The American Air Mail Society

A Non-Profit Corporation under the Laws of Ohio

Organized 1923 Incorporated 1944

PRESIDENT Joseph L. Eisendrath

350 No. Deere Park Drive Highland Park, Illinois

SECRETARY Ruth T. Smith 102 Arbor Road

Cinnaminson, N. J. 08077 TREASURER

John J. Smith 102 Arbor Road

Cinnaminson, N. J. 08077 VICE-PRESIDENTS

Samuel S. Goldsticker, Jr. Herman Kleinert Lester S. Manning

Dr. Perham C. Nahl EDITORS - Other Publications

L. B. Gatchell Geo. D. Kingdom

ATTORNEY George D. Kingdom SALES MANAGER Herman Kleinert

213 Virginia Ave., Fullerton, Pa. DIRECTOR OF

FOREIGN RELATIONS Dr. Max Kronstein

AUCTION MANAGER Samuel S. Goldsticker, Jr.

ADVANCE BULLETIN SERVICE Paul Bugg

3724 Old York Rd. Baltimore, Md. 21218

TRANSLATION SERVICE Roland F. Kohl Leutholdstr. 22

Zurich 10/37, Switzerland AUDITOR

Stuart J'. Malkin DIRECTORS

Paul Bugg, Robert E. Haring, Mrs. Florence Kleinert, Dr. Max Kronstein, George L. Lee, Dr. Southgate Leigh, Arthur M. Schmidt, William R. Ware MEMBERSHIP DUES - $5.llO

per year Include subscription to The AIRPOST JOURNAL. Appli­cants must furnish two refer­ences, philatelic preferred. At least one must reside in Appli­cant's home town. Applicants under 21 years must be guaran­teed by Parent or Guardian. Membership may be terminated by the Society in accordance with its By-Laws. Correspondence concerning sub­scriptions. back numbers and bound volumes, address changes and other matters and all re­mittances should be sent to the Treasurer. All general com­munications and advertising should be sent to the Editor.

t&RlrpO!!ST ..Jaurnl:71 Official Publication of the

AMERICAN AIR MAIL SOCIETY

Vol. 35, No. 12 Issue 412

Contents .............. September, 1964 1939-1964: 25th Anniversary of U.S. Trans-

atlantic Air Mail Service ................................ 330

Foreign Pioneer Airpost Flights 1909-1914 (Part C. XV.) ...................................................... 336

Airs of the Month ....................................................... 342

Southern Hemisphere Air Mail News ................ 344

A;rport Dedications .................................................... 345

The Sikorsky Twins (and The Philatelic port) .......................................................................... 346

CAM Bulletin'. .......................................................... . 349

Australia's First Air Mail 1914-1964 .................... 350

A New President for Pan Am ............................ 355

Seen and Read by the Editor ........................... 356

Book Reviews ........................................................... .

"Uncle Sam" Sez

Offficial Section, AAMS

EDITOR Robert E. Haring

358

359

360

242 Hardenburgh Avenue, Demarest, New Jersey ASSISTANT EDITORS

Joseph L. Eisendrath Dr. Max Kronstein Ernest A. Kehr L. B. Gatchell

DEPARTMENT AND ASSOCIATE EDITORS R. Lee Black, N. Pelletier, Florence L. Kleinert. Robert W. Murch, Richard L. Singley, William R. Ware, .Tames Wotherspoon, John Watson, William T. Wynn, Jr., Frank Blumenthal, Samuel S. Goldsticker, Jr., J'. S. Langabeer, M. P. Codd. Published monthly at Albion., Erie Co., Pa., U.S.A. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office

at Albion, Pa., February 10, 1932, under the Act of March 3, 1879.

The AIRPOST JOURNAL is not conducted for profit. The Editor and all others serve without compensation. Receipts from advertising, sub­scriptions and contributions are applied to the betterment of the magazine and the promotion of aero-philately. The Editor and Officers of The American Air Mail Society assume no responsibility for the accuracy of statements made by contributors. Every effort is made to insure correctness of

all articles. Subscription Rates: $5.00 per year, 45c per copy. Advertising Rate Card available from the Editor

AIR POST NEW ISSUES

OF THE ENTIRE

WORLD

PAMPHLET UPON REQUEST

Nicolas Sanabria Co. Inc.

A. MEDAWAR, PRESIDENT

521 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. 10017

We are philatelic auctioneers

and specialize

in providing

a competitive market

for stamp collections

and other philatelic properties

Qver 35 years' experience

assures the maximum

in results

Your inquiry is welcomed

IRWIN HEIMAN, Inc.

2 West 46th Street New York, N.Y. Telephone: JUdson 2-2393 Suite 708

Serving American Philately Since 1921

This Beautiful Two-Color

Cachet Envelope Serviced - 30c Each

Serviced Combination With "ECHO" and "MERCURY"

Stamps - - 45c Each

CACHET ENVELOPES - POSTPAID -

2 For 20c 20 For $1.25 '1 For 35c 50 For 2.50

10 For 75c 100 For $4.50

Send Sc Coin or Stamp for List of 20 Different All-Purpose U.S.A., U.N., Canada, Canal Zone, Space,

Nuclear Ships, Etc. Cachet Envelopes.

Jim Novotny Clay Center, Ohio 43408

1939

1964

PA..LV" ·A..a.C:

26TH ANHIV!RSARY

flRST AIR MAtL

FLIGHT

.25th Anniversary of U.S. Transatlantic Air Mail Service

• (Editor's Note - Since the keynote of our 4lst Anniversary Convention is the 25th Anniversary of Transatlantic Airmail and of the New York VVorld's Fai1'S,, we thought it appropriate to delve into airmail history as reported in The Airpost J oumal for May, July, and Aug.ust, 1939, and give you the sto111 of Pan Am's Northern and Southern Transatlantic Routes as it was originally told to our members by the late Walter]. Conrath twenty-five years ago. Some of the information has, of course, been incorporated in our Catalogues; the balance hM probably been read only by those of you who have been loyal AAMS' ers for a quarter of a century or morel Here it is for our newer readers to enjoy and for others to reminisce over. As a sequel ta thfa story we refer our readers to the news item about Pan Am's Captain Harold Gray today, which appears elsewhere in this issue.)

The Southern Route to F ranee Short Notice Marks

Release Of New Stamp sary of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh's epochal pioneer transatlantic solo flight of May 20, 1927.

The "YANKEE CLIPPER," ca,rrying Inaugural Plans Rushed a load of United States Air Mail, made Although plans for the inauguration history on the afternoon of May 20 and operation of the North Atlantic air when she took off from the waters of service had been under consideration for Manhasset Bay, New York, on the first a number of years and physical equip­regularly scheduled air mail flight across ment was evidently in order for some the North Atlantic between this country weeks, international complications and and Europe. The inaugural flight of the postal difficulties made it necessary to great four-motored, 41 112 ton flying boat withhold announcement of the first flight of Pan American Airways culminated to within a very few hours of the actual years of careful planning and experimen- sailing time of the clipper ship. Under tation and gave the United States date of May 19, the day before the supremacy in being the first nation to inauguration, the Post Office Department operate an air service ove,r this important made first official announcement of the trade route between the New and the date of the flight by the following .re­Old World. The inaugural transatlantic lease from the Information Service: flight also marked the twelfth anniver- "Acting Postmaster General W. W.

33Q THE AIRPOST .JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

Howes announced this afternoon that trans-Atlantic Air Mail Service will be inaugurated tomorrow, May 20, at 12 noon, Eastern Standard Time, when the P~n American Airways Yankee Clipper takes off from Port Washington, New York, on the first leg of its first official flight to Europe.

Under the schedule announced today by Mr. Howes, the Clipper will arrive at Horta, Azores, at 7:00 a.m., May 21; Lisbon, Portugal, 4:00 p.m., May 21; and Marseille, France, 2:00 p.m., May 22.

The schedule for the return flight caUs for the Clipper's leaving Marseille, May 25, at 7:00 a.m.; Lisbon, May 26, at 8:00 a.m.; Ho,rta, May 26, at 2 p.m., with arrival at New York scheduled for May 27, at 7:00 a.m."

A~thority Perm.it Anticipated

Although inauguration of the trans­atlantic' route, known as F. A. M. 18, was directly dependent upon the grant­ing of a route· certificate by the Civil Aeronautics Authority, the Post Office Department undoubtedly anticipated fa­vorable action upon the request of Pan American Airways to fly from this coun­try to France and England and return. Hearings by the Authority began April 10 and continued for a numbe,r of days, with announcement of the granting of the certificate withheld until a very short time before the actual first flight.

The Post Office Department, however, continued to make plans for the com­pletion of the hundreds of problems in this new international exchange of mail, iµvolving new rate charges, new stamps, ca.chets, monetary exchange, backstamp­ing, return of first flight collectors' cov­ers to senders, and numerous other knotty problems directly concerned with the fou.r international post offices touched by the flight. It is understood this func­tion of the department was recently transferred· from the International Postal Service to the Division of Air Mail Service, under the capable hands of Cha.rles P. Graddick, Superintendent.

Postal Details Rushed Time was insufficient to properly com­

plete arrangements with the Post Office Departments of the foreign nations and

as airways and government officials were most anxious to inaugurate the route be­fore June 1, when England was expected to put a regular service into operation, the Post Office was forced to send out bulletins for the information of collectors desiring to send covers from all points.

. Less than a month before the flight, the cities to be serviced and the route to be flown were not definitely known, although the department was able to set the transatlantic rate at 30 cents per half ounce.

The complete table of foreign: rates for the transatlantic air service was not made known to the U.S. Post Office De­partment until May 5, only fifteen days before the actual' flight; and was then released.

New Stamp A Surpris~ Coming as an ahnost complete surprise

to collectors, who had given up hope of a definitive stamp for the transatlantic service at this late date, Postmaster Gen­e,ral Farley decided v_pon the issuance of a new 30-cent stamp for, the route on the night of May 5, and miide announce­ment to the pre~s the following morning."

The special air mail stamp was to con­form in size arid general design with the current six-cent air mail issue of 1934 except for the denomination designation of 30 cents and the added inscription "Trans-A flan tic." ,. ·

Released the same day' were .the com­plete charges for the servicing of first flight crbvers by Pan Amerig;:m.

'Record Production of Sf~mp . On May 10 a bulletin disclos~d the

new 30-cent air mail stai;llp V110lild be ready rfor first day sale at New Yo.rk May 16, just teri days after the initial announcement. Although ,records have not been carefully checked, it seems cer­tain the production and delivery of this stamp was accomplished with a speed never before attained.

The new stamps were printed in blue ink on the flat bed presses from plates announced as numbers 22381 and 22-382. The design changes noted above were made, together with the addition of two Atlantic su.rface craft, steaming on the ocean, at the base of the design.

A Post Office release dated May 11

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964 331

I advised that the New York Postmaster, upon request, would affix the new 30-cent air mail stamps to covers to be dis­patched on the transatlantic flight.

Inaugural Flight Routine

Although the inaugural f light of the transatlantic route took place the day following its announcement, members ~f the ·crew and officials of the airways handled the epochal event much as a routine operation of the line. There were about 1,000 spectators gathered at the Port Washington base to witness the takeoff Captain Arthttr E. LaPorte was commander of the ship and there were thi.rteen other members of the crew and three observers of the company on board. No passengers will be carried on the transatlantic line until five ·round trips have been completed. It is understood that weekly service will be ·provided.

serv1cmg at intermediate points and re­t urn via the same ship. All covers o,rder­ed through the airways for dispatch from Horta must necessarily have been taken to that city by the initfal flight of tl].e Clipper. The same situation undoubtedly existed in relation to the covers to be dispatched fro~ Lisbon, and, possibly also from Marseilles.

The Post ONice Department's official New York cachet consisted of a rec­tangular upright box enclosing a line drawing of the "Yankee Clipper" flying above the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. The words "United States of A­merica" appear above; "First Flight FAM 18" at the left center; and "Trans-At­lantic Air Mail Service" across the base.

Mail Causes Delay At Horta, Azores, initial stop of the

"Yankee Clipper" on the eastbound first flight, Captain LaPorte was delayed al­most four hours over the scheduled stop­over. The delay was caused by the in­abrlity of the Horta Post Office to stamp some 23,000 collectors' ·covers which ar­rived on the Clipper from the United States .

Cable reports indicate volunteers were called in to aid in handling the mail and Pan American officials had to collect additional stamps from · surrounding is­lands, as supplies in Horta were com­pletely exhausted. A similar situation oc­curred at Macau on the initial flight of the transpacific F.A.M. 14.

