Starting with the western-most country, Portugal has a great history of adventurers and colonisation starting in the fifteenth century to include Brazil, briefly parts of North America, various territories in Africa and even Macau in the Far East, and it was the latter’s passing back to China in 1999 that saw the final chapter written in this part of Portugal’s history. Today the country is known for its wines as well as sandy beaches of the Algarve
Portugal
Famous Aircraft of the Twentieth Century
Aviation came too late to have any major part in the countries expansionist excursions but of course is a major player today in the tourist industry.
The stamps chosen are a particularly attractive set issued in 1999 to mark 75 years of military aviation. Of interest is the inclusion of two currencies as introduction of the Euro had just taken the place of the national Escudo.
Spain; surrounding Portugal on two sides of the Iberian Peninsula, Spain is much larger, a country of over 46 million people according to a 2016 poll and today known as a popular holiday destination that represents the country’s largest source of revenue. The earliest stamps featuring aviation were very early – 1926 – and were for air-mail letters, either connecting the capital Madrid with Manila in the Philippines or crossing the Atlantic, both precarious journeys in those days.
Coming forward to 1955, Corres – the Spanish postal authority – issued another set of stamps for use on air-mail letters, but all eleven featured the same, elegant engraving of a Lockheed L1049 Super Constellation, differing only in colour and value.
In 1961, Corres issued a set of five stamps to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Spanish aviation.
Naturally, the first two stamps feature the work of the Spanish, the 1pta (peseta) stamp illustrates a Cierva C.30A autogyro which although British-built was the design of Spanish engineer and pilot Juan de la Cierva. Then there is the 2pta stamp that shows a CASA-built Junkers Do-J Wal flying boat. Construcciones Aeronáuticas S.A. (CASA) was a Spanish aircraft manufacturer which was founded in 1923 and began manufacturing aircraft the following year. In 1999, it became a subsidiary of the EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company) better known as builders of the Airbus range of airliners.
Finally, like a great many nations and airlines, the Spanish carrier Iberia operated the iconic Boeing 747 ‘Jumbo Jet’ with great pride and in an attempt to stay competitive. Here we see one such aircraft flying over Madrid in a stamp issued in 1971 to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Spanish air-mail service.
Gibraltar stands at a strategic position at the entrance to the Mediterranean and is a British Overseas Territory on Spain’s south coast. It is dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar, a 426m-high limestone ridge and, as such is much valued by British military strategists. Unavoidably, the Rock has a major presence on almost all stamps issued there. This particular Presentation Pack is one of three issued in 1982 to hold the new definitive stamps which ran to fifteen stamps with face-values from 1p to £5 and in view of its heritage, these stamps are dominated by aircraft of British manufacture or operation.
Almost forgotten today are post-war types such as the Vickers Viking on the 2p stamp, designed using many structures from the wartime Wellington bomber as a Douglas Dakota replacement shown in the 1p stamp but now long since vanished; the Airspeed Ambassador (or Elizabethan as it was known by BEA, the only airline to buy it from the manufacturers) was rapidly eclipsed by the first turboprop airlines the Vickers Viscount; and on the 10p stamp the Vickers Vanguard which was a development of the Viscount but sold in far fewer numbers and has again long since retired from our skies.
France holds a very special place in the annals of aviation history. With the possible exception of the USA, no other country can demand so many entries in this book with its profusion of firsts, eminent aviators and builders from Blériot, right through to today’s Airbus Industries, a pan-European business based in Toulouse.
We must start way back in 1782 when the Montgolfier brothers first built a balloon at their paper factory that lifted itself using hot air and with the active encouragement of Louis XVI succeeded in building a bigger balloon that was able to carry two men the following year, a true first and illustrated here is a First Day Cover with stamp marking the 200th anniversary of that great event.
Interestingly, national policy ever since has been to encourage aviation in all forms and today a visit to a small aerodrome like Toussus-le-Noble, some 25kms (15 miles) south-west from Paris will overwhelm anyone used to the sleepy aerodromes of the UK.
Undoubtedly one of France’s most celebrated aviators was Louis Blériot (1872-1936), an aviator, inventor and engineer who in 1909 became world famous for making the first aeroplane flight across the English Channel and in so doing winning the prize of £1,000 offered by the Daily Mail newspaper. The stamp shown here, whilst not the first to feature Blériot, was issued in 2009 to celebrate the centenary of that achievement and clearly shows the man and his machine.
