PAN AMERICAN

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AIRWAYS SY 'STEM ROUTES 1od SCHEDULES EFFECTIVE DECEMBER 1 , 1931

--February,

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THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

The American Air Mail Society

A Non-Profit Corporation Incorporated 1944

Organized 1923 Under the Laws of Ohio

PRESIDENT Robert W. Murch

9560 Litzinger Road St. Louis 24, Mo.

SECRETARY Ruth T. Smith

102 Arbor Road Riverton, New Jersey

TREASURER John J. Smith

102 Arbor Road .}'Uverton, New Jersey

VfCE-PRESIDENTS Joseph L. Eisendrath, Jr.

Louise S. Hoffman Florence L. Kleinert

Dr. Southgate Leigh, Jr. EDITOR - Other Publications

L. B. Gatchell

ATTORNEY George D. Kingdom

DIRECTOR OF FOREIGN ,RELATIONS

Dr. Max Kronstein

AUCTION MANAGER Samuel S. Goldsticker, Jr.

DIRECTORS Alton J. Blank

Herbert Brandner Samuel S. Goldsticker, Jr.

Lester S. Manning Emmett Peter, Jr. Dr. Tomas Terry Earl H. Wellman

Horace D. >Vestbrooks

ADVANCE BULLETIN SERVICE Herbert Brandner

4038 Forest Ave., Brookfield, ID. SALES MANAGER Herman Kleinert

213 Virginia Ave., Fullerton, Pa.

MEMBERSHIP DUES $4.00 PER YEAR

Dues include subscription to THE AIRPOST JOURNAL. Ap­plicants must furnish two ref­erences, philatelic preferred. At least one must reside in Appli­cants 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.

FEBRUARY, 1961

~ J:IJrpa.!!ilT .Jaurne11

'\'-,: -,,,,~~.,,,,"""---- .. '~

Official Publication of the AMERICAN AIR MAIL SOCIETY

VOL. 32 NO. 5 ISSUE NO. 369

Contents for February, 1961 A New Airport for New York? 114 Canada: Unstamped Air Letters 116 Airport Dedications ........................... ··--- 117 Paris Balloon Posts (continued) ............ 118 Official Section . . .. .. .. .. ................. .. . .. .... .... 121 The Art of Pursuing Crash Covers ........ 122' Airs of the Month .................................... 124 Contract Airmail Cover Notes ................ 126 Chapter News ............................................ 130 Foreign Airmail Notes ............................ 132 Cities On the Airmail Routes ................ 134 Tips By Julius ............................................ 136 Legal F·ootnotes to Aviation History .... 138 Foreign Pioneer Airpost Flights, 1909-14 140 A. P. J. Ads .................... Inside Back Cover

EDITOR Joseph L. Eisendrafh, Jr.

350 No. Deere Park Drive, Hii:-hland Park, ID. ASSISTANT EDITORS

Robert W~ Murch Ernest A. Kehr L. B. Gatchell

DEPARTMENT AND ASSOCIATE EDITORS R. Lee Black, N. Pelletier, Florence L. Kleinert Dr. Max Kronstein, Richard L. Singley williani R. Ware, Julius Weiss, James Wotherspoon John Watson, William T. Wynn, Frank Blum~nthal, Samuel S. Goldsticker, Jr., J. S. Langabeer. 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 COI'!lp~nsation. Rece~pts . from advertising, sub• scriptions and conµ-1but10ns 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. Subscrl:ption Rates: $4.00 per year, 35c per copy. Advertising Rate Card available from the Editor

PAGE 113

A New Airport For New York by Jack Wagner

T HE New York International/La Guardia/Newark airport terminals handled almost four times as many passengers and two and one-half times as much cargo in 1958 as .they did IO years previously. In 1965, they will be called

upon to handle almost twice the number of passengers and more than twice as much cargo as in 1958. By 1875, passenger traffic will amount to three and one-half times and air cargo four times the 1958 volume.