Clipper Goes to England The Clipper arrived at Marseilles, east­

ern terminal of the present flight , the afternoon of May 22, app.roximately 45 hours and 33 minutes elapsed time from Port Washington, N.Y. After discharging

Capt. Arthur E. La Porte, skipper of a cargo of mail for Continental Europe the first flight on the ,Southern Route the ship took off the .following morning

to Marseilles, 1939. (May 23) for Southampton, England, which will be the terminal when the

Mail Load Heavy regular ,route is extended in the future. Newspaper .reports, unconfirmed by No official U.S. Mail was to b e carried

the Post Office or airways, indicate there to England on the present flight. were approximately _ 187,000 pieces of Returning to France, the "Yankee United States Air Mail aboard the "Yan- Clipper'? took off from Marseilles on the kee Clipper" upon her initial regular morning of May 25, inaugurating the takeoff for Europe. The.re is every prob- first westbound transatlantic flight ability these figures include covers being which a.rrived at New York May 27, via carried by Pan American Airways for Bermuda, an unscheduled stop.

332 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

The Northern Route to England

The "Yankee Clipper" at Botwood, Newfoundland, on the Historic Inaugural Flight, June, 1939,

"I am thoroughly convinced that trans­Atlantic flying will grow by leaps and bounds. It is comfortable, sa.fe, and saves a world of tim.e. It was great, and I en­joyed the trip very much."

That is how Charles P. Graddick, Su­perintendent of Air Mail Service, Post Office Depa.rtment, briefly summed up his reactions to the Mstoric round trip flight of the "Yankee Clipper" inaugurat­ing air mail service on the northern route of F. A. M. - 18 between New York and Southampton, England, June 24-July 1, 1939.

"Charlie" G.raddick, who is known to hundreds of AAMS members and who has .flown on every air mail route in the country, was an observer and the official representative of the United States Post Office Department on first flights ove.r the shortest and fastest transatlantic route. Accompanying him as fellow pas­sengers and observers were high govern­ment and airways officials.

Atlantic flight. It required very little time for the chief of the Air Mail Service to make up his mind. He left Los Angeles via American Airlines at 4:30 o'clock the a.fte.rnoon of June 22. After stopping for a few hours at Washington to get his South American passport amended, to­gether with the necessary visas, he stop­ped overnight at a New York hotel on the 23rd, the eve of the takeoff for Europe.

Bright and early the next morning Su­perintendent Cha.die Graddick was at Port Washington, in readiness to board the giant "Yankee Clipper" for the first northern route flight. A corps of news phc'tographers recorded the historic de­parture, and we see Mr. Graddick, who has the distinction of being both an hon­orary and an active member of the AAMS, posed with the group of officials on the flight and waving a cheery good­b ye as he walks over the wing and into the cabin of the huge seaplane. The take­off is chronicled at 8 : 21 the morning of June 24, with arrival at Shediac, New Brunswick at 3:04 that afternoon.

And to prove to you that he loves to fly a1~d secure fi,rst hand information on the a:Jways which c~rry the U. S. Mail, it is interesting to note that Mr. Fog Delays Graddick had just reached Los Angeles Let Air Mail Superintendent Gra{idick from a thirteen day flying trip through explain the weather conditions which de­Cuba, Colombia, the Canal Zone, Mexico layed the initial flight at this point. He and other Central American countries states: "Fog closed in at Botwood and when he received the telegram inviting Shediac. This is .due to the fact that there him to accompany the inaugural north are mountains in the vicinity of Botwood.

THE AIRPOST JiOURNAL, SEP TEMBER, 1964 333

There is an elevation of 1,600 feet, and the ceiling was down to 600 feet. No doubt when the pilots have had mo.re experience on the route, they will make instrument approaches and will get into Botwood even with these limitations."

After waiting nearly three days Pan American Airways' "Yankee Clipper" took off from Shediac, on the second leg, at 12:49 p.m., June 27, ar,riving at Bot­wood, Newfoundland 7:25 p.m., taking off on the long ocean hop of nearly 2,000 miles to Foynes, Ireland at 8:51 p.m., the same evening.

The Ocean Span Flying throughout the night and the

following morning of June 28, the party arrived at Foynes at 1:00 p.m., where they were greeted and honored at a luncheon by President. De Valera. The depa.rture from Ireland was at 4:04 p.m., with arrival at Southampton, England, the Eastern terminus, at 7 :50 p.m. The Imperial Airways arranged a special train for the party, which brought the officials into London at midnight.

Aside from paying several visits to the Post Office at London, Mr. Graddick was a gue1.i: at luncheons and parties given by the British Minister of Air, the Unit­ed States Ambassador and the British Airways. He reports that every minute of the short English visit was taken up, and we seriously doubt if there was time to "sightsee." Howeve,r, included in this classification was a:1 inspection of the lmpe,rial Airways base at Southampton, where Mr. Graddick reports viewing quite a number of the flying boats used in the Empire plan.

The inaugural westbound flight of the route took off from Southampton at 3:07 p.m., June 30, arriving back at Port Washington, New York, the following day, July 1, at 7:11 p.m. Supe,rintendent Graddick left New York the same eve­ning via Eastern Air Lines, arriving in Washington at midnight.

Smooth Sailing The facilities available on the large

clipper ship made the trip both com­fortable and enjoyable, according to Graddick. The lounging and sleeping facilities were ideal and meals were se.rved at regular intervals. According to

New York. The Shediac - Foynes cachet was also applied to mail addressed to England and other European points.

Pan American Airways listed Capt. Harold E. Gray as captain of the first flight, with Capt. Arthur E. LaPorte act­ing in the position of captain as far as Eotwood, Newfoundland. Other members of the crew making the initial flight were given as Capt. Charles A. Lober, first officer; Robert M. Elzey, junior flight officer; Audrey M. Durst, junior flight officer; James M. McLeod, junior flight office.r; James W. Etchinson, Jr., engineer tatoes, string beans, iced tea, preserved pears, cheese, demi tasse and mints.

Handling of mail on the northern route was ,reported to be quite uniform with the possible complaint that English postal officials refused to backstamp received covers, including much registered mail, in practically all instances. Mail destined for Fovnes (Dublin), Eire received the usual backstamp, together with the of­ficial Irish first flight cachet applied in blue.

No official cachets were applied to any of the mail dispatched from Southamp­ton, England, or Botwood, Newfound­land, although the Pan American Air­ways aoplied private markings to covers serviced. The Canadian Post Office De­partment authorized and applied cachets in black for dispatches Shediac - Bot­wood, Shediac - Foynes, and Shediac -the menus, which Mr. Graddick has shown the writer, one of the luncheons aboard the "Yankee Clipper" on the flight to En!!land included hearts of cel­ery, assorted olives, iced cantaloupe, French double lamb chops, peas, shoe­string potatoes, iced tea, strawber.ry shortcake, demitasse and mints.

On the return trip the interesting menu cards reveal the fliers' breakfasts included prune JUlce, sliced peaches, sliced bananas, preserved figs, drv cereals, boiled eggs, sausages, bacon, marmalade, 0mrant iellv. coffee, tea and hot choco­late, a remarkable complete selection to be served high above the Atlantic with the comfort of home. The luncheon menu during tlrn return trip included olives, half fresh lobster with mavonnaise, tur­key with cranberry sauce, shoestring po-

334 THE AIRPOST JCOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

officer; Addison W. Beideman, radio offi­cer; Francis C. Dixon, asst. radio officer; William Thaler, steward; and Frederick Pearson, steward .

F. A. M. 18 Route Schedules Clipper ships on the c L1rrent schedules

of the Southern Route leave Port Wash­ington at 2 :00 p .m. Wednesday of each week, arriving at Marseilles, France at 3 :00 p.m. Fridays. Returning they leave MarseiUes a t 7: 00 a.m. Sunday, arriving at Port Washington at 7 : 00 a.m. Tues­day. The southern .route covers 4,650 miles. Figured to Southampton, via the southern route, and eliminating Mar­seilles, the distance would be 4,369 miles ( New York-Southampton ) .

On the Northern Rou te departures from Port Washington are made at 7 :30 a.m. Saturday, with arrival scheduled at Southampton, England for 1:00 p .m. Sunday. Returning the ships -leave Eng­land at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday and reach Port Washington at 2:00 p.m. Thursday. The distance via this northern route from

ew York to ·Southampton is listed at 3,418 miles for an ave.rage run.

The Super-Clippers The "Yankee", "Atlantic'', and "Dixie"

Clippers, now being operated in trans­atlantic service by Pan American Airways are from a fleet of six super clippers constructed for the airways by th e Boeing Aircraft Company for ocean flyin g. They are the largest aircraft­eit·her military or commercial-in tl1e world. They are capable of traveling 190 m. p. h. at high speed, and have a cruis­ing speed of 150 m. p. b. The wingspread is 152 feet, weight 41 lh tons, fuel capa­city 4,200 gallons. Their range is 4,275 miles and ceiling 21 ,000 feet.

The clipper ships are powe.red with four Wright "Cyclone" radial double-row 14 cylinder air-cooled engines, each rated at 1,500 h. p . The ships can carry a cargo of 5,000 pounds. A maximum of 7 4 pas­sengers can be car.ried on the new clipper ships, with a capacity of sleeping 40 passengers overnight.

The clipper ships have double decks: a flight deck, and a main deck. The main deck includes five passenger cll!bins, each with accommodations for 10 daytime or

(Continued on Page 353)

J.lir Post

Stamps Are Frequently Offered

In Our General Sales Fully illustrated, accurately described auction catalogues gratis on request.

* * * And when you come to sell, write for our booklet, "Modem Methods of Philatelic Selling," explaining clearly all the advantages of selling through

H. R. HARMER, INC. The "Caspary" Auctioneers

6 West 48th St .. New York, N. Y. 10036 PLaza 7-4460

THE CONSTANT SUPPLEMENT

THE AIRMAIL ENTIRE TRUTH is the regular 3-times a year news­

letter providing all the advance in­formaUon about happenings in the aerogramme fie ld as well as in air­mail envelopes / airmail postal cards. Thousands of collectors depend on it for accurate reports. They supplement their knowledge & they profit by it. They protect themselves against spur­iou s issues. It is

THE CONSTANT SUPPLEMENT to their catalogues. and may be

had entirely free against a supply of 5c stamped & addressed legal size en­velopes.

LAVA The Distributor of the Barbados Error

Box 1. Fort George Station New York. N . Y. 10040

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964 335

Foreign Pioneer Airpost Flights, 1909-1914 c. SPECIAL POSTAL CANCELLATIONS OF THE PIONEER PERIOD

XV. 'DHE PIONE'ER DEVELOPMENTS IN BELGIUM AND LUXEMBURG

By Dr. Max Kronstein

• E ven though Belgium is small in size, it has always played an active part in European development so it is not surprising that it also participated in early avia­tion competitions which were started in neighboring France. At the beginning of the year 1909, an aviation exhibi.tion was held in Brussels; one of the exhibitors was Baron de Caters who showed a plane with three-layered wings with which he had made small flights in the vicinity of the Castle of s'Gravenwezel near Antwe,rp. Later in the same year, with a biplane, he was one of rt:he active participants in the avia­tion events at the International ILA Exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany.

On September 8, 1909, there were demonstration flights at To-urnai, Belgium. According to the text on the reverse side of one of the cards - now in the collection of this reviewer - a visitor there saw PauJhan on a Voisin biplane, Bleriot on his monoplane, and Latham on an Antoinette. He reported also that the Belgian public was most interested in Paullrnn's flight because that aviator was Belgian-born. Six ca,rds were sold at the airfield, issued by E. Bauters in Brussels: three showing each

Special Card Issued at the Airfield · 'Tournai Air Meeting, 1909

of the aviators and three showed them on their •airplanes One of the latter is iJ.lus­trated here. But no special cachets were used.

Shortly afterwards - still in 1909 - Belgium organized its first international aviation event, the Grande Quinzaine d'Aviation de Spa, September 20 to October 3, 1909. Many of the great aviators of the period participated, including Voisin, Latham, Paulhan, Sommer, Delagrange and others.

A number of special cards was issued on this occasion, showing various aviators with their machines and bearing a blue-green imp.rint "Grande Quinzaine d'Aviation Spa 1~09". These cards' exist with the postal cancellation of the period, but there

336 THE AIRPOST J-OURN AL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

are no reports that any of these cards were flown. (Some of these cards also exist with a misspelled imprint "Avigation" instead of "Aviation"). Another ca.rd exists, printed in four colors, showing the Sommer airplane flying over the aviation ground of Malchamps with its stands and also, in a small circle, a picture of Sommer at the Spa meeting. A commemorative pro&ram was also sold at the field, but no special postal cancellation has been reported.