French aircraft manufacturers were almost as prolific as those celebrated, contemporary airmen and women and this 1954 set shows us some of the larger concerns and their wares.
A lovely set from 1984 gives some idea of the vast array of products in the inter-war years.
But wait a minute. Look at this stamp 2 Franc stamp below – same as one of those in the previous set but with a different value!
Confused? France’s national currency until the arrival of the Euro at the turn of the century was the franc but inflation meant that prices were being quoted in hundreds of francs if not thousands and beyond for high value items – just see that 1954 set – so the franc was devalued in 1960 by a value of one hundred and the new, more manageable currency was officially known as the nouveau franc, or nf, although within a few years the nouveau bit was dropped as everyone got used to the new currency.
No review of French aviation would be complete with the mention of three iconic products, the first being the Sud-Aviation SE.210 Caravelle noted as the first short/medium-range jet airliner and also the first to position its engines at the rear for a relatively quiet cabin and clean wings for maximum efficiency. Its maiden flight was in 1955 and the 282 built operated in every continent included the United States where United Airlines’ order spurred every other major builder to develop their own clone.
Together with the UK, France was instrumental in developing one of the world’s greatest technical achievements – Concorde – and not to celebrate that on a stamp would be unforgiveable and here she is grouped with four other very noteworthy examples of French innovative design – I can attest to the exceptional design of the Citroen 2cv car having owned several.
Germany is a nation of immensely proud people. Its history has been an ever-changing one, born out of several smaller countries in the nineteenth century, been at the centre of two global conflicts; part of it subsumed by a fundamentalist but flawed ideology and finally today stands high in both the European Union and also one of the world’s greatest aeroplane makers – Airbus Industry.
As a result, German stamps bear several names of origin and here we see three stamps issued in 1956 by what was generally known as East Germany, to mark the establishment of a post-war airline Deutsche Lufthansa (literally German Airline). Having become part of the Soviet Bloc, the East German operation naturally looked east for their fleet and the Ilyushin IL-14 was a contemporary of the American Convair 240, Douglas DC-4/6 and the British Vickers Viking. The IL-14 first flew in 1950 and although never common outside eastern Europe, total production amounted to 1,348 examples, the last one not retired by the Russian CAA until 2005!
What marked postage stamps out as valuable and attractive sources of material for the public was the various series of stamps like these that in twenty-four values covered a huge spectrum of aviation history from the Montgolfier balloon to the Boeing 747 ‘Jumbo Jet’ and issued in West Germany by the Deutsche Bundespost in several batches between 1978-80 and included a similar series for the isolated West Berlin which at the time was still an enclave within East Germany. All the stamps include 50 per cent addition as a charitable donation and marked ‘Fur Die Jugend’ or ‘Youth Welfare’ in the right hand margin. Another of the set is shown here mounted on a PHQ card issued by the postal authority and showing the elegant lines of the Lockheed Super Constellation L-1049G in the colours of Lufthansa.
Issued in 1972 is this pair of stamps that illustrate some aviation activities in Eastern Germany certainly at the miniscule end of subjects on stamps.
The 5pf (pfennig) stamp illustrates the Kamov Ka-26 helicopter from Romania and given the NATO code-name ‘hoodlum’, a light utility machine small enough to land on the back of a truck which uses a coaxial main rotor configuration obviating the need for a tail rotor.
The 10pf stamp shows the LET Z-37 Čmelák – Bumblebee – an agricultural aircraft made in what was then Czechoslovakia
The two sides of Germany in the post-war era came together in 1990 in a very public fashion and in the full glare of the world’s television when first the Berlin Wall and other unnatural borders dissolved to the delight of everyone. Postage stamps also came under a unified Deutche Bundespost and very quickly took on the simple title Deutschland and the set shown here from 2008 illustrate a wide cross-section of some very characteristic German production.
Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties. Denmark lies to the north of Germany whilst separated by the Øresund Sound is Norway and Sweden sitting next to each other further north and included in the term ‘Nordic countries’ that includes Finland, Iceland, and their associated territories (Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands).