1948 1958 1965 1975

Passengers 3,572,000

13,451,000 24,700,000 45,300,000

Tons af Cargo 68,592

.................... 167,917

.................... 390,000

.................... 680,000 In general terms, it is known that these three airports are handling about

15,000,000 passengers a year and are close to their capacity. For the purpose of airport planning, however, !]:ie 'capacity' of an airport is measured in terms of the number of aircraft that can land and take-off in a given period of time. For example, an airport may be able to handlea thousand landings and take-offs on a day when wind and weather conditions are ideal and all available runways can be used. The same airport would be able to handle only a fraction of that traffic on a day when the weather conditions require all aircraft to use the instrument runways and fly by IFR. An airport must be designed on the basis of capacity limited to the number of aircraft that can be handled on its instrument runway( s) under IFR. The design and capacity of an airport is similarly controlled by the number of aircraft that can be handled with safety and efficiency during peak hours and not on the basis of average or slack hours. Thus the standard measure of capacity of any airport is based upon the number of aircraft that can be handled in a peak hour under IFR.

La Guardia and Newark Airports each have one instrumel'lt runway with a rated capacity of 40 movements per peak hour. By next month, New York Inter­national will have a second runway parallel to its instrument runway; 3,000 feet seperation betw~en the two will allow one to be used for landings and one for take-offs at the same time. This will give the airport a total capacity of 70 move­ments per hour. The one airport not mentioned up to now is Teterboro ( 225,000 landings and take-offs a year), which serves as an essential link in the regional sys­tem of handling instructional, business and private aircraft. But Teterboro cannot be added to the rated capacity of the regional airport system even though it possesses an instrument runway, ILS, and approach lights. Its instrument runway ( 6-24) is not parallel to the instrument runways at Newark, La Guardia and New York International, all of which are on the 4-22 alignment. This point and other air space limitations result in the fact that Teterboro Airport cannot have instrument approach paths independent of Newark Airport approaches. Teterboro instrument traffic is therefore required to use the Newark Airport approaches; then it is cleared by the Newark tower to proceed to Teterboro. The Port of New York Authority maintains that the present amount of Teterboro instrument traffic has a negligible effect on Newark, but any substantial increase in that traffic would reduce the capacity of Newark.

There is no practical way to expand the capacity of La Guardia or Newark Airport. La Guardia covers only 550 acres, all of which is employed. Newark Air­port with an area of 2,300 acres, would have sufficient land area to accoommodate

PAGE 114 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

another runway parallel to and far enough from its existing runway to permit simultaneous operation of the two runways. Such a runway, however, would have to be constructed on the westerly edge of the airport. According to the PNYA, air-_ craft using the runway would create excessive noise problems for neighbouring communities and, as such, would be unacceptable. New York International, as previously indicated, already has a dual runway system and its capacity therefore cannot be expanded.

The case for a new airport in the metropolitan New Jersey-New York area is over-riding. Only with additional runway facilities can the region handle a future demand for capacity above 150 aircraft movements an hour. To determine whether the demand would exceed that figure, it is necessary to transpose the passenger traffic forecasts from passengers per year to peak hour demand. Forecast inference for the New Jersey-New York area indicates that the best estimate of future peak hour demand is as follows: 1965-169 movements per peak hour; 1975-over 200 movements per peak hour. The airport proposed by the PNYA would handle long­range domestic flights in addition to those using the New York International. A medium-sized airport requires two runways and/ or the prevailing direction of flow of air traffic, and a second runway, roughly at right angles to the instrument runway, for use during the period when there is a strong cross wind on the principal runway. Both La Guardia and Newark are in this category. A major airport, which needs additional runway capacity, should have a second set of runways parallel to the first two strips with a minimum of 3,000 feet between the instrument runway and the one parallel to it. New York International has such runways.

In order to provide for an additional peak hour capacity of at least 70 air­craft movements, it would be necessary for the new major airport to have four run­ways-and, in the Port Authority's opinion, these runways should be at least 12,000 feet in length. After assessing many factors, the most attractive site, in the opinion of the Authority, is one in an area of New Jersey called the great Swamp (due west of Newark Airport). This site is within relative easy access to the metropolitan areas of New Jersey and New York City. The role of each airport in the enlarged system would be as follows:

AIRPORT PRIMARY ROLE OTHER TRAFFIC New York All international flights (pas­International .. . .. . .. sengers and cargo). Long-haul

domestic passenger flights.