Somewhat later in the year another aviation meeting was held in Antwerp, from October 23 - November, 1909. For this event cards we,re issued with a cachet "ANVERS AVIATION" in both French and the Flemish language. This bilingual cachet was necessa.ry because nowhere in Belgium is there a more evident separation between the French-speaking and the Flemish-speaking population than in An­twerp. This ,reviewer stayed there once for a few days with the specific purpose of learning the Flemish language.

In January, 1910, another aviation exhibition was held in Brussels. But the first great event of 1910 was not in Belgium itself, but in the small, beautiful neighboring country of Luxemburg. This was the aviation week in the resort of Mondorf, June 5 - June 12, 1910. It was o,rganized by the Luxemburg Aero Club and the Mondorf Aviation Committee (Chairman: Karl Bettendorf) as an inter­national event, but because of the limited size of the aviation ground the number of competitors was limited to six. Actually only five aviators appeared at the start. These we.re Baron de Caters (on a Voisin biplane), Mollieu (on a Bleriot mono­plane), Christiaens (on an H. Farman biplane), Barrier (on a Bleriot monoplane) and de Petrowsky (on a Sommer biplane). Six different competitions were held and the necessary prizes fo.r them were provided, although not all of them were actually won because the required accomplishments were not fulfilled by the participants. Both de Caters and Barrier had accidents during the first day, but in spite of ve.ry poor weather the aviation events did take place with the Grand Duke of Luxem­burg and his family attending the flights. Christiaens won the prize fo.r the longest nonstop flight with a flight of 59 minutes, 28 seconds; Petrowsky made a 57-minute flight.

Official cards were issued by the Aero Club of Luxembu.rg. The postal ad­ministration established a small postal bureau at the flying grounds where the ca.rds received a special octagonal cachet reading "MONDORF les BAINS, CHAMP D'­AVIATION - date" in three lines. The possible dates are between June 5 - 12, 1910. Although none of these cards evidently was flown, the cancellation is rare today, since evidently only a few people attended the flying field due to poor access con­ditions. It was before the age of the automobile, and railroad communications to the field were not well organized. Nor was there a philatelic group in Mondorf which might have added to the interest in this issue.

In the following month a great event was held at the Brussefa-Stockel Avia­tion Grounds (actually the Stockel Racing Grounds). It was known in those days as the Great Aviation Meeting of Brussels, but it is now listed philatelically as the Stockel Meeting. Fo.r this meeting the Belgian Postal Administration, used the first postal cancellation provided for an aviation event in Belgium. It was a circular cachet, reading "STOCKEL-AVIATION - (DATE) - STOCKEL LUCHTVAART". T0here are no indications that any items actually were flown, but cards with this cancellation are ve.ry rare today.

Other cards of the event are inscribed "Quinzaine d'Aviation de Stockel" or "Meeting d' Aviation d'Stockel (Bruxelles) - Juillet - Aout 1910", as illustrated.

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964 337

,.... Mlle tin • <I' A¥1at1~~rde Sto<:k 1 (Sr,u~ru) . - Ju1u e<."1'out HH o Van .den Born, ay depart .

Special Card! Issued at the Stockel Air Meeting, 1910

Since at the same time a great exhibition was being held at Brussels, cards posted in that city show the Brussels cancellation with an additional inscription "Brussel-Tentoon-stelling - 1910 - Bruxelles Exposition".

T.he meeting started on July 28 and ended on Augu t 4, 1910. Therefore, the cachet can exist with any of these dates. The event was opened by the King and Queen of Belgium, who were greeted by one of the aviators, Van den Born, landing on the field right below the Royal stands. The neA.'i: day as many as 50,000 persons appeared at the field, and Belgium's most popular flyer of the pe.riod, Olieslagers, carried on. Despite the fact that he lost tluee plane in accidents, he established the World Altitude Record for those days with a flight to a height of 1,460 meters. An­other successful .aviator of the meeting, Kinet on a Farman biplane, had a total flying time of two hours, 35 minutes, 44 seconds, whenr a sudden windsto.m1 era bed his plane to the ground, killing him instantly.

In the Fall of 1910 another international aviation event was held in tl1e Brussels area. It was the MeeUng of Kiewitt-Hasselt with such special events as the "Circuit de la Cam pine" won by Frenay (on a Farman biplane), who flew 170.76 kilometers in three hours, nine minutes, 52 seconds. Anotl1er special event was a round trip flight between Kiewitt and Maastricht. As Maastricht is in Holland, this was an international event. It was won by de Laminne (on his Farman biplane) with a flying time of one hour, two minutes, and 18 seconds. Beaud was second; Verschaeve damaged his plane landing in Holland and was unable to complete the round trip, This reviewer has not yet seen any special cards or cachets from these events.

There was still another great competition that year for the fastest round trip flight between Paris and Brussels. The prize was 100,000 francs, given by the Auto­mobile Club. It was won by Wynmalen (with Dufour as passenger) on a Farman biplane witl1 a rather long flying time of 27 hours, 50 minutes, 28· seconds. Quite a few aviators attempted to beat this flynig time, but none was capable of com­pleting the circuit unde.r better conditions. Here too, no philatelic documents have been reported.

338 THE AIRPOST J OURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

In 1911 special cards and a vignette were is ued at a local aviation event at J emappes, but this reviewer has never seen them. Perhaps this event was some­how connected with the great European Circuit, which started h1 Vincennes near Pa.ris with 68 entries on June 18, 1911, and on the same day reached Rheim (France) and Liege (Belgium), where the number of participants had already been reduced to 25. From Liege the flight wentl over to Ho11and (to Utrecht via Venlo ), but reh1rned by way of Breda and Berchen to Brussels. F.rom the Belgian capital it continued via Roubaix - to Calais, Dover and London, then back to Dover, Calais and Amiens to Paris. Only four aviators completed the tour, as outlined earli r in a report of the French events (December, 1963, APJ) . The pecial vignette which was issued in France, also has already been mentioned but the design also shows the coat of arms of Brussels ( together with those of Paris , Utrecht and Lon­don) . Therefore, aerophilatelically this vignette also belongs under Belgium. It was issued in seven differe11t colo~s and is p erforated 12. No special cachets or cancella­tions we.re used at the Belgian airfields on this occasion .

It should also be noted that ilie coat of arms of · the Dutch city of Utrecht on this vignette from the European Circuit represents one of the very few docu­mentary items of the pioneer period related to the beginnings of Dutch aviation. The fact that Holland was one of the host countries and that several landing fields were available there to the participants of this circuit, makes it evident that Holland, too, took an active part in the development of aviation. Nevertheless, catalogues make no refe.rence to any Dutch vignettes, cachets or cancellations from this 1909-1914 period of dev.elopment. The only vignette of the period listed in the Dutch Airpost Catalogue (edited by R. Tocila )t is an vignette issued •by a chocolate .factory (April, 1912) which carried in the design the word "Lucht Post" (Air Mail), but which is not connected with any specific air ·event of the period.

The Belgian developments of the year 1911 continued with a Tour de Belgique which was held from August 6-15, 1911, again based at the Kiewitt­Hasselt aviation field. This tour was won by the Belgian aviator J. Olieslagers, who flew the 625-kilometer tour route (nearly 400 miles) in seven hours, 18 minutes, 26 seconds . A special vignette was issued inscribed "Tour de Belgique - en Aeroplane -

Belgian Pioneer Vignettes, Lefl to· Righi: Hydroplane Competition, ·Tamise - 1912; Tour de Belgique - August, 1911;

Aviation Exhibition, Brussels - 1913.

THE AIRPOST J OURN AL, SEPTEMBER, 1964 339

Organise du 6 au 15 Aout par - 1 'Aero Club de Belgique", as illustrated above. A Belgian catalogue also lists a meeting at Dinant, but gives no details about

any special issues for the occasion. In 1912 at an international competition of hydroplanes at Tamise there was a

card issued, printed in color, showing three hydroplanes over the Escaut ( Scheldt) River. This card was issued in both French and Flemish languages. Othey cards are imprinted "TAMISE, Concours d'hydro-aeroplanes 7-16 Septembre 1912". A vig­nette (in French) from this occasion is illustrated. It also exists with Flemish text.

It is surprising that there a.re no cards, cachets or vignettes reported from this period which relate to balloon events. Belgium was very active in the Gordon Bennett Balloon Competitions and even the German special stationery ca.rd of that competition for 1912 shows in the lower part - among the coats of arms of the pa.rticipating nations -·the Belgian coat of arms (the first one at the left upper cor­ner). This card was reproduced on the cover of the March, 1962, issue of The Airpost Journal.

The year 1913 started with an aeronautical exhibition in Brussels, January 11-12, and the special vignette at right above was issued on this occasion. But the main aviation and airmail events of ·the year were connected with the WORLD'S FAIR at Ghent. These have already been discussed in The Airpost ]ournarl of June, 1961. Since this earlier report was written, quite a few more un­listed mail flights have been found to have taken place. They are reported in the contemporary aeronautical magazines, fo.r instance, the English Flight, but were not referred to in the philatelic press. The listing given in June, 1961, can therefore now be extended as follows:

May 1, 1913 - Ghent-Brussels-Ghent May 17, 1913 - Ghent-Antwerp-Ghent (90 minutes round trip) May 21, 1913 - Ghent-Tournai-Ghent May 25, 1913 - Ghent-Mons-Ghent ( 160 km. flight in 70 minutes) May 29, 1913 - Ghent-Ostende-Ghent . June 21, 1913 - Ghent-Selzaete-Ghent July 15, 1913 - Ghent-Bruges-Ghent July 21, 1913 - Ghent-Ostende-Blankenberghe-Ghent

(It is possible that there was a previous flight to Blankenberghe on July 17)

July 31, 1913 - Ghent-Blankenbe,rghe-Ghent (see photo, p. 1053, American Air Mail Catalogue, Volume II, 1950)

August 6, 1913 - Ghent-Ostende (The pilot landed on the sandshore and was met there by his parents, continuing then to Blankenberghe, circling

the Royal Palace) August 8, 1913 - Ghent-Aeltre-Ghent.

In addition to this extended list of the Ghent postal flights there might be others still to be found.

The August 6, 1913, flight from Ostende-Blankenberghe was also connected with a return flight from Blankenberghe (cards postmarked there at 11-12 A.M.) to Ostende (cards postmarked th!'!re at 18-19 P.M.). These ca;rds have a special airpost marking of BLANKENBERGHE AIRPOST, reading "Poste Aerienne-1913-Blanken­berghe''. Since this cancellation has been listed in Belgian publications as the rarest Belgian airpost concellation, it is shown here. However, this reviewer assumes that this ca.rd was not flown from Blankenberghe on this occasion.

340 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

POST.E AER1ENNE

··- J ._ z(°"._, ~ ~ ~- ~ · ~ · · · •·'" ... ·~ ~ .

f!LYI NG POST G H!tl" li.X HIBITION

The Rare Airpost Cancellation · "P OSTE AERIENNE · 1913 · BLANKENB·ERGHE"

The special card and airstamp issued for the flight by Roland Carros from Brussels to Monaco (with a iaurane-Saulnier monoplan e) was discussed in the April, 1961, issue of The Airpost Journal.

It might be mentioned here that there had been a project for a "three cowntries and three 1·ivers ( Scheldt, Meuse and Rhine) air competition" be'h:veen Brus els-Dusseldorf ( Germany) -Liege ( Belgium )-1 amur-Rotterdam (Holland )-Brus­sel (nearly 1,000 miles). Despite exten ive p.reparations this competition never took place. It had been scheduled for September 19-26, 1914, but World War I broke out on August 1 of the same year.

GREEK VARIETY IS DISCOVERED

Twenty years after Greece overprinted five of its then cunent air mail stamps to create semipostals to raise fund for relief of victims of the bombing of Piraeus, an inverted overprint variety of one of them has been discovered.

A sheet of the 100,000 on 50 drachma violet blue (Scott's No. CB3) with over­print inverted has been discovered by Pierson Ostrow, Burlington, Vermont, Western Stamp Collector reports .

Inverted overprints are listed in Scott's catalog for the 1944 semipostals for chil­dren's camps, but no such varieties are listed for the semipostals issued earlier

in the same year for the victims of the Piraeus bombing.