Denmark. This country’s commercial airline industry started with Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S that traded as Danish Airlines, established in the closing months of the First World War 1. This was subsumed into Scandinavian Airlines System together with Swedish and Norwegian contemporaries in 1946 initially to pool trans-Atlantic services and in 1951 to integrate all commercial operations.
This card above was produced to commemorate the introduction into service of the elegant Douglas DC-7C airliner that inaugurated over-the-pole services from Europe to the Far East. This airliner was the final Douglas airliner to use piston engines, ending a long line of DC models going back to the DC-1 of 1933 and about to be eclipsed by jets starting in the late fifties.
The lovely presentation pack, overleaf, from 2006 clearly shows its value, telling us that the country had its own aviation industry from 1937 when Skandinavisk Aero Industri was established and built around 200 aircraft until 1954 and all termed KZ after its founders Kramme and Zeuthen. It was issued to mark the centenary of one of the country’s early aviation pioneers and inventors Jacob Christian Ellehammer, although other sources give his birth as 1907. The other stamps show a military trainer, the KZ.IV, a communications and ambulance aircraft and finally from 1947 the KZ.VII, a club trainer, examples of which are believed to be still flying in Finland and Switzerland.
Sweden retains an important member of the global aerospace and defence industry with Saab AB, founded in 1937 today employing over 16,000 people worldwide but their prowess has never been celebrated seriously on the country’s stamps. However, this attractive miniature sheet was issued in 1984 illustrating some of the country’s aviation and does show the Scandia 24-32 seat airliner, development of which was started in 1944 and entered service in 1950.
Only eighteen were built, serving airlines in Scandinavia and South America so could hardly be considered a success.
Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic covering an area of just over 100,000sq.km, with a population of approximately 350,000 and is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. The capital and largest city is Reykjavík which is home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active.
Being in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and bordered by the Arctic Circle, aviation has taken on a character less familiar to continental Europe and these colourful stamps issued between 1993 and 2009 illustrate aviation’s nautical nature.
One interesting aspect of Iceland’s aviation is the country’s position between Europe and the USA. Founded in 1937, Flugfélag Íslands ehf. is now part of the Icelandair Group quoted on the NASDAQ Stock exchange in the US but based at the island’s principal airport Keflavik near Reykjavik. Not being part of any global national agreements on fares, airlines based on the island have competed aggressively with the added advantage that in early post-war years, when other carriers were struggling to cross the Atlantic non-stop, the natural hub of Iceland made life a lot easier and even today some great deals can be found. Whilst the Dakota and Fokker aircraft we see here would not have been used for such services, the Boeing 757 definitely does and a look at arrivals and departures at Keflavik shows a huge number of European and North American destinations.
Poland is one of many eastern European countries that used to belong to the Soviet Bloc, under Communist rule and ideology. Until the fall of the Soviet era in late 1991 and the country joining the European Union in 2004, things tended to be very backward outside the major cities and I can attest to the significant use of the horse and cart until then. Today of course, things are a little different and the country thrives.
The country has long had an indigenous aviation industry, concentrating on the smaller end of the spectrum and the set of six stamps shown here were issued in 1978 celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Polish Aero Club and illustrate some of Poland’s light aircraft from the earliest flying machines to more recent craft such as the motorised glider as well as some of the luminaries of the day.
Poland’s national airline is LOT Polish Airlines, formally known as Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (‘lot’ being the Polish for ‘flight’) and the nation’s flag carrier. Based in Warsaw and established on 29 December 1928, it is one of the world’s oldest airlines still in operation with a fleet of over 70 aircraft and is state owned. Although today the fleet is predominantly of Western manufacture, in the Soviet era they came from within and here we see a 1979 stamp celebrating LOT’s 50th Anniversary and shows an early Dutch Fokker F.VIIb/3m and what was in the Seventies the pride of the airline – an Ilyushin IL-62M trans-continental airliner that bore a strong resemblance to the British Vickers VC-10, whilst from 2004 we have a FDC celebrating 75 years of the airlines history and culminating with an image of the Boeing 767.
The Czech Republic. Until 1993, Czechoslovakia had been another country emerging from the collapsed Soviet bloc but an amicable spilt that year saw The Czech Republic and Slovakia go their separate ways. Today, the former has considered a change yet again to Czechia but this move has not been popular and thought in many circles to be too close a name to Chechnya, an unhappy province of Russia. To outsiders, the country is famed for its ornate castles and native beers; the capital is Prague (Praha) and is home to wonderful architecture that escaped depredation of the two world wars, to a grand ninth-century Prague Castle, a preserved medieval old town and the statue-lined Charles Bridge.
