posting, but for the interest of the Douglas transport fans who have contributed to this topic, here goes. It is a story that appeared in the March 2021 issue of Smithsonian's Air & Space magazine:
FRANKENPLANE
The big silver airplane parked in an open field was the only worthy target for miles. The Japanese bombers quickly sieved the exposed Douglas DC-3 with hundreds of machine gun bullets. Hugh Woods, a pilot with China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) was watching from a nearby hillside. His heart sank as a 100-kilogram bomb detonated under the right wing of his aircraft, throwing dirt, grass, and splintered aluminum across Suifu airfield.
His crew and passengers were alive and unharmed, but his precious airplane was gone. With the wing mangled, there would be no chance of escape. More attackers would soon return to finish the job. The best Woods and his men could do was hide the wounded airliner among the trees, radio back to base, and hope for a miracle.
In the spring of 1941, Douglas transport aircraft were nearly priceless in China. When CNAC’s chief of maintenance Zygmund “Sol” Soldinski received the news in Hong Kong, he decided it was well past time to start drinking. As Sol downed a few glasses of White Horse whiskey, he deliberated the problem with managing director P. Y. Wong.
There was no spare DC-3 wing in China. Douglas Aircraft Company would take months to make another one. And then they couldn’t ship it, at least not on an American vessel. There were wartime neutrality laws. Even if they had a wing, and it was in Hong Kong, how would they get it 860 miles into the middle of nowhere? There was seemingly no practical way to get the job done.
Shuffling back through CNAC’s hangar, Soldinski approached a group of mechanics, overhauling a Douglas DC-2. When he suddenly asked the men if a DC-2 wing might fit on a DC-3, they gawked at him, speechless. Surly old Sol had finally gone mad.
But as they measured, calculated, and experimented, it soon became clear that Sol, even slightly tipsy, had pretty good instincts. Thrifty Donald Douglas and his engineers had in fact used the DC-2 wing and center section butt plate jigs for their newer DC-3. It wasn’t a perfect fit, but it would work, assuming that the repaired aircraft could fly safely with a replacement wing that was almost five feet shorter than the original.
Reinvigorated, they hatched a plan to sling the spare wing under the belly of a CNAC DC-2 with the tip facing aft. Crewmen built a temporary fairing over the exposed wing butt to maximize aerodynamic flow over the unusual load.
When the replacement wing finally arrived at Suifu, it took crews several days to patch up the DC-3, remove the maimed right wing, and put the new one in place with the help of shims, freshly drilled holes, and more than a little prayer. All the while, the men watched the skies, hoping the Japanese wouldn’t appear again to spoil their work.
Though seemingly hopeless at the start, Sol’s hare-brained plan succeeded. CNAC pilot Hal Sweet took off in the battered bird and reported it flew surprisingly well, though the airplane constantly pulled off to one side like a car that was severely out of alignment. Upon safe arrival in Hong Kong, CNAC mechanics took several photos of what they jokingly called “The DC-2½” before they began the long job of repairing the aircraft.
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After Mao's revolution CNAC was nationalized. We can be pretty sure even the DC-2s were still in use much later as they show up on a set of four airmail stamps in 1957. On the stamp below the tail fin join to the fuselage of the flying plane shows it to be a DC-2 rather than a DC-3 which they also had.
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re: Early airmail postal history and stamps
Further to earlier discussion of the Piper Cub, here's an autograph of the artist, Ren Wicks, who designed the Piper stamp (and the Igor Sikorsky stamp as well).
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Three of my favourite airmail covers:
Homemade cover featuring cutout of Douglas DC-3
Lockheed Constellation Air India FFC
Illustrated commercial cover picturing a Trans-Canada Airlines Lockheed Elecetra (like the plane Amelioa Earhart was flying when she disappeared over the Pacific.
Bob
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