Mr. Ostrow is informed the two im­perforates are to be listed as varieties in the 1965 edition of Scott's Catalog.

• Sta tistics Released On

UN Air FDCs The United Nations Postal Adminis­

tration has annou11ced that when the new 15-cent and 25-cent airmail stamps were .released on May 1, 1964 (during the special ceremony participated in by the American Air Mail Society), a total of 353,696 firs t day covers were cancelled. Separate figures for the two stamps are not available.

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964 341

Airs of the Month Described and Illustrated through !he courtesy of Nicolas Sanabria Co., Inc.

521 Fiffh Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10017

342 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

AFGHANISTAN New Airport (3)

DOMINICAN REP. Bird (1)

DUBAI New York World's Fair (stamps and sheet) (7); Human Rights (stamps and sheet) (5)

FRENCH AREA !Meeting of Heads of State of Cen­tral African Republic, Chad, Congo and Gabon (4)

GUATEMALA Tokyo Olympics (4)

HONDURAS Provisionals (4); Kennedy 'Over­prints (6); Kennedy Souvenir Sheet, limited issue (1)

IVORY COAST Coat of Arms (1)

KOREA New watermark (3)

LEBANON 'Bal des petits lits blancs 1964' (6);

Additional value for flower set (1}

LIBERIA Achievements in Space, sheet (1)

MOROCCO Casabranca Fair Cl); New York World's Fair (1)

NIGER PHILATEC (1)

PANAMA Change of color in Church Series (1)

PARAGUAY Popes (3); Astronauts (8)

SURINAM Aeronautical Foundation (5) - See detailed report on Page 227, APJ, May, 1964

TOGO Lincoln, stamp and sheet (2)

YEMEN Spinning and weaving factory -st·amp and sheet (2); Tokyo Olym­pics, set and sheets (8) - imperf.; Kennedy, set and sheet (7) - imperf.

Members Aid With Cover Display At N.Y.C. High School

• A visit by Astronaut M. Scott Carpen­ter to Aviation High School in Sunny­side, Queens, New York, resulted in the culmination of a display of aerophilate­lic materials in the main floor corridor panels of the school. Astronaut Carpen­ter, by the ve.ry nature of his association with Project Mercury, was a most popular guest, and, at the special assembly on May 25, held his audience spellbound as he related his experiences in space.

The display of aerophilatelic material, begun last Fall, 1963, was prepared by member Alfred Lonky, a teacher at Aviation. It featured a "History of Avia­tion in the Making" - a series of covers, pictures and news clippings of specific eras in aviation's history. Limited to the materials the school has assembled and with ~he gracious help of members of A. A.M.S. and other groups who have loaned or donated some covers, the display was changed once a month to provide its viewers with different glimpses of the history of the development of aviation.

Of the first to provide Aviation H.S. with some highly valued material was

member Horace Westbrooks. Some Lind­berghiana was swapped and material from early flights made between the U.S. and Latin America ( ci,rca 1926-27-28, etc. ) was included among the first dis-plays. ,

Several others including Bill Wynn, Mike Codd, and Art Schmidt, just to mention a .few, wrote to the school and donated a few covers. To all, we give our most sincere thanks.

Topping off the series of panels was the most recent display of material from Project Mercury.

Covers from early experiments con­ducted by N.A.S.A. through the present day successful space flights were shown. Most prized of all were the autographed covers signed by all the Astronauts of Project M erciiry and as expected they were also the ones that drew the most attention.

Because of the fact that with each new year comes an entering class of eager, in­terested students, these displays will con­tinue to be rotated monthly for an ever­changing set of viewers.

- Alfred Lanky

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964 343

Southern Hemisphere Air Mail News By Augusto Victor Bousquet

Rivadavia 5485, Buenos Aires, Argentina

• First Direct Airmail Service, Buenos Aires-Bogota, Colombia

On the occa ion of the June 3 inaugural flight by AVIANCA (Aerovias acionales de Colombia S.A. ) between the cities of Buenos Aires and Bogota (in

its service "Ruana Roja" with Boeing 720 B Turbofan Jets) the Argentine postal authorities applied a special mark to mail in green ink, as on the card illu trated below.

The card has a full color photo of one of Av:ianca's jet planes on the reverse and is backstamped "COR!REO AERE0/ 3. VI. 64/ BOGOTA."

On this first service 888 cove.rs were dispatched of which 846 were returned to Buenos Aires and the remaining 42 were sent on to different destinations.

Two New Argentine Airmail Stamps On May 23, a new stamp

was issued to be used on air­mail dispatched to Europe.

It has a value of 18.00 pesos and was printed by steel engraving in the Casa de Mon­eda, Buenos Ai.res. It is bicol­ored, in reddish sepia and pink, size 30 x 40 millimeters. 700, 000 copies were printed.

The vignette reproduces the monument to the U.P.U. e­rected in Berne, and in addition

344 THE AIRPOST J OURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

it carries the emblem of the U.N. This should make it of interest to both UN and UPU topicalists, as well as airmail collectors.

An airmail semi-postal of 11.00 peso value with a surcharge rate of 5.00 pesos was released on July 18. It is part of a series of three stamps that Argentina has issued favoring the participation of local athletes in the next Olympic Games in Tokyo. It was also printed by the Casa de Moneda, but by lithography, with a quantity of only 200,000 copies. The vignette, in light blue and black, reproduces below.

Airport Dedications By William T. Wynn, Jr. '-- 13537 Rockdale, De:troil:, Mich. 48223

• . Another month has slipped by and it's County, Ill. - July 12; Dodge County time to send editor Bob Haring copy Airport, Wisconsin - July 18. Let me for the Septembe,r column. I have four hear from you if you can report covers. past events to report and, to my regret, Besides telephoning me from Illionis, also four possible misses. While in Au- Don Lussky also made some of us very gust there should be at least four dedi- happy by arranging to have covers flown cations, September may see a break in from the WGN Radio Station Helipo,rt in the log-jam of long delayed and post- Chicago to O'Hare where they received poned events. Labor Day weekend has the AMF O'Hare July 2 machine cancel. always been favorable to airport dedi- Each cover also bears the Chicago Heli­cations. copter Airways label and the WGN

Mount Ida, A.rkansas, dedicated postal meter slogan; some are pilot Bearce Airport July 3. This is a rela- signed. As previously reported, all hold tively obscure town with a population cove.rs sent by me were returned by sta­of 800 but the presence of the FAA's tion officials but Don was able to obtain Najeeb Halaby evidently provided the some cooperation by being there in per­necessary advance publicity. Only twenty son. He tried hard to ge<t service on sev­covers are reported mailed. eral hundred covers but had to settle for

Stockton, California, formally dedica- 15. Thanks a million, Don! ted its Met,ropolitan Airport July 7. By the time you read this the following While the first information reaching me planned events may be history and if you. indicated the dedication was July 11 & had air mail, stamped, addressed en-12 the latter two days were merely the velopes with me you undoubtedly we,re wind-up of a week's sports activities, "covered" - Winstead, Minn. - August speeches and flag presentations and as 9; Prospect, Oregon - August 16; Grand such will not be recognized. Forks - August 22-23; and also Robin-

Fairhope, Alabama surprised us all son and East St. Louis, Illinois. A. H. with an artistic, printed map cachet on Bernhardt, 365la Dunnica, St. Louis, 450 cove.rs, July 12. Mo. 63116, is servicing covers for the

Lovell International at Chattanooga dedication of the Spirit of St. Louis was dedicated July 15. Covers bear a Airport early in Septembe.r. Other Sep­two-line cachet. tember events include: Roseau, Minn.

To date I have seen no covers from - 9th; Manassas, Va. -20th; Springer­any of the following but I'm inclined to ville, Arizona; Kingsville, Texas - 19th. believe that covers exist from one or A special greeting to my friends at­more of these: Richland, Va. - May 31; tending the Convention in New York. Carman, Manitoba, Canada, official o- Sorry we can't be with you, but I'm pening of Friendship Airport - June 28; glad to say Kathleen is home again and Charles Walg,reen Airport, Dixon Lee convalescing from her heart attack.

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964 345

The Sikorsky Twins By Dudley Foy and Kenneth Cook

• WHIRLY-BIRDS, choppers, 'copters- S.61N can climb vertically at a rate of call them what you will, but there is 1,300 feet a minute and has a cruising still great fascination in seeing a heli- speed in level flight of 140 m.p.h. copter in the air. Over London, the sight Four months later BEA signed a con­of a Queen's Flight helicopter hovering tract for £750,000 with United Aircraft ove.r Buckingham Palace still attracts at- International for the two helicopte.rs. The tention. In country areas, and along the first machine, constructed in Hartford, sea shores of our island, the helicopter is Connecticut, was flown to New York by admired as it sprays crops or saves a life "Jock" Cameron and then loaded on to from a distressed vessel. Rarely a day a ship bound for Southampton. On 28 passes without these versatile machines January, barely nine months after the making news somewhere. order was announced, the fi.rst S.61N

Since 1947, when B.ritish European was flight delivered to the base at Gat­Airways first established its Helicopter wick. The second machine followed three Experimental Unit, news has been made weeks later. regularly by the pocket sized fleet of To establish and develop helicopter single engine machines based at Gat- interests and activities a subsidiary com­wick. BEA operated the world's first pany-BEA Helicopters Limited-was scheduled passenger service by helicopter formed in January this year. fourteen years ago. In those now dis- With renewed vigour the staff of BEA tant days, a tiny S.51 flew a .regular Helicopters Limited worked hard and service between Cardiff and Liverpool long to meet their new target date for for a period of ten months and carried the introduction of the Land's End-Isles over 800 fare paying passengers. Dur- of Scillies service. New aircraft meant ing the 'fifties, services operated from new problems. Although the S.61N was time to time between London and No.rth- a well tried and proven machine, minor olt Airports, and Birmingham, South- modifications were required to meet Air hampton, the South Bank site in Central Registration Board requirements. Pilots London, and over a triangular route in had to be trained and, for the fi.rst time, the Midlands. cabin staff too.

For the H.E.U., and its enthusitstic Inauguration day for the new heli-Manager Captain Jock Cameron in par- copter se.rvice was May Uay, but it ticular, these routes, although uneco- dawned rather fretfully and it was an nomical to ope.rate, provided the neces- anxious group of people who assembled sary experience required before more at 7 a.m. at Land's End Airport to re­ambitious multi-engine helicopters could ceive the weather forecast from John be introduced into service. One major Rose, the Ministry of Aviation's local of­problem remained-the choice of the ficial-in-charge. The verdict was satis­right machine. facto.ry enough for the morning hours,

In May, 1963, the long awaited an- but a deterioration was promised for the noun@ement was made in the Commons afternoon and evening. A promise that by the Minister of Aviation. BEA we.re was duly kept! given permission to buy two American So the complicated inaugural pro­built Sikorsky S.61N helicopters capable gramme, which included no fewer than of carrying up to 25 passengers in all 28 different aircraft movements, and the the com.fort of a modern airliner. ceremonial a.rrangements-all of which

Powered by two 1,250 a.p. General had created a crescendo of activity in Electric T.58 gas turbines driving a single the previous three days, after three

five blade rotor 62 feet in diameter, the months of planning-were allowed to go

346 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

ahead. These involved flying a party of 48

people on a specially chartered BEA Viscount from Heathrow to the R.A.F. station at St. Mawgan, near Newquay in Co.mwall, where they were met by the two Sikorsky S.61N helicopters and flown to Land's End.

There they were met by 60 more dis­tinguished local guests and all were in­vited into a marquee specially erected for the occasion on the edge of the air­field, adjacent to the Rapides' hangar.

After a brief pause for refreshments, Lord Balfour of Inchrye, Chairman of BEA Helicopters Limited, welcomed ev­erybody present and pointed out in his speech that although Rapides had been operating the Land's End/Scillies air ser·vices for the past 27 yea.rs, the time had come for them to be replaced and BEA felt that the Sikorsky helicopter was the suitable aircraft for the se.rvice. He did not pretend that the new machines would oper~te economically for some time ahead, but believed that as long as the good partnership between BEA and the Ministry of Aviation continued in vertical flight development, economics could be placed second to the task of fulfilling BEA's public service duties and obligations.

Our Chairman, M.r. Anthony Milward, added a sincere word about the Rapide aircraft-whose era was to end in splen­did fashion that afternoon-and to the loyal staff who operated them.