La Guardia ···----····· Short-haul domestic passengers.

Newark ................ Medium - haul domestic pas­sengers. Short-haul domestic passengers. Domestic cargo flights.

Teterboro Instructional flying. Corporate and private aircraft.

Medium-haul and domestic flights. Short-haul domestic flights. Few corporate and private aircraft. Corporate and private air­craft. Corporate and private air­craft.

New Airport ........ Long~haul domestic passengers. Short-haul domestic pas-Medium - haul domestic pas- sengers. Few corporate and sengers. private aircraft.

There appears to be little doubt that a new airport will eventually be con­structed but the 'when' and 'where' will form the subject of controversy for a con­siderable time to come.

FEBRUARY, 1961

-From SHELL AVIATION NEWS - April 1960

PAGE 115

Canada: Unstamped Air Letters By H. M. Daggett

• Collectors of the postal stationery of ~~~~ •. Canada are generally aware that the Canda Post Office Department issued unstamped air letter forms for a number of years before the first air letters were made available late in 1947. According to Nelson Bond (in his book The Postal Stationery of Canada), these unstamped forms were first issued on June 15, 1942. When first issued, the use of these forms was restricted to correspondence to mem­bers of the armed forces, but later these forms were used, postage had to be paid through the use of postage stamps. There are a number of varieties of these un­stamped air letters, differing in many re­spects.

It is probably not realized that most of the various types of stamped air letters (or aerogrammes) that have been issued since 1947 were also available without the post­age stamp impression: The writer first be­came aware of this when I read the fol­lowing notice published in the Post Of­fice Weekly Bulletin of May 14, 1960:

UNSTAMPED AEROGRAtVIMES : For many years the Department has sold aer­ogramme forms printed without the ten­cent postage stamp impression. These forms are sold only in lots of 1000. The organizations buying these forms usually have their name and §tddress printed on the form. When the form is to be mailed ten cents in postage stamps is affixed to the form, or the postage is prepaid by means of a postage meter impression.

Supplies of unstamped forms of the newly designed aerogramme will be a­vailable from 4 July, and will sell for $8.78 per thousand. These forms will not be stocked by the Postage Stamp Depots, and patrons interested in procuring them are to be ad vised to forward their orders to the Postage Stamp Division, Financial Branch, Ottawa 4, Ontario.

In response to a letter asking for fur­ther information about the issuing of these unstamped aerogrammes, I received the following reply dated June 8. The italic type is the writers.

During the second world war, Canada

PAGE 116

first entered the aerogramme field with unstamped forms which were given out free from all post offices. The aero­gramme with a postage stamp impression commenced [sicJ in 1947. As the supplies of free aerogrammes became depleted, the demand for these forms from com­mercial firms increased. Originally those inquiring about unstamped aerogrammes were referred to the printing firm that held the contract for the manufacture of aerogrammes for the Government. This printing firm would sell unstamped forms in lots of 1000.

When the cw·rent design aerogramme was introduced in 1953, the Post office Department accepted many thousands without postage stamp impressions and . sold them to commercial firms in lots of 1000. The commercial firms had their corner card printed in the return ad­dressed portion of their letterheads in the

1

inside. These stampless aerogrammes have been sold ever since and the present charge is $8.78 per 1000 forms. We emp­hasize that these forms at present are not sold singly.

The current d esign of the unstamped aerogramme form is out of stock and new supplies in the new design will not be available until 4 July.

It would appear from the above that most, if not all, of the various types of air letters ( aero grammes) issued since , 1947 were available in unstamped form. It should be noted that these unstamped forms were sold by the manufactur-

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

ers until the Canadian Bank Note Com­pany took over the contract in 1953, when the Post Office Department began selling them.

If any members of the Society have any of these unstamped air letters in their collections, I should appreciate it if they would let me know, for I would like to get together a check list of these items. Incidentally, I have purchased some of those issued on July 4, and will make copies available at 6 cents for one copy or five for lOc postpaid. Please ad­dress your request to me at 4078 West 37th Avenue, Vancouver 13, B.C.

