Airmail Postage Stamps

Airmail stamps produced in connection with the transmission of letters by air, have a surprising antiquity. The first airmail stamp was a 5c adhesive label issued in 1877 by ‘Professor’ Samuel King for use on mail carried by the balloon Buffalo from Nashville, Tennessee. Printed in blue, it carried a picture of the balloon in flight.

In November 1898, the Original Great Barrier Pigeongram Service issued blue shilling stamps. The stamp showed a bird carrying a letter in its beak. Among subsequent issues was a stamp overprinted for use on the pigeon post to Marotiri Island, and a pair of triangulars (1899 – 1901).

In the years immediately following the Wright Brothers’ first flights by heavier-than-air machine, aviation meetings were all the rage in Europe and many of them produced souvenir labels, some of which enjoyed semi-official status as airmail stamps. The first of these labels was issued in June 1909 for the meeting at Bar-sur-Aube and depicted a female allegorical figure of aviation. The following month, The Douai air meeting had the first souvenir postcard and the first label depicting an aircraft – albeit semi-symbolic (a female figure with biplane wings fixed to her back). In August1909, the meeting at St Malo les Bains had the first label to depict an identifiable aircraft – a hydroplane.

The first label to have actual franking validity was issued in August 1910 in connection with the Nantes aviation meeting. The 10c red and blue stamp was closely modelled on the Basle Dove stamp of 1845, with a monoplane substituted for the dove. Used examples on souvenir cards were cancelled with a two-ring postmark inscribed NANTES AVIATION. It is doubtful whether these souvenir cards were actually flown.

The first semi-official air stamps were produced in Germany in connection with flights between Bork and Bruck by the aviator Grade. Three different labels (none bearing any indication of value) were issued, and are known on cards and covers with a variety of airmail cachets. Other semi-official German air stamps followed rapidly, including the Margareten-Volksfest 50 pfennig of May 1912, the Gotha airmail (July) and the Bavarian Aero Club and Regensburg mail flights (both October).

The first airmail stamp issued by a government postal service was the Italian 25 centisimi Express Delivery stamp, overprinted in May-June 1917 for the Rome-Turin air service. The world’s first airmail definitive stamps were issued by the United States in May 1918 and featured a Curtiss Jenny. The 24c with inverted centre was the first airmail error.