During the brief ceremonial the team of helicopter pilots-Captains Jim Sum­me,rlee, Ron Dibb, Mike Purkis and Da­vid Eastwood-were preparing Novem­ber Lima and November Mike ( phonet­ic code words for the letters "NL" and "NM", used to identify the aircraft) for their first major BEA exercise. And the fact that they were ready for it reflected immense credit on BEA's chief helicopter engineer, Fred Charlton, and his men, who had worked around the clock for three weeks to ensure that the second of their new charges (NM) shared the May Day limelight with its twin. Indeed, the sighs of relief that were heaved when it loomed over the hills near to Land's End Airport at 7: 10 p.m. the night be-

fore must have been heard in the Scillies! Just to show it appreciated its warm wel­come the machine immediately perform­ed a lap of honour around the airfield, this time carrying aboard a television camera team who had waited patiently all day for the privilege.

On their first official flights at 11: 30 a.m. on 1 May the Sikorsky twins had 24 of BEA' s guests on each of them and all were suitably impressed by the su­preme smoothness of the flight and the take-off, which gave some observers the impression that the ground had been dropped away leaving the helicopter sus­pended in space; they felt the landing to be similarly effortless.

The noise level inside the cabin is not conductive to quiet, relaxed conversation, but passengers will appreciate the steady stream of fresh air circulating around them and the decor of ivory coloured walls, turquoise ceiling and comforta­ble seats in a darker turquoise.

The leading helicopter gave its first passengers a fascinating close-up glimpse of Land's End itself and the Longships lighthouse before gaining height to hover motionless for a few moments to enable a Rapide, complete with an entourage of press photographe.rs and T.V. camera­men, to get alongside for some intriguing air-to-air shots. Simultaneously a Rapide on a scheduled flight appeared on the Sikorsky's other flank to provide an u­nique air armada.

Minutes later the helicopte.r eased its way down on to St. Mary's airfield where a large crowd-including dozens of chil­dren who had been given special leave from their schools to enable them to watch-'hailed its arrival.

A special luncheon, provided by BEA Helicopters Limited, was going along se.renely about an hour later when the diners were startled by a sharp rap on the table from the host, Lord Balfour, and his announcement that the weather had broken and all guests returning to London were to prepare to leave immedi­ately.

This they did in the most military fashion, and displayed no fears-quietly felt by a number of BEA officials-that they might have to spend the night on

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964 347

the islands. The Sikorsky twins, however, notched up their first success on the service by beating the notorious mist and retrieving all the visitors-those bound fo.r both London and the Penzance area -by a double dash through the murk.

Tea was served in the Land's End Airport marquee while everyone waited to see if the weather would improve, but as it showed no signs of obliging, BEA's new Manager in the area, Captain Doug­las Prichard, decided not to tempt fate again and wisely rnled that the helicop­te.rs would not operate the return ferry to R.A.F. St. Mawgan. (He didn't want his new a:rcraft stuck at the R.A.F. sta­tion next morning when the first sched­uled services were due to start!)

Two coaches, which had been stand­ing by all day in Penzance to cope with such an emergency, were summoned to

Land's End Airport post haste and a tedious two hour road journey followed. The hour long Viscount flight from St. Mawgan back to Heathrow was a pleas­urable luxury in comparison and pro­vided just enough time for the guests to savour a day of nostalgia, achievement and a measure of drama.

But even on this day the Rapides ,re­fused to be overshadowed by the mod­ern, revolutionary interlopers. Faithful to the last, one of the intrepid family of bi­planes answered a call for help to fly a young nurse through the suspect weather from the Scillies to the mainland for e­mergency hospital treatment. An appro­priately glorious exit for an aircraft cer­tain of an honoured and reve,red place in BEA's history. (From BEA Magazine, June, 1964, courtesy of Mr. G. Pett, BEA Airmail Manage,r).

The Philatelic Report _____ B_v_K_en_d_ai_i _c._s_a_n£_or_d

• The first regular commercial service with the new helicopters began on May

2. Captain Cameron piloted the first flight which departed Land's End at 11:22 A.M. and arrived at St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly at 11:36. On board were 30 Airway letters and a mail bag containing 495 covers which were dispatched by the Penzance Post Office. Our Ai,rway letter bears a one shilling BEA Airway Letter Service Stamp on which the destination is written in. The stamp is "cancelled" with the" BEA office validator which reads, "BRITISH EUROPEAN AIRWAYS - 2 MAY 64 - LAND'S END". The Airway letters were then posted by BE•A at the St. Ma;ry's Post Office and the British stamp received a postmark which reads, "ST. MARY'S ISLES OF SCILLY - time - 2 MAY 64." Owing to the darkness of the stamp, the time in the postmark cannot be made out. After a layover of only six minutes, Captain Cameron flew the helicopter back from St. Ma;ry' s to Penzance which was the first flight in that direction. This flight carried just 67 Airways letters for posting at Penzance. They also bear the one shilling Airway letter stamp which is "cancelled" with an office validator reading, "BRITISH EUROPEAN AIRWAYS - 2 MAY 64 - SCILLY". The British stamp is then cancelled, "PENZANCE - CORNWALL - 5:45 PM - 3 MAY 1964" ( cove,r shown here). The first regular mail dispatched by the St. Mary's Post Office was carried on an afternoon flight on 2 May which was piloted by Cap­tain Somerly and departed Isles of Scilly at 4:52, arriving St. Just Airport, Pen­zance (Land's End) at 5: 06. This comprised 499 covers. We have not seen any of the regular post office dispatches from eithe,r direction, nor do we know how many pieces were collectors' covers. It is interesting to note that while neither of the a­bove described cove;s bears a cachet, The Aero Field for July, 1964, reports one of the Airway Letter Service covers from Scilly Isles to Penzance with a cachet applied in green depicting a helicopter and inscribed: "FIRST SCHEDULED HELICOP­TER FLIGHT I PENZANCE - Scillies - Penzance." Ou.r thanks to Mr. G. Pett,

348 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

\ .

Kendall c. Sanfor<i , 5914 li'ranklln A:ve .- ,.,.pt . 1 - E Baltimore , YD . U. S . A. 21207

,.

Airmail Manager, British European Airways, for providing the data used in this report and the photo of the Sikorsky S.61N helicopter on this month's cover. For any­one who might be interested in the earlier helicopter services of BEA, a p.rke list of BEA first flight cover stock may be obtained from Mr. Pett whose address is: Termi­nal House, Grosvenor Gardens, London, S.W.l., England. Be sure to send an Inter­national Rep!y Coupon to cover the postage. There is also an excellent pamphlet called simply Heliposts, written by N. C. Baldwin and available from Francis J. Field Ltd, for 2/ or 30c plus postage. It is a short history of helicopter mails in the U.S.A., Europe & Great Britain, including the earlier helipost flights of. BEA.

CAM BULLETIN ! The Civil Aeronautics Board recently

granted American Airlines the right to opeirate via Route No. AM-7, nonstop between Cleveland and New York City; and Northwest Airlines the right to pro­vide nonstop service on Route No. AM-3 between Chicago and Cleveland, Cleve­land and Philadelphia, and Detroit and Philad elphia . . . all in competition with United Air Lines. The Cleveland - New York service by American and Cleveland - Chicago service by Northwest should be inaugurated about October 5. North­west's Detroit - Philadelphia and Cleve­land - Philadelphia services will probably be deferred until after January 1, 1965. Incidently, this marks the first entry of Northwest into Philadelphia, and, as this will be a new extension for Northwest from an old to a new route point, covers from Philadelphia and Detroit and/ or Cleveland as well will probably be listed

in the CAM Section of the Catalogue, regardless of where official cachets are provided by the Post Office Department. However, based on recent Post Office policy, we would expect official cachets to be provided for Philadelphia Post Office and Airport ;\Jail Facility for this new service. More information will be in the next "C. A. M. Cover Notes" col­umn and in our Advance Bulletin Serv­ice cards as it develops. We recommend your not sending covers until details are finalized and announced on the Bulletin Card, but watch for this new route leg!

Have Domestic First Flight Covers

.. from June, 1948 to date ; Airport Ded. covers from Oct., 1947 to date ; du­

: plicates of over 275 different H.P.O. route covers. All at very reasonable

: prices. Send lOc for lists . 1 Please Mention The Airpost Journal.

SMULIAN 2401 West Rogers Avenue Baltimore, Maryland 21209

##################################

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964 349

50 Years

Australia•s First Air Mail, 1914-1964 By Alan Underwood

501Ji ~NN IVERSAR.Y · ·~ f!JR.ST AIR MAIL IN AUSTRALIA

Commemorative Cover Flown on ihe Special Flighi io Mark ihe 50ih Anniversary of Guillaux' Hisiory-Making ·Trip

(Couriesy of John Wais·on).

Maurice Guillaux, the man who just 50 years ago flew Australia's first air mail, might easily have become a Kings­ford Smith, a Hudson Fysh, a P. G. Tay­lor, or an R. M. Ansett - had things only been different. This Frenchman who landed in Sydney in April, 1914, had all the qualities for becoming a leader in aviation. H e was a shrewd and careful planner, but imaginative. He was a canny pilot, but clai"ing. And very iiri­portant for the owner of that Gallic cont,raption of piano-wire, three-ply, and rag called the Bleriot 60, M. Guillaux was an excellent mechanic.

H e fits well the honour Australia post­humously awarded him-two special Air Mail Jubilee stamps issued July 1 and a reenactment on July 16 of his historic two-clay flight.

Here was a pale Frenchman, coming to fly his frail, unlikely little mechanical dragonfly against the wild elements of a strange land. Guillaux was just 31 when he reached Sydney aboard the Orantes. His Bleriot was crated down in the hold.

And with him he brought Messrs. Rupeausseu, Maistre, Caminos, and du Coque, mechanics and managers in the team determined to take commercial a­viation to Australia.

Guillaux was an e;...'Perienced flier, though he had had a license only two years. He had flown in many contests and pageants throughout France and the Continent. In 1913 he broke all speed, er.durance, and distance records in a flight in a plane called a Clement-Bay-ard . .

The Lord Mayor af Sydney gave Guil­laux and his team an official welcome, and next day the Frenchman made a flight to Newcastle. He returned and next day thrilled Sydney w ith a flying demonstration.

It happened that an American pilot named Wizard Stone was also demon­strating in Sydney and Melb01.J,rne. The P.M.G.'s Department had ·con­tracted with Stone to fly the .first air mail from Melbourne to Sydney. Special souvenir postcards were printed and sold to the public. All was ready, and only

350 THE AIRPOST J OURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

a crash could stop Wizard making his­tory. Sure enough, just a few days before the great flight was due, the American's machine crashed. It was wrecked beyond possible repair. _

That was where the Frenchman came into the picture. The Postmaster-Gener­al (Mr. Wynne) asked M. Guillaux whethe,r he could fly the mail from Mel­bourne to Sydney.

"Mais certainement M'sieu!"

No pre-flight .jitters for Guillaux. There were a few days to go before

the flight, so he amused the Melbourne folk continously, with breath-taking aero­batic displays. Usually he performed just over the intersection of Collins and Swanston Streets. Public interest in the coming flight became intense. The 1/ souvenir postcards were being black­marketed by scalpers at 2/ each. (Today the same cards have a market value of £12/10/.)

At 6 a.m. on Thursday, July 16, (the Melbourne Argus reported) Guillaux "sat down to his morning cutlet at the Cafe Denat." At nine he was standing along­side the spick-and-span Bleriot at Flem-

The Largest And Most Comprehensive Stock

Of

Aero grammes In The World

-o-A NEW ISSUE SERVICE

SECOND TO NONE Ask For Details Today

-o-

Up-To-Date Check List Free On Request

-o-

WALTER R. GUTHRIE P. 0. Box 390

TUCSON, ARIZONA

85702

ington Showgrounds, receiving the mail for three rousing cheers. A jolly lunch from the Deputy Postmaster-General and Guillaux roared off with all going (Mr. Crosbie). And at 9:12, the French- well. man and the mail were airborne for It was at the next stop, Wagga, that Sydney. he made his first mistake. Of the town's

Guillaux carried all sorts of official two racecourses, he landed on the wrong greetings letters from VIP's in Mel- one-finishing his hun at the judges' box bourne to VIP's in Sydney. Also, he car- at the same time as a race finish flashed ried a quantity of Lipton's tea and some past. Still everybody loved it. They con-0.T. cordial and lemonade consigned, in- gratulated the Frenchman, told him how credibly, to the Commercial Travellers' to find the right racecourse. He landed Club in Sydney. · there a few minutes later.