(Reproduced with permission from BNA Topics, October, 1960.)

THE SALES MANAGER SAYS:

Our last article brought in lots of nice material. Now is YOUR opportunity to add to your collection if you are inter­ested in any of the following types of covers:

A beautiful stock of FAM covers from 1927 to date, a very large variety since this material is the result of breaking up three collections. Some nice Zeppelin covers including covers with U.S. Cl3 to Cl5 stamps and also covers with all the Zepp stamps of Germany. Early Phil­ippine flights, mainly from the Brugge­man collection, some rare items included of which only a few exist. Ah, but you collect Jets! Well, good. A very fine variety of these is also available, includ­ing many different from Europe at very attractive prices. Collect air mail first days? A very nice lot of these is on hand from most all of the world. Early flights of Australia, New Zealand, Papua, New Guinea, etc.? All of these plus many, many more are represented in our stock, which is truly the finest we've ever had to date.

If you are not receiving circuits at present, why not send in that printed request form right now? If you can't find it, a letter will do. Who knows but you may be agreeably surprised at what we might send you? Just write Herman Kleinert, 213 Virginia Ave., Fullerton, Penna.

FEBRUARY, 1961

Airport Dedications By WILLIAM T. WYNN

13537 Rockdale, Detroit 23, Mich. The following list will bring up-to-date

the listings in recent Airpost Journals as we have them. We always welcome news or anything that will make our records more up-to-date, so kindly send in any news avai1able. May 22: Abilene, Texas (150) June 26: Turner Falls reported to be a

dedication, seems to be from all re­ports a new landing strip only

Aug. 6: Corpus Christi, Texas, Interna­tional; two cachets used but alike; one is printed, the other rubber stamp. (HOO) Covers of Aug. 7 are too late; ded. was 6th only.

Aug. 7: West Point, Miss. McCharen; sticker cachet (130)

Aug. 8: Huntingburg, Ind. Mun. (203) Aug. 19: Fort Worth, Texas, Heliport.

(150) Aug. 14: Forest City, Ia. Mun. Aug. 14: Hartley, La. Lamberth. (230) Aug. 14: Morrisville, Vt. State. ( 315) July 23: West Milford, N. J. Mun. (few) Aug. 28: Ozark, Ala. Blackwell. ( 300) Sept. ll: Wadsworth, Ohio. Mun. (246) Sept. 11: Abbeville, Ala. Sept. 18: N. Little Rock, Ark., runway

only. Sept. 18: Crawfordsville, Ind. Roscoe Turner. ( 150) Sept. 19: Waveland, Ind., same airport

but local PO closed on Sunday. ( 50) Sept. 18: Marshalltown, Ia. ( 58) Sept. 25: Rochester, Minn. Official op­

ening. (few) Sept. 27: Flora, Ill. Mun. ( 35) Aug. 6: Shipshewana, Ind. is OK, but

no covers known. Oct. 8: Lumberton, N. J. Cameron. Oct. 9: Gulf Shores, Ala. Ft. Morgan,

paved runway. Oct. 2: Frankfort, Ind. Clinton Co. No

covers known. Oct. 14: Jacksonville, Fla. Towers, NAS. Cct. 16: Boone, la. runway only. Oct. 23: Rock Hill, S. C. Mun. (50)

The editor of this column will hold your cards for dedication news and will put in one of your self-addressed covers each as he sends out his own. There is no charge for this service.

PAGE 117

Balloon Post 0£ The Siege 0£ Paris, 1870-71 By LOUIS A. CHAINTRIER

Translated by DR. EVERETTE. THOMPSON and GEORGE W. ANGERS Chapter 28 - General Uhrich

• In memory of Jean Jacques Alexis very unfavorable abnospheric conditions Uhrich, French general, born at Phals- since the preceding day, as a very heavy bourg in 1802, died at Paris in 1886. He fine rain was falling without cessation. commanded the 6th Division at Stras- it would be entirely impossible to choose bourg at the time of the invesbnent a landing place. Consequently he re­(August 10, 1870) and fought there 48 quested the departure be postponed. days (capitulation Sept. 28, 1870). After These observations appeared to be well­having been received with praise by the founded; those in charge of the North Government of the National Defense Station sent a courier to the General (Delegation of Tours, October, 1870) he Headquarters to report, but he answered was later the object of severe criti- that it was nevertheless necessary to de­cism for not having defended Stras- part; so there was nothing to do except bourg until his forces were exhausted. obey.