This single stamp from 1967 beautifully illustrates the charms of the city together with an illustration of a Tupolev Tu-134 airliner to qualify it for inclusion in this work.
A rather delightful set of stamps also issued in 1967 illustrates some of the indigenous products of the country’s small aviation industry well known for its output at the smaller end including agricultural types and gliders
The Czech airline is CSA, (České aerolinie, a.s.) which was formed in 1923 and came under the control of the Soviets in 1948; thus its fleet was dominated by Soviet type for some years and was the first foreign carrier to order Tupolev jets at the very start of the jet age and became the world’s third jet operator in 1957, flying Tu-104A twin engined jets and this set from 1973 marking the airline’s 50th anniversary illustrate the principle types of that era.
Emerging from Eastern domination, the airline struggles against established western operators and the loss of business to fellow Soviet Bloc countries and although still operating as a separate entity has now come under the majority ownership of the charter operator Travel Service.
Ukraine. Since its emergence from the Soviet bloc in 1990 this country has had a troubled history with its dominant neighbour Russia but with a population in 2017 of in excess of 42 million people and the largest land-mass entirely within Europe, the country continues to establish itself and cement ties all over the world. One asset from the Soviet era that found itself in Ukraine was the Antonov State Company, tasked by its previous masters to build very large aircraft for the Soviet military forces and today well known for the An-22, an enormous 4 turbo-prop engined freighter, monster An-124 jet powered freighter and the yet bigger still An-225 Mriya (dream) a sole example of which was built to carry the Buran, the Soviet version of the American Space Shuttle. Its sheer size and SIX turbofan jets makes it by a significant margin the world’s largest aeroplane and creates a major stir (and headache for airfield operators) on its occasional visit to overseas airport.
This block of four stamps was issued in 1996 celebrating the 90th anniversary of the birth of Oleg Antonov and apart from showing the two jet freighters we also find what must be their alter-ego – the An-2, a single-engined bi-plane of 1946, mass-produced as the ideal Soviet agricultural and utility aircraft capable of putting down almost anywhere thanks to its remarkable slow speed. I recall a stroll along the cliffs of Folkestone during an air-display when a headwind made a Hungarian-registered An-2 appear flying slower than my leisurely progress!
The Soviet Union and Russia. Today, many people confuse the two names of this title referring to one or the other with gay abandon. The Russian Federation can trace its origins back as far as the third century AD as various groupings in the region began to coalesce whilst the modern day Soviet Union grew out the Russian Revolution of 1917 and subsumed several adjacent countries that formed the Soviet bloc until its collapse in 1991.
A great many stamps came out of the Soviet Union, a good few as examples of the nation’s pride in its industrial achievements. All bore the initials CCCP as did all civil aircraft as part of their registration but these are Cyrillic letters and in the rest of the world we should read SSSR, Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, the Latin alphabet transliteration of Союз Советских Социалистических Республик.
These first stamps were issued in 1969 to show the development of Soviet civil aircraft starting with some rather ungainly creations but ending with the very early Tu-104 and IL-62 jet airliners. Soviet leaders of the day were in the habit of arriving for summit meetings abroad in their country’s latest airliners, often never seen before. Despite reticence to go into too much detail on defence, many countries, including the Soviet Union, often illustrated military as well as civil aviation and this example shows thirty years of production of Mikoyan types, the MiG-3 of 1939 and the then current MiG-23 of 1969.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia carried on in a very similar vein and in the stamp world it continued to celebrate their aircraft designers and the three mini-sheets following show the man and his machines (many other well-known designers and manufacturers have also been featured). Issued in 2002 to mark the centenary of the birth of Nikolai Kamov, the helicopter designer, is this mini-sheet of his work.
In 2009 came a similar set featuring the work of Mikhail Mil, another helicopter designer.
In 2013 a further set featuring the work for the military of Alexei Andreyevich Tupolev (Russian: Алексе́й Андре́евич Ту́полев; 1925-2001), perhaps the most prolific name in Soviet and Russian aviation.