Hundreds of enthusiastic Melbournites The aviator had arranged to land at waved Guillaux off out of Flemington. only half a dozen spots. But he flew low Just 42 minutes later, he touched down over many others to help his navigation in Jordan's paddock at Seymour, 61 checks. He cruised mainly at about 70 miles away. m. p. h., but the little Bleriot was very

At Wangaratta, M. Guillaux came subject to winds. Guillaux' ground speed down into Mr. Sisely's paddock. The lo- sometimes was down to 30, sometimes cal paper reported: "The descent to as high as 120. earth was extremely graceful. The air- The mail-flier spent that night at Har­man and his representative talked in den, after an abortive attempt to make French." At Albury, of cou.rse, just every- Goulburn against strong winds. body turned out at the racecourse ready Next morning, though it was wet and for the great Guillaux. He came down miserably cold, Guillaux took up the for a beautiful landing right alongside Bleriot to give the locals a thrilling dis­tl1e judges' box. Mayor Waugh called play of aerobatics. He apologised for not

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964 351

looping the loop, explaining that he did not have "the braces that were needed to hold him to the machine." But he did take up three Harden residents for joy rides. Guillaux made his farewells at Har­den, took off for Goulburn, 94 miles a­way-but a couple of hours late,r he was back at Har.den. He encountered winds that slowed him down to 40. He spent a second night at Harden.

But the next .day's weather was little better. He took off from Harden at 7: 15 a.m., and immediately flew into violent headwinds over the mountains. The air pioneer said even railway lines were im­possible to follow. Only smoke from an occasional locomotive had helped guide him to Goulburn. At 9: 15 a.m. Guillaux landed on the Goulburn racecourse and, half-f.rozen, dragged himself to the sig­nal fire that had been lit to guide him in. He gave the Goulburn people a short exhibition flight before finally setting course at 11:0.5 for Moss Vale.

But Guillaux could not find Moss Vale. He decided to fly on to Sydney. But here was a catch: He had been instructed by the P.M.G. not to arrive in Sydney before 3 p.m. The resourceful French­man settled that. He would land some­where and kill time. - Which he did at 12:35 p.m., in a paddock near Liverpool, about 20 miles south-west of Sydney. The owners, Mr. and M.rs. Clarke, in­vited him to lunch.

At 2:05 p.m. he took off-but again it was a tail wind. He arrived in the gen­eral area of Sydney early, and found himself killing time with lazy demon­strations of flying over Parramatta and Manly.

Gaily, the pilot flying Australia's first air mail buzzed a few Saturday afte,rrioon football games in the Sydney suburbs. He waved a gloved hand to the specta­tors an.d they cheered wildly. It was just 2:50 when Guillaux finally and victor­iously touched down at Sydney's Moore Park.

There were thousands to welcome him. They closed in on the Bleriot. The Gov­ernor - General (Sir Ronald Munro-Fer­guson) shook his hand wa.rmly. They carried him shoulder high into the near­by sports arena, with the band playing

the Marseillaise over and over again. Said Guillaux: "It was with a certain

amount of t,repidation that I made my final descent in a blinding storm. I was very cold. But I was very happy. I had delivered the mail."

A fortnight later Guillaux crashed on a Melbourne racecourse, injuring him­self and almost wrecking the gallant little Bleriot. He was in hospital several weeks and by the time he was dis­charged, World War I had broken out. Guillaux took the first ship home to France and joined the French Air Force. No doubt because of his Australian asso­ciates, he was lent to the Australian Fly­ing Corps as an instructor briefly in 1917. He taught pilots in No. 5 Squadron, based at Shawbury, England.

On May 21, 1917, Guillaux crashed while flying as a test pilot at Villacou­blay, France. He <lied of the injuries and was buried at Neuilly-sur-Seine.

( Fram the Brisbane ( Queensland) Courier Mail, July l, 1964, through the cooperation of Associate Editor John Watson).

• REVALUED ENVELOPE VARIETY REPORTED

One of our readers has submitted an old World War II envelope posted from A. P.. 0. 633 in 1947. It is the "Revalued 5c P. 0. Dept." type over the 6c, 1945 air mail issue, which of course is fairly common, but this particular envelope also has the words "P.O. Dept." in the same style of :type as in the overprint on the left side of the envelope. We would be interested to lea,rn if this oddity is unique or if it has been reported before.

• HIGH PRic.ES PAID IN AUCTION

In a recent sale held by Harmer, Rooke & Co., Inc., bidders paid new rec­ord prices for several U.S. Airmail lots.

A "very fine, mint" set of the 1930 Zeppelins ( 65c, $1.30, $2.60) in blocks of four brought $900.

A sheet of 50 of the 50c green Zeppe­lin of 1933, "very fine," went to $520 before it was knocked down.

A set of single 1930 Zeppelins (No. Cl3-Cl5), unused, sold for $220.

352 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

25th ANNIV·ERSARY -

(Continued from Page 335)

6 night time passengers, and a dining lounge with facilities for serving 15 passengers at a time. There is also a compartment aft for 4 passenge;rs. At the stern of the deck is the "Bridal Suite", a completely furnished private apartment. There are separate men's and women's dressing rooms and lavatories. The gal­ley, equipped with ice box and steam table, is capable of prepa;ring food for 85 people. There is a complete internal telephone system in each of the new clipper ships.

The establishment of the transatlantic air and passenger service marked the culmination of ten years of planning and preparation by Pan American Air­ways. Although many obstacles in diplo­matic a,rrangements were finally over­come through international cooperation, the feat would probably have been fur­ther distant if it had not been for the outstanding developments in large sea­plane design, made possible through ex­perience on the Pacific route during the last several years.

Another most important step in making the route possible was the perfection of high frequency short wave radio direction finding equipment. Through their inten­sive experimentation Pan American en­gineers have discovered a remarkably ef­fective long ;range directional guide whose construction and installation is still a closely guarded sec.ret. Each Clip­per has two long range radio transmitters, two long range receivers and duplicate antennas. Pan American's "flying direc­tion finde;rs" are the only thoroughly de­pendable systems of this nature now in use and are capable of accurately func­tioning over distances of thousands of miles.

POSTSCRIPT -(In 1939 the Dixie Clipper took 42

hours and 10 minutes to reach Mar­seilles; in 1964 in this same time a jet airliner would be more :than three­quarters of the way around the world. 25 years of airmail progress!)

ZEPPELIN COVERS carried on 1930 Pan American Flight

Germany - 2 Mk. SA & 3 Condor stps. for onward flight to San-tos, all pmkd. Berlin w/con-nection fl. cachet, rare ............ $ 75.

Spain - Porto Alegre w/Span. & Condor stamps ................................ 25.

Spain - USA ............................................ 10.

Argentina - w/set 5 blue ovpt. ...... 90. w/GREEN ovpt. set, RRR ........ 300.

USA - C13-15 FIRST DAY & flown .................................................. 295.

USA - Zepp. fabric card from damaged fin (repaired on flight) w/C13 ................................ 100.

Brazil - 10/20,000 bl. (Cat. $75) ...... 40.

Bolivia - set "Z" & set ~ix prov. Zepp. stps. & 7 extra, #10 cvr. to Germ. signed Eckener, RR (Cat. $1300.) ............................ 275.

Paraguay - comb. w /Argentina .... 200.

Break up top Zeppelin collection 1911-1939 .............................. from $ 1.

Submit wants. No lists.

BELHAM EXCHANGE P. O. Box 119, Ridgewood Sta.

Brooklyn, N. Y. 1

Another Transatlantic Anniversary

The 25th anniversary of the first com­mercial nonstop flight between the U­nited States and France was celebrated on July 14 by Ai.r France. The 3,650-mile flight, on July 14, 1939, by an Air France Transatlantique hydroplane, start­ed on Port Washington Bay on Long Is­

land and ended 28 hours and 27 minutes

later at Biscarosse, a small French town about 50 miles from Bordeaux. The plane, a Latecoe;re-521, carried a crew of eight and two passengers; one of them was Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who wrote several books about flight. TJ:ie other passenger was an airline official. From 1946, when Air France resumed com­mercial flights after World Wa;r II, un­til 1964, the airline has made 25,004 trips and carried 1,280,182 passengers on transatlantic flights.

THE AIRPOST .JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964 353

Smithsonian Readies New Hall of Philately • During the past year more than 300,- ized collection of the stamps and related

000 additional items - - gifts, deposits, material of South Africa, a large group and transfers from other government a- of Japanese stamps and cove.rs and an gencies - - were received by the Smith- important specialized collection of stamps

1sonian Institution's Division of Philately of Paraguay were also donated. and Postal History. AAMS member Dr. James Matejka of

Many of these items are being .readied Chicago, Ill.: donated e~rly . airmail for exhibition in the new Hall of Phil- stamps of Syna and a rare airmail stamp ately and Postal History, which will open of France and Harry L. Lindquist of to the public on September 18, in the New Yo.rk: N.Y., donated a l_arge num­Museum of History and Technology. A ber of Umt~d States and. foreign covers, large portion of this material will be in- ;nany of which bear srecial postal mark-corporated within the Smithsonian's ex- mgs and ~~mmemorabve stamps. . tensive reference collections. In add1t10n to the stamp production

According to Smithsonian philatelist eq:-1i~ment, t~e Bureau of Engraving. ~nd Carl H. Scheele, the majo.r acquisitions Prmtmg contmued to transfer _Certified indicate the diverse nature of the new Plate Proofs on a ,regular basis. Many collections and historic objects, among covers were received from the Library which was the third in a series of dona- of Congress. The Internal Revenue tions of a large collection of stamps of Service and the Post Office Department the world with perforated initials ("per- also transferred stamps. fins") from Mr. and Mrs. Victo.r J. Van • Lint of Riverside, Calif. Pemins are em- AN UNUSUAL ployed by business firms to prevent theft TRANSATLANTIC COVER or unauthorized use of stamps.

When Pan Am announced that covers Baron Takaharu Mitsui of Tokyo, Japan, donated an outstanding group of were to be carried from New York to early letters and documents pertaining Eire on June 24, 1964, to ma,rk the 25th to the private posts of 19th-century Japan anniversary of the first trans-atlantic air and the early government postal system service, this collector obtained what is

a most unusual cover. of that country. Several of these items will be included in the postal history Turning inside-out a cover ca,rried on exhibit cases of the new Hall. the June 24, 1939, inaugural flight of

Mr. Morrison Waud of Chicago, Ill., FAM-18, he readdressed and dispatdhed donated an extensive collection of United it from the AMF at Kennedy lnternation­States newspaper stamps, proofs, and es- al Airport where it received the "USA­

Ireland" cachet. The cover thus was car-says and more than 600 examples of ried across the Atlantic twice and re­stamped ,revenue paper.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing turned to New York twice, both in 1939 and in 1964.

transferred for exhibition a 170-subject _ Ernest A. Kehr Stickney rotary printing press of 1914, a ·Stickney perforating machine of 1918, (Editor's Note: The Post Office takes and a Stickney stamp coiling machine of a dim view of this type of cover and in 1920. The display of these historic ma- its "first flight" announcements makes chines will include the original patent is- a point of noting that articles which ha-ve sued for the rotary press. The patent was been handled in the mails previously a gift of Mrs. Benjamin R. Stickney and are not eligible for dispatch. But collec­Mr. Benjamin R. Stickney, Jr., of Annan- tors try to get "odd ones" like this -dale, Va. sometimes they s.ucceed - we can't deny

A collection of essays and die proofs that they're interesting nor condone the of the stamps of China, a large special- practice either.)

354 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

. A New President for Pan Aan • In this month's issue of the f o-urnal, Caribbean and the Pacific before making

we are featuring the 25th Anniversary the inaugural flight on the northern leg of FAM-18. In 1947 when he ceased of Pan American World Airways' first flying, he had logged 15,000 hours of

transatlantic flights back in 1939, which commercial time _ nearly two yea.rs in is also the theme of our own 4lst Anni- the ai r. versary Convention. Recently the pxess announced that one of th main figures

PAN AM's N.EW PRESIDENT Capt. Harold Gray, as he appeared in

The Airpost Journal in 1939.

in the historic flights had also made news in 1964. Captain Harold E. Gray, who made the first commercial flight on the Northern Transatlantic Route, was recently named to succeed Juan T. Trippe as President of Pan Am. Mr. Trippe remains as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer.

Captain Gray, who has been with the airline for 35 years and was the tenth pilot hired by Mr. Trippe, lea.med to fly with the Army Air Corps. He flew in the

In his new position he will be in charg of all airline operations of one of the world's largest airlines in the Jet Age. We salute Captain Gray on his ac­complishment since his historic "first," which we collectors marked with ou.r special envelopes, and wish him well in his new post.