The 26th balloon post was sponsored Up to this time the departure of the by the Telegraph Deparbnent. It con- balloons was announced through items tained 2000 cubic meters and its en- in the newspapers but from the in­velope was of yellow silk on which the auguration of the nightly schedule, this glaze was not completely dry. It was procedure was changed. The day of piloted by Louis Lemoine, Sr., a me- ascenscion was carefully concealed ex­chanic by profession, 53 years old. He cept to a very small number of privileged hal already made successful ascensions persons. in the course of public festivals, the Th ce scion of the "General Uh-. t . 'th h" e as n ma1or par m compan)'. Wl is son ric" had as witnesses only some official Eugene who was the pilot of the 43d representatives and one reporter from balloon. the "Gaulois" journal.

The passengers were: ( 1) Prosper The departure took place from the Thomas, pigeon fancier, who was going North Station on Friday, November 18, to Tours to devote himself to the ser- 1870, at 11: 15 p.m. in a fine heavy rain vice of the carrier pigeons; (2) Joseph and without the slightest puff of wind. Bienbar; (3) M. Jean Chapouil - these The balloon disappeared in the wink last two, officers of the volunteers com- of an eye in the darkness caused by the missioned to go and place themselves fine rain. at the disposal of the Delegation at Mr. Thomas reported to a corres­Tours as messengers with the mission pondent of the Journal "Le Siecle" on of returning to Paris through the invest- his arrival at Tours that the quantity ment lines. of rain that fell from the clouds was so

The postal shipment comprised of: great that the top of the balloon, yield­( 1) two sacks of dispatches weighing ing under the weight, formed a reser­a total of 80 kilograms ; ( 2) four bas- voir or pool, and the water passing kets containing 34 pigeons of which 10 through the valve fell, as in a spout on belonged to Mr. Begue, 4 to Mr. Lau- the unhappy travelers who remained in rent, 8 to Mr. Vauris, 7 to Mr. Cassiers, that condition for almost seven hours 2 to Mr. Caillat, and 3 to Mr. Prosper under this flood without being able to Derouard. Among tl1ese pigeons were protect themselves from it. Garton Tis­prize winners in the Ruffec tournament sandier informs us that the voyage ac­from which some had already returned complished by this balloon was very re­to Paris. We know from Wilfrid de markable; in fact the travelers had re­Tonvielle that when Lemoine arrived to mained almost nine hours in the bal­carry out the preparations for the de- loon, to come down only a few leagues parture he observed that because of from Paris. They believed they crossed

PAGE 118 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

over Paris several times during tlhe night, and this was possible because of opposing aerial currents superposed at different altitudes.

Lemoine is supposed to have known of the backward and forward motion and to have favored it, for he was so certain of not making any distance at all; also he was naturally not sure of getting far from Paris and consequently of not ·being able to determine his point of ped to freezing the liquid mass on the ocean.

Toward 6 a.m. the temperature drop" ped to freezing the liquid mass on the top of the balloon and caused the pas­sengers cruel distress.

At 7 o'clock, the appendages and the ropes of the "General Urich" were subjected to so low a temperature that the mist was condensed into hoar frost which by 7:30 had visibly increased.

At 7:45, as the descent was increas­ing and it would have been necessary in order to keep in flight to sacrifice a part of the postal consignment; al­though Lemoine had the right to do this, he was not easily resigned to this last resort.

At this moment the sun began to ap­pear from the east, which allowed the pilot to determine that he was near the ground and the mist extended down to the fields. Through the thick veil sur­rounding him he nevertheless recognized a large number of objects of the kind so common in the environs of Paris.

