International Exhibition of Air Mail Postage (1969)
A special
three-week exhibition of airmail postage was shown from 12 to 30 May 1969 at
the Montreal headquarters of ICAO to mark the 50th anniversary of
Alcock and Brown’s feat. The exhibition
featured one of the largest collection of rare air mail postage ever shown in
North America, and was organized by Mr. R.J. Hiscock, noted Montreal
philatelist and Chief of the ICAO Management Services Office. Airmail postage
of 66 nations was presented at the exhibition. From the early ventures in the
airborne delivery of mail, world civil aviation now carries letters into the
farthest reaches of civilization. International airmail provides a medium of
fast communications, and encourages greater understanding and trade among
people of different nations and different cultures throughout the world.
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Commemorative
cover addressed to R.J. Hiscock The Canadian
green stamp (Scott #493), showing a globe and tools of various trades, was
issued on 21 May 1969 for the 50th anniversary of the
International Labour Organization (ILO). Postmark dated 21 May 1969. |
The first nation
to officially authorize airmail was India when, in 1911, a small aircraft flew
six miles to deliver 6,500 letters and cards. Italy, Australia, the United
States, Great Britain and France also pioneered in the establishment of airmail
services in the early days of aviation history. The Government of Italy had
experimental airmail flights as early as May 1908, but issued provisional
airmail postage only in May 1917.
Nearly a year
later, Austria established a regular international airmail service between
Vienna and Kiev, Russia. Similar services were soon established by other
countries as well, i.e. London to Paris in 1919, Seattle to Victoria, B.C.,
Canada, in 1920.
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Newfoundland – 9 June 1919 Scott #C2 |
These were
relatively short distances, however; the first long distance delivery occurred
when Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown (Alcock and Brown) flew, for the first time in
history, non-stop across the North Atlantic Ocean from St. John’s, Newfoundland
to Clifden, Ireland on 14-15 June 1919 in a Vickers Vimy bomber in an historic 16-hour flight.
It is to be noted
that, in 1913, Britain’s The Daily Mail newspaper had offered a £10,000
prize for the first crossing of the Atlantic in a heavier than air machine. In
pursuit of the prize and the glory that would accompany the win, Alcock and
Brown were chosen by Vickers Limited to compete in the transatlantic race.
Fitted with extra fuel tanks, a modified Vickers-Vimy World War I bomber
was shipped to Newfoundland; this place was a favoured take-off point for
pilots attempting to cross the Atlantic. Once reassembled, Alcock and Brown
performed several test flights in Newfoundland. On 14 June 1919, they departed
Lester’s Field, St. John’s and some 16 hours later, they crash-landed in a bog
at Clifden. Alcock and Brown has successfully flown the Atlantic non-stop and
won the race. They collected their prize money and donated part of it to the
workers who had built the aircraft. The trip had not been an easy one; the pair
of aviators faced problems of heavy snow, electrical storms, icing on the
aircraft, a damaged radio, and strong winds. On 21 June 1919, Alcock and Brown
were presented to King George V and were knighted. Following the Atlantic
crossing, Brown never flew again; Alcock died in a plane crash in France in
late 1919.
The exploits of
Alcock and Brown were noted philatelically at that time when
Newfoundland was taking advantage of fledgling flights by issuing special overprints.
On 9 June 1919, the post office of Newfoundland had overprinted 10,000 of the
15-cent stamp Scott #70, issued on 24 June 1897 for the 400th
anniversary of John Cabot’s discovery of Newfoundland and the 60th
year of Queen Victoria’s reign, with the text Trans-Atlantic/AIR
POST,/1919./ONE DOLLAR., to become Scott #C2. Alcock and Brown carried 196 letters and one parcel using Scott
#C2 and postmarked between 10 and 13 June at St. John’s. Alcock took the small
mailbag to London, England, where they were again cancelled on 17 June 1919.
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Canada – 13 June
1969 Scott #494 |
It was the first
time mail was carried by air across the Ocean. “This letter I am sending by the
first transatlantic air post, which I am going to carry …”.
These confident words were written in a letter addressed to his parents by John
Alcock on 14 June 1919. A few hours after landing, his letter was stamped and
posted. The first transatlantic airmail delivery had been accomplished. Alcock
and Brown risked their lives in a momentous adventure
across the Ocean, as they crash-landed in a bog.
The Canadian stamp
(Scott #494), issued on 13 June 1969 for the 50th anniversary of the
first non-stop transatlantic flight, shows the Vickers
Vimy and a map of the Atlantic.
American pilot Steve Fossett and co-pilot/navigator Mark Rebholz
successfully re-created the historic, first-ever 1919 transatlantic flight of
John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown, landing their replica of the Vickers Vimy
wood and canvas biplane on the Connemara Championship Golf Links in Clifden,
Ireland, just after 17h00 local time on 3 July 2005. The re-enactment of this
landmark in the world of air transport, following the original route exactly,
took 18 hours 15 minutes, as Fossett and Rebholz took off Saturday night 2 July
2005 from St John's, Newfoundland, and flew at low altitude and at
approximately 100 knots airspeed all through the night, navigating by sextant,
compass and chart (instruments
available to the crew in 1919), and hand-flying the accurate replica of the WWI
era bomber. The open-cockpit biplane was almost the same as the original Vimy
flown by Alcock and Brown, but it had two Canadian Orenda V-8 engines in place
of the original pair of Rolls-Royce Eagle V-12s.
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Newfoundland – 1932 - Unissued stamp |
An unissued stamp, related to the First Transatlantic Air Mail
and Passenger Flight, is interesting to note. In 1932, the government of
Newfoundland had the Bureau of Engraving of Minneapolis, Minn., produce 400,000
of the stamp under a contract with Aerial World Tours of Minneapolis. The tour
company was to sell the stamps to raise money for the flight and took a lot of
25,000 stamps to sell. The stamps would be good for airmail postage on the
flight. The company procured a Sikorsky seaplane and stationed it on Wayzata
Bay in Lake Minnetonka, but it was unable to raise enough money to make the
flight. On 10 September 1932, Newfoundland cancelled the contract and ordered
the bank holding the balance of the 375,000 stamps to destroy them.
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During the ICAO Air Mail Postage Exhibition, R.J. Hiscock explains to visitors the special
issues on display. |
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