• AIR RACES TO BE HELD

. AT RENO IN SEPTEMBER

The National Championship Ai.r Races will be held this year at Reno, Nevada's Sky Ranch Airdrome from September 12-20, 1964. $45,000 in prizes and 300 trophies will be awarded to competitors in every phase of sport aviation and the en tire program will be featured on ABC­TV's weekend program "Wide World of Sports." The major competitive event will be a Transcontinental Trophy Dash from Clearwater, Florida, to Reno, using p,ropeller aircraft.

There will also be flying demonstra­tions by U.S. and foreign military teams and other features; we note no mention of any special philatelic coverage, but feel sure that some enterprising collectors will come up with some "souvenir" cov­ers of some sort after the various event, most of which will be of interest pri­marily to pure aviation enthusiasts and autograph seekers, as they will, in all probability, not have been flown in the mails.

Anyway, any of our members in the Far West can see a good air show in Re­no in mid-September. Fo.r further in­formation write the Reno Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 2109, Reno, Ne­vada.

THE AIRPOST J.OURN AL, SEPTEMBER, 1964 355

The July issue of The Washington Bul­letin, containing special stamp and cover offers by the Washington Stamp Ex­change, Maplewood, New Jersey 07040, has been received. We note among the items offered a turboprop flight cover, a UN first flight cover, and the JFK Air­port first day cancel. The same firm also publishes the well-known White Ace Cover Album Pages. For informa­tion about these and a copy of the Bulletin, write to them.

In a recent issue of Linn's Weekly Stamp News, Editor Geo,rge Linn wrote an interesting editorial entitled "Big Air­ways ARE Stamp Conscious". It dealt with the special covers prepared by Pan Am for the inaugural Buenos Aires-New York nonstop jet flight which we re­ported in the Journal seve,ral months ago.

Also in Linn's recently we noted a re­port of an early missile mail cover by our own President, Joe Eisendrath, com­plete with a picture of the cover. A Unn's article about "Americana Themes on Stamps of Czechoslovakia" included much data on the fi.rst Prague-New York flight back in 1946, together with de­scriptions of several Czech stamps re­lated to airmail and the astronauts.

Incidentally, if you're at all interested in Czechoslovakia, the Chicagoland Chapter of the Czechoslovak Philatelic Society has recently translated a book on the forgeries made during the yea.rs 1918-39. The original illustrated book, in Czech, is also available. Contact our own Doc Matejka for details.

Dick Singley continues to relate the story of our Foreign Air Mail Services. This time he has written a profusely il­lustrated article for ·western Stamp Col­lector on the "Beginnings of Trans-At­lantic Air Service" to mark the 25th Anniversary of Pan Am's service to Europe.

As for the present-day "jumping off point" to Europe, John F. Kennedy In­ternational Airport, several dealers seem to be busily engaged in obtaining Ken­nedy AMF cancels for each and every

• air or Kennedy-connected event that comes up - and then offering them at prices in the $1-2 range, cashing in on the cur.rent popularity of Kennedy phil­ately among topicalists.

The June issue of The Aero Field, the second of the quarterly "slick paper" series, contains a report and illustration of our member J. Boesman' s balloon flight in Pakistan, (reported briefly in the July Airpost Journal) and also a re­port of the 1914 Monaco Aerial Rally, which was commemorated recently by a special series of stamps, three of which were shown on our own "Airs of the Month" page last month. Rounding out the issue are articles on the 1914 Guil­laux flight in Australia and a detailed study by N. C. Baldwin of "The Exter­nal Air Mails of New Zealand." Fo.r de­tails about this excellent publication con­tact the publisher, Francis J. Field, Ltd. Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, England.

Another auction catalogue has been received from Ph. Roumet in France, listin~ stamps of France and Europe for sale June 22. Readers interested in M. Roumet's sales may contaot him at 17, Rue Drouot, Paris 9, France.

The 180-page COMPEX 1964 Pro­gram-Directory book contains several articles of airmail interest, including one en "The Era of the German Zeppelins" and a second about the Graf Zeppelin and The Hindenburg. Our own member Edward Benson contributed articles on "Italy 1917 Experimental Flights" and "Mexicana" (a history of the flights of Mexico's Compania Mexicana de Avi­acion). The book is available from COM­PEX, 216 Hotel La Salle, Chicago, Illi­nois 60602, priced at 65c.

A new edition of Postage Stamps of the United States went on sale July 2 and is available by mail from the Gove,m­ment Printing Office.

The popular publication, which is re­vised every two years or so, sold 77,000 copies in the previous edition. First is­sued nearly forty years ago, it has had

356 THE AIRPOST J'·OURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

total sales of 1,200,700 to achieve best­seller status.

The new edition, p.riced at $1.25, em­braces all United States issues from 1847 through the 5-cent Audubon stamp of the fine arts series issued December 7, 1963, including airmails. In addition to the illustration and description of the stamps, there are tables showing design­ers, engrave.rs, first day sites and dates, together with quantities of stamps sold and covers cancelled on the initial day of issuance since January, 1953.

Other features include a comprehen­sive list of plate numbers and quantities printed of commemorative and air mail stamps and a complete index for easy ;reference.

All mail orders for this booklet should be addressed to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402, and should be accompanied by a money order or check. Postage stamps will not be accepted as payment. If. the publication is to be mailed to a foreign country, the cost will be $1.56 to cover the additional mailing charges.

For convenience of visitors, the book will be sold over-the-counter at the Phil­atelic Exhibition Room ( 1315) at the Post Office Department. However, mail orders for ·this publication should not be sent to the Post Office Department.

• THANKS ...

For covers are sent to John Wat­son of Brisbane, Australia, for a first day cover of his country's new 50th Anni­versary of Airmail stamps, mailed on July 1 (received the same day as a let­ter from our President, mailed in Chi­cago on June 30!); to Augusto Bousquet for the A VIAN CA card flown to Bogota, illustrated in this issue; and various first day cancellations on A;rgentina's new Kennedy Memorial issue (on folder, cover, and a block of four unaffixed); to Ernie Kehr for a card from the UPU Convention in Vienna; and to Ken

'Sanford •and Per.ry Nahl for cacheted covers from United's first jet resumption of airmail service at Chicago's Midway Airport.

USI PEX '66 DATES SET "In 1966 New York will become the

philatelic center of the world", stated John J. Britt, President of the Associa­tion for Stamp Exhibitions, Inc., as he announced that the USIPEX '66 exhibi­tion would be held from May 4 to May 9, 1965, at the Statle.r Hilton Hotel in New York. The show will occupy the entire Ballroom and Exhibition floor of more than 50,000 square feet. AAMS members will visit this same hotel for their 1964 Convention in September.

Invitations are being extended to all governments, as well as all international clubs to pa.rticipate and to make USIPEX '66 the philatelic highlight of the year.

At a special meeting of the Associa­tion's Committee, it was decided to ac­quire the professional services of AAMS member Herbert Rosen as Executive Di­rector of the Exhibition. He will assume all managerial responsibilities for this af­fair.

Capt. Nicholaus Shymko We ;regret to report the death of one

of our well-known members, Capt. Nich­olaus Shymko, a legal officer in the Ca­nadian Army, who was killed in a tragic automobile accident in St. Thomas, On­tario, on July 10 .

Captain Shymko had just been released from military service and was driving back to his home in Alberta with his wife and daughter to enter p.rivate law practice when the accident occurred. All three were killed.

He is survived by his father and two brothers. Our sympathy goes to them in this time of sorrow.

Both Sec;retary Ruth Smith and F /L R. K. Malott reported this tragic loss. One of our recent applicants also wrote that he had used the Captain's name as a reference just a few days before he · read of the fatal crash. We know that this member will be missed among Ca­nadian airpost collectors.

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964 357

BOOK REVIEWS Billig's Philatelic Handbook,

Volume I, Third Revised Edition,

by Fritz Billig, Jamaica, New York, rn63, pp. 249, $7.50. Available from the author-publisher at 168-39 High­land Avenue, Jamaica, N.Y. 11432.

We had just finished work on the May issue of the Journal which contained Dr. Kronstein's report of the Borre,r 50th

Anniversary Flight and the special, re­

printed vignette which had been issued in Switzerland in March, when we re­ceived the latest in the long se,ries of Fritz Billig's famed Philatelic Handbooks. Skimming the pages we found in the section on Switzerland Pioneer Air Stamps an illustration of and definitive data on the original vignette used for the Borre,r flight at Solothurn back in 1914. This is only one of many airmail items described in this handbook. The forger­ies of Russia's 1922 airmail stamp are described and comparison sketches of the genuine and imitation shown.

The book, one of a 30-volume series, contains an illustrated listing of the New York Foreign Mail cancellations, a study of the stamps of Allenstein, and much material - the larger portion of the book - on the stamps of Austria, in­cluding Hungary and Lombardy-Ven­etia. The book concludes with studies of Swiss issues, one of which we referred to above. ·

This new edition of Volume I up­dates and makes available again a vol­ume which has been out of print since 1952. Mr. Billig regretfully notes in his Foreword that Volume 30 will probably be the last of thiS series. We're sure that all serious philatelists will be displeased at this but when we see the fine job that has been done publishing just one such volume as this, ·it is not hard to understand the work that has gone into the entire series and realize that the pub­lisher cannot undertake such a work in­definitely. Our compliments to M.r. Billig for a job well done!

Manchoukuo,

by Helen Kingsbury Zirkle, Handibook Number 16 of the Collec­tors Club of New York, 1964, pp. 131, Illustrated, $·5.00.

This handbook about the postage stamps of Manchoukuo was prepared to bring togefher info.nnation on the stamps and postal . history of this short-lived Asiatic nation. It gives the reader an exhaustive treatment of the 159 postage stamps, with their varieties, issued from 1932 to early 1945. A wealth of informa­tion is given on the postal histo,ry· of the country, the booklets, imprints, plate numbers, stamps ordered but not issued, postage rates, and date reading. A re­production of all 85 official gove,mment commemorative cancellations with an ex­planation of the designs and occasions for commemoration is included.

The air mail stamps of Manchoukuo are relatively few in number and occupy only about five pages of this excellent. handbook study; nevertheless, they are presented in detail, with reason for their, issuance, pertinent design and dimen­sional data, and methods of dfatinguish­ing the two separate printings.

This volume is the latest in a series, three previous volumes of which deal with airmail subjects. Information a­bout any of these books may be obtained from the Collectors Club, 22 East 35th Street, New York, N.Y. 10016.

• CONTINENTAL'S 30th

ANNIVERSARY

Continental Air Lines marked its 30th anniversary on July 15 by having a stunt pilot fly a single-engine, four-passenger Lockheed Vega-the first plane the com­pany used-on a two-week tour of its present 21-city route. The aircraft was painted in the ;red and white colors of Varney Speed Lines, Continental's pred­ecessor. Continental, which began opera­

tions with eight employes and .600 cus­tomers in 1934, now has 3,100 employes and carries about two million passengers annually.

358 THE AIRPOST .JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

"Uncle Sam" S ez • • • Samuel s. Golds:ticker, Jr. 7D-D Fremont Slree:t

• Bloomfield, N. J. 07DD3

Several of our members have been do­ing quite a bit of traveling this Summer. Bob Haring took a motor trip through the Carolinas and Virginia; Bart Gatchell spent a week with his father at Clayton, New York (in the Thousand Islands); Ed Benson visited the New York World's Fair (with side trips to Washington and Boston); Earl Wellman is in Europe; George and Kathryn Kingdom went to the Carolinas; and John and Ruth Smith spent the month of August at their sum­mer home in Beach Haven, New Jersey.

According to Stamps Magazine, S. Ser­ebrakian, veteran New York stamp dealer and AAMS member, recently returned from an extended tour of Europe . . . his first trip to Europe in eighteen years.

Past Presidents L. B. Gatchell and George Kingdom we.re present at the First Day Ceremonies for the 5c "Reg­ister to Vote" Stamp at Washington, August 1.

We're quite pleased to learn that El-· mer R. Long, prominent stamp dealer of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has returned to work after a three-month stay in the hospital. His July, 1964, auction was the first monthly sale he missed since he started them many years ago.

NOJEX 1964 will be held at the Rob­ert Treat Hotel, Newark, New Jersey October 9-11. This will be one of the outstanding philatelic ex­hibitions of the year and well worth attending. Several AAMS members are on the executive committee for this Show, including Alfred A. Glatz, Joseph Koch­eisen, and the writer.