Under these circumstances Lemoine, yielding to the request of his passengers literally benumbed by the cold, seized the valve cord which he had to use all his strength to pull, as it was wedged in by the frost. He was unable to close it again with the result that a wild de­scent followed, such that the basket struck the earth with violence. M. J. Chapouil was thrown out on the grou~d without serious injury. Although it was lightened by the weight of one man, the balloon rebounded only slightly and soon sank down. As there was not the slightest ground breeze, Lemoine leaped out of the basket while telling his two com­panions to follow his example, and then seizing the balloon covering that was still floating he opened it up with one cut of his knife. In an instant there was

FEBRUARY, 1961

only a bundle of cloth at his feet. It was 8 a.m. and a very thick fog

covered the ground. At this moment the travelers caught sight of a peasant a few meters away looking at them.

This fellow stood as if petrified by the surprise of seeing French uniforms in a region the enemy had occupied for more than a month and where courier service and military convoys were per­fectly organized.

The newcomer had the appearance of being more disposed to run away than to approach, but he soon recovered him­self and when he was made to under­stand that it was a question of saving the equipment and dispatches of a bal­loon, the envelope of which lay flat, he put himself at the disposal of the en­voys of the National Defense with an un­diminishing devotion.

The man, by name Grimbert, was bill sticker and gardener of Mr. Pique, a bailiff in Luzarches, who was guarding for his absent patron his country home situated a short distance from Tremblais Forest, in the immediate vicinity of which the "General Uhrich" had de­scended. The place of the landing is between the Tremblais Forest and the Parois Forest at 1800 meters (about one mile) to the west of Luzarches (Dept. Seine et Oise) and only SS kilo­meters ( 201h miles) from Paris by crow's flight.

The duration of the aerial voyage was thus 8% hours and the average speed was 3% kilometers per hour.

The town was occupied by a strong Bavarian detachment, which had estab­lished lookouts and had barricaded the entrance from t11e Paris side while set­ting up an inspection post there. Thanks to the fog everything was satisfactory but it was necessary to act with care and speed; the first step was to give the two volunteer peasants' clothes. A re­lative of Grimbert named Lejean offered to guide them by a path where they had the best chance of avoiding enemy patrols.

On November 24 Biembar and Cha­pouil were in Tours.

Grimbert, aided by six residents, a­mong whom were Messrs. Varinois and Cornet, together with Lemoine and Thomas, hid the balloon in a thicket in

PAGE 119

the Tremblais Forest in such a way that it would not be seen by the Germans which would have brought disastrous .consequences for this region. In fact, the enemy, had they been informed of the descent by this undeniable evidence, would have searched homes, imposed a fine on the town of Luzarches, and sent some of the inhabitants to the forts on the other side of the Rhine.

Finally they brought in succession to the home of Mr. Pique the balloon cordages and basket, but it was still necessary to save what was most im­portant of all - the official dispatches, the letters and the pigeons, as well as the aeronaut and the pigeon specialist.

AEROGRAMMES

Union of South Africa. 6d. Lion Aerogramme with error of in­scription (1959).

From figures released by the Publicity Officer, Department of Posts and Tele­graphs, it would appear that only 50,400 of these "error" sheets were put on sale as compared with 3,924,000 of the issue immediately preceding it.

6d. Lion Aerogramme - Two-Fold Format.

The companion sheet to the Aero­gramme, with dark blue printing on white paper with gray overlay, which was first reported as being on sale on the 29th April, 1960, has now made it~ appearance. The issue is identical in all respects evcept that the language ar­rangement has ·been changed to Afri­kaans/English/French. The earliest re­ported date of this issue was 8th June, 1960.

Unfranked Aerogramme - Two-Fold Format.

The new Aerogramme form, with Afrikaans texts first, but withont the im­printed 6d. Lion stamp, was put on sale at the end of May, 1960. Being pri­marily intended for use with a ls. ad­hesive stamp to defray postage to the Americas, Australasia and the Far East, the form does not 'bear an inscription on the back regarding limitation of use.

(From the South African Philatelist)

PAGE 120

NEW PROP-JET FRIENDSHIPS ORDERED

The latest Fokker Friendship order has come from the Sudan, whose Republican Government has ordered three of these propjet airliners for the Sudan Airways. This country thus becomes the first on the African Continent to operate the Friendship, delivery of which is sched~ uled for 1961. The pressurized 305 m. p.h. Friendships, which cruise well above the hot and turbulent air layers over the desert, are ideally suited for the network of Sudan Airways, which operates not only within its own terri­tory, but also to Aden, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, the Lebanon and the United Arab Republic. With the new aircraft the Company may now be ex­pected to expand its network not only in Africa but also to the Middle East.

The new order brings the total of F-27 Friendships sold all over the world to 168 aircraft. Althou~h a very new entry into the field of commercial aviation, the 115 F-27's now flying have already ac­cumulated about 250,000 flying hours.

AIR POST STAMPS Are Frequently Offered

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THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

OFFICIAL SECTION AMERICAN AIR MAIL SOCLETY

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

February l, 1961 NEW MEMBERS

J4800 Hoffman, David, 840 Andalusia Ave., Coral Gables 34, Fla. 4801 Lanky, Alfred, 156-15 71st Ave., Flushing 67, N. Y. 4802 Emerson, Gertrude M., (Mrs.), 21 Shaw Rd., Wellesley Hills 81, Mass. 4803 Field, John c. W., % F. J. Field, Ltd., Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, England 4804 Hare, Irving H., Col. (USAF Ret'd.), 167 Dolphin Rd., Palm Beach, Fla. 4805 Garzon, Richard, 4116 Edgemere Ct., Indianapolis 5, Ind.

N·EW APPLICATIONS Feinberg, Samuel, 79 E. Alvard S., Springfield 8, Mass. Exterminator. Age 48. AM AU

U20 UC X By: R. T. Smith Love, Stanley H., Box 782, Riviera Beach, Fla. Boat Yard Worker, Age 43. AU U20 CAM

CF ID X By: R. T. Smith Anning, Herbert D., 1708 Ensley Ave., Los Angeles 24, Cal. Investments, Age 58 ·

By: R. T. Smith Hosford, Arthur, Jr., 211 Pearl St., Reading, Mass. Clerk. Age 47. GF CAM FAM Z GF X

By: G. D. Kingdom DECEASED

4708 Pfeif, Ruth, Boston, Mass. 3896 Beech, Wm. W., Philadelphia, Pa.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS 4124 Butler, Alfred M., Central Hotel, St. Petersburg, Fla. 2161 Hershey, Owen, 2 N. Broad St., Lititz, Pa. 2695 Smith, Joseph A., Field Service Officer, Rm. 1149, Main PO., Chicago 100, Ill. 4629 McLean, Charles, 941 Beach Dr., Seaside, Oregon 3561 Hester, Keith (Dr.), 103 N. Pendleton, Newport News, Va. LM82 Becken,'Carl M., 528 Hennepin Ave., Rm. 605, Minneapolis 3, Minn. 4710 Hamlin, Charles L., Rt. #7, Allen Road, Macon, Ga. LM39 Long, Elmer R., 22 N. 2nd St., Harrisburg, Penna.

Thanks To-Eastern Air Lines, for a first flight Mex­ico City - New York, with new stamps; Werner C. Kuemmelberg for many Euro­pean first day and first flight covers; John Taylor for a first day cover new British Europa bicolors and the new ex­perimental aerogramme; John Boesman for a first Israel balloon cover; John Wat­son, a 40-year commemorative QANTAS Australian aerogramme; John and Ruth Smith a first day 7c air mail coil stamp; Ernest A. Kehr an FDC from the Efi­mayo exhibition in Argentina.

The Egyptian Philatelic Department for stamps and first day cover of the UAR stamps commemorating UN anni­versary.

United Arab Republic for a new Nubia and Palestine stamps; I'Agencie Phila­telique de la Republique de Guinee for first day cover new Olympic Games stamps; G. Lindman for first flight cover from Kiruna, Lappland, north of the Arc­tic Circle.