In a recent decision the CAB ruled that Kinston, Goldsboro, and Rocky Mount (all in North Carolina) should be se.rved by Piedmont Airlines (Route No. AM-87) through their present in­dividual airports instead of jointly through a new proposed airport at Toddy (about 16 miles from Greenville, N .C.).

British Overseas Airlines Corporation ( BOAC) will reintroduce COMET-IV jets on the transatlantic route between

Glasgow and New York. COMET-IV's were used from October, 1958 to early 1960, after which they were transferred to Africa and the Far East.

Eastern Air Lines plans to retire its entire fleet of 45 DC-7's by September, 1965, leaving it with a fleet of exclu­sively jet and jetprop equipment.

The New York t::ty Board Of Esti­mate approved the establishment of heli­po.rts in most commercial areas, where public welfare and safety would not be impaired. This paves the way for the eventual inauguration of service by New York Airways to the roof of the Pan American Building in mid-Manhattan.

Friendship International Airport in Baltimore, Maryland, reports an increase of 30% in passengers and almost 20% in mail handled during the first half of 1964, over the similar period of 1963.

1964 Convention

Covers? SET OF 2 CACHETED COVERS

WITH AAMS CONVENTION

STATION CANCEL 9/4 - 915164

50c PER SET

(Full description appeared in August APJ)

Support this Society project by sending your order to:

MRS. RUTH T. SMITH, Secretary 102 Arbor Road Cinnaminson, New Jersey 08077

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964 359

OFFICIAL SECTION AMERICAN AIR MAIL SOCIETY

MONTHLY REPORT From the Secretary Ruth T. Smith, 102 Arbor Road, Cinnaminson, New Jersey 08077

September 1, 1964 NEW MEMBERS

5133 Westren, J. Harvey, 33 Glenrose Ave., Toronto 7, Ont., Canada 5134 Kline, Minnie (Mrs.), 3320 N. Orangeblossom Tr., Orlando, Fla. 32804 5135 Waite, Irwin R., Route 2. Summerplace, Vero Beach, Fla. 32960 5136 Rines, Fred W., 46 Brunswick Ave., Gardiner, Maine 04305 5137 Gerstacker, Robert E., Box 82, Dover, Ohio 5138 Powers, Theodore R., P.O. Box 1861, Columbus, Ga. 31902 5139 Thrailkill, Katherine D. (Miss), 1313 Townsend Ave., San Antonio, Tex. 78209

NEW APPLICATIONS Cravea, Evaristo, M., P.O. Box 1114, Hollister, Calif. 95023 Age: 36

Music Teacher Age: 28

Buyer Age: 43

AM lD By: R. T. Smith Ahrens, Earl G., 28 Allen Rd., Granby, Conn. 06035

AM JF HF PC HC FF GF RP OF X By: R. T. Smith Sloan, E. P., (W/C), 563 Broadview Ave., Ottawa 13, Canada

By: N. Shymko RCAF Merkel, Stanley, 12322 Flamingo Lane, Bowie, Md. 20715

AM AU HC CAM FAM CC OF DC Z lD APS X By: R. T. Smith Age: Legal

Merchant Age: 39

u. S. Treas. Brady, William, 1160 Nyala Ave., Reno, Nev.

AM AU ASX By: R. T. Smith Peck, Harold L., 113 Ross Ave., Emerson, N.J. 07630 Age: 53

Service Mgr. ,Age: 44

Mfgr.

AU AS By: E, 0. Cooper Pearson, Stephen, 1825 E. Boston Ave., Phila., Pa. 19125

AM JF HC FAM 1D By: H. D. Westbrooks

DECEASED 4490 Shymko, Nicholas, Vermilion, Canada

NEW ADDRESSES 331 DuBose, Benjamin B.. P.O. Box 993, Atlanta, Ga. 30301

4939 Pierce, Gerald L. (Maj.), OSC Box 439, Walter Reed Gen'! Hosp., Washington, D.C. 20012

4649 Carah, John M. (Lt. Col.), 101 Polaris, Sheppard AFB, Tex. 3253 Tucker, Brown C., Box 675, Murray, Ky. 4016 Gordon, Chester A., 10352 Eagan Dr., Whittier, Calif. 90604 4561 Burke, James P., 7209 Wellswood Lane, Knoxville, Tenn. 37919 4560 Kaiser, Kenneth B., (2/Lt.), DET 1'5 WEA SQ, McGuire AFB, N.J. 08641 LM74 Irwin, J. Robert, 2326 Fillmore St., N.E., Minneapolis, Minn. 55418

AN ACTIVE AAMS VICE-PRESIDENT

Members of the American Air Mail So­ciety are familiar with Vice President Sam Goldsticker' s activities in the phila­telic world, but few philatelists know that Sam is equally active in transporta­tion circles. At the present time, Sam is a member of the Board of Governors of the Newark Traffic Club; Treasurer and Director of the Newark Chapter of Delta Nu Alpha Transportation Fraternity ( af­ter serving eight years in other official capacities); Chalrman of the Constitution and Legislature Committee of the Hud­son County Traffic Club; Chairman of the Streets and Highways Committee of the North Jersey Traffic Club; and

Vice-Chairman of the Industrial Com­mittee of the Raritan Traffic Club.

• AN AIR FREIGHT MAIL RECORD

A new company ,record for air freight carried in a single day was established by United Air Lines on June 25 when the company flew 7 44,300 ton miles over its 18,000-mile system. (A ton mile is one ton flown one mile) .

At the same time, United reported it flew 1,008,500 ton miles of cargo - -combined freight, express and mail - -the first time the airline has exceeded the one million mark in this catego.ry. The figure is believed to be an all-time industry record for domestic air carriers.

360 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER, 1964

APJ ADS RATES

FIVE CENTS PER WORD per insertion. Minimum charge $1.50. Remittance must accompany order and copy. The Airpost .Journal, 242 Hardenburgh Avenue, De­marest, New .Jersey 07627.

PUB LI CA TIO NS

DID YOU GET your copies of new re­prints of Volume I & II of Airmail Cata­logues? They are going fast ... Order yours from: George D. Kingdom, Box 37, Conneaut, Ohio. Price $6.25 each ($6.50 overseas). Volume III still available at $6.25.

FOR SAL.E

MIXTURES for everyone, off paper $1 packets: 300 large US comms., 300 large foreign pictorials, 300 US perfins, 1500 small foreign, 300 foreign airmails, 150 US blocks, 100 foreign blocks, 200 US rev­enues, 500 US precancels, 10 different First Flight Covers, 10 different US ship covers. S. Tauber, 70? E. Tremont Ave., Bronx, N. Y. 10457.

MY WORLDWIDE very fine mint Airmail & Astronaut Collection, comprising 13,000 objects (Europe proper excluded) will be disposed of from November. onwards. A~r­mail stamps and categories: Zeppelins Special Flights, Sports, Centenaries, Red Cross, Astronaut items and issues later than 1/1/62 35% discount. All other items 45%, based on Scott's 1965 Catalogues. Postage & Insurance extra. Please make your reservation NOW. Dir. S. Lowenadler, Eksjo, Sweden (AAMS 4352).

WANTED and EXCHANGE

HAVE a U.S.S. Noa, bearing Mercury stamp - First Day Cancel. What am I of­fered? Dolin, 31 Park Row. NYC 10038.

WANTED: San Marino Zeppelin cov­ers from 1930 :to 1939. Sebas:tiao Am­aral, Caixa Pos:tal 367, Belo Hori­zonl:e, Brazil *412

AIRPORT AND AIRFIELD postmarks from Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America wanted. Will trade equal quantity from U.S. Airfields. Helen Nahl, 2014.J Lincoln, Evanston, Illinois.

HAITI. Errors available on Sports, Scouts, Space, Olympics 1960, UNO, Refugee. <:ash or exchange for Italy, Germany, Vatican mint sets. A. F. Salgado, Box 901, Port-au­Prince, Haiti.

BUY any covers or cards of first flights sent to or from Ecuador, to any country of the world. Please let me have your of­fers. Dr. Roberto Levi-Castillo, P.O. Box 3606, Guayaquil, Ecuador.

AAMS EXCHANGE DEPARTMENT BUY SELL - WANT LISTS

"'ANTED: Scott International Air Post Album, when it consisted of three binders. Pages especially needed years thru 1945 or 1950. Fred Rines, 46 Brunswick Ave., Gar­diner, M2ine 04345 .

WANTED: Polar flights; Canadian and U.S. Arctic fli~hts; vignettes; Nobile Ex­pedition material. Also old .Japanese FF. Herbert Ueberall, Edenhallstr. 4, Stuttgart­Sonnenberg, Germany.

AIRLETTERS - Will buy, sell or exchange U.S. overlay varieties, U.N. first flights and West Germany aerograms mint or flown. R. E. Rusch, 26 Family Lane, Levit­town, N.Y. 11756.

WANTED: First flights and Zeppelins with Austrian stamps until 1938. Offer Polar first flights, SAS, Lufthansa, AUA and Austrian balloons in exchange. Mr. K. Grobstein, Gmunden, Austria.

KE."l\l'NEDY TOGO overprints (Scott 473-4). Complete sheets of 25 with black mourn­ing border for any 5 US 5c plate blox. Arbetter, 5319 N. Bernard St., Chicago, Ill. 60625. *413

WANTED: Arctic and Antarctic material and F.F.C. of A VENSA - MEA - Korea -Taiwan Airlines. Dal Lago Serafino, Via Gallizzi 31, Vicenza, Italy.

~~~~~~~~-

WILL EXCHANGE my thanks for your name if you are a buyer of airpost covers at auction. Some fine material upcoming~ Herman Herst, Shrub Oak, New York.

Special Dutch Postmark The Aerophilatelic Society, "The Fly­

ing Dutchman," is arranging for the 3rd "Day of Ae.rophilately" to he held at the Airport in Amsterdam. The program for Saturday, September 26, 1964, will be as follows: 12:30 P.M. - Airmail Luncheon; 1: 30 - 6: 00 P.M. - Airmail Salon (only 15 collections accepted); 4 P.M. - Air­mail Auction. The Netherlands Postal Authorities will be present to apply a special one day postmark (with aeronau­tical illustrations) to mail. Special sou­

venir covers will ·be available, but the supply will be limited to 2,000. These can be obtained from The Flying Dutch­man, IJsselsteinstr 36, The Hague, Hol­land, by payment of $1.00 for five fully serviced covers. Be sure to send your name and address with your remittance!

TRY YOUR H,AND AT TOPICAL COLLECTING

You can choose a.topic from this grand

collection of titles by WHITE ACE

WHITE ACE TOPICAL TITLES AVAILABLE 115 Pares to a P1cka1el

ANIMALS on Stamps .•............... ................. 1.00

~l::so:nsdta1~;~cr.5. .. o.n_ ~t·a-~p~ .. ::::::::: ::::::::::: . . ........... ::: l :gg FLOWERS on Stamps .......... . ...... 1.00

~:81~~E0~ it:&1·••·siaiiiiis·::······ ·········· ·························· ::::: J:gg MUSIC on Stamps .....•.. . .. .................. . ....... 1.00 RAILROADS on Stamps . . .....................................•.................... 1.00 RELIGION on Stamps ...................................... . ........ 1.00 SHIPS on Stamps ....... .. ................... .... 1.00 SPORTS on Stamps ....................... 1.00 SCOUTS on Stamps ................................................................... . ........ 1.00 FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT on Stamps .................................................... 1.00 TRIAL ASSORTMENT-Package containing one each of the above mentioned subjects .. . ............. $1.35

Collecting stamps by topical (topic-al) sub­ject rather than trying to fill spaces in a world collection is an interesting and highly intelligent approach to getting the most out of your hobby. Yet, topical collecting is not new . . . a large number of co.llectors have at one time or an­other indulged in this form of collecting by sub­ject (Ships, Trains, Religion, ett.), but were" limited by a Jack of suitable· pages.

WHITE ACE Topical Pages, in emblematic color and tableau, have changed all this by providing the topical collector with a beautiful and practical group of pages to build prize winning collections.

Like all White Ace Album pages, they fea­ture bristol white rag stock, three ring punching, brilliant and enlightening color borders, and rounded comers for the finishing touch .

CHOOSE YOUR TOPIC .. . by ordering some of these WHITE ACE pages now. It will start you on a course of research with the stamps involved in your chosen topic. Your dealer has them or order direct.

THE WASHINGTON PRESS MAPLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY

Publishers of ARTCRAFT ENGRAVED Envelopes and WHITE ACE Historical Stamp . Albums . • . the better kind!