FEBRUARY, 1961

Henry Goodkind for a souvenir bro­chure of first day 7 c airmail coil stamp; Aeronaves de Mexico, S. A., for first DC8 flight Mexico City to New York; Werner Kuemmelberg for first flight cover via Austrian Airlines, Vienna to Rome; Saad El-Chichini, Chief Philatelic Office,

Qantas Empire Airways, Ltd., for a cover of Qantas Aeriana; Robert W. Murch - Rocky Run local post cover; Ju­lius Weiss - FDC Echo One; Aeronaves de Mexico, S. A. - first flight by jet, Mexico to New York City; Alfredo Saav­edra - first day cover Rotary stamp issue of Chile; Adm. Jesse Johnson - FDC Dulles issue; John Watson - Queensland Stamp Centenary FDC; Kurt John Weiss - first flight jet between Guatemala and Los Angeles; Jim Langabeer - first day with the beautiful New Zealand Christ­mas stamp; Howard A. Brooks and the Irish Airlines for a set of the first flights of the jet between Ireland and New York and return; Joachim Dill - flight cover carried by Lufthansa from the Rome Olympic Games.

PAGE 121

The Art of Pursuing Crash Covers By Jos. L. ·Eisendraih, Jr.

W HEN a plane crashes, generally among the first governmental officials on the scene is a post office inspector. It is his duty to care for what­ever mail was aboard the aircraft, to recover it if it is scattered around

and to arrange to have it sent on to its destination, if possible, by the quickest way. If the mail is scattered over a wide area, it's his responsibility, to organize search teams to recover it. If any is found, generally it's damaged by fire, water, grease or exposure, and he must put what he finds back into mailable condition. If there is no appreciable damage, the mail often moves on with no further markings. If the time between scheduled arrival at destination and eventual forwarding of the delayed mail is great, then he usually indicates the reason for the delay by means of a rubber stamp cachet on the envelope. If the envelope is pretty messy, charred, or watersoaked, he often prepares a mimeographed slip of explanation which is placed with the envelope inside a government "penalty" envelope, which must be addressed the same as the recovered envelope, and which is sent on. If the address is undecipherable or missing, the recovered piece of mail is sent back to the sender, if his address appears somewhere in the letter or envelope; otherwise the mail is undeliverable and is sent to the dead letter section of the post office (probably in Washington) where, if it is unclaimed after a specific time, it is destroyed. Col­lectors cannot get such mail so recovered - they must obtain it from the eventual addressee or from the sender - or from the people to whom sender or receiver may have given it.

Well, then, how do you get crash covers, I'm often asked. That's the fascina­tion of collecting such elusive mail. Standard procedure might be such as happened as a result of the crash at Midway Airport here in Chicago in November, 1959. Living in the Chicago area I heard the news on the radio right after it happened. I knew no Chicago mail was on the plane, as it had just taken off from the airport here, bound for the West Coast. I soon learned that a lot of mail was recovered intact and forwarded without appreciable delay and probably with no markings. In the evening papers I saw a picture of soldiers picking up burned mail and I realized it would take some time to process it.

Finding that the plane had been bound for Los Angeles, I called our advertising agency to arrange to place an ad in the Sunday paper in Los Angeles in the "Per­sonal" columns, offering to buy these covers. The crash occurred on Tuesday; by Sunday, I reasoned, most of the mail would finally have been delivered.

The Tuesday after publication I received a checking copy of my ad, and noted with dismay that it had appeared under "Stamps and Coins" -and I figured my money had gone down the drain. But within a week, (bless the power of adver­tising), I had received 13 covers from my ad-and they continued to drift in for a month afterwards. Many times I've advertised with no results.

My living is made primarily through dealing with banking institutions. Large banks have a mail room or department, and many of my crash covers have come as a result of having alerted mail room employees to watch for this material. As you build up your collection dealers get to know your specialties, and many a cover in my collection has come from a dealer who remembered. People have recalled my "morbid" collecting-and many friends have contributed covers from their own mail. I even have five crash covers, addressed to me-received in my own mail. Many philatelic publications carry interesting stories on the recovery of such mail, and frequently I have traded or purchased covers from the owners featured in the

PAGE 122 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

publication. Then, too, every once in a while I write a story such as this, and some reader will write to see if I'd be interested in one which he owns. I run ads in stamp papers, I get covers in circuits, I've actually fished them out of wastepaper baskets, I've been on televison with my hobby and I've purchased four collections to get certain ite~s I've needed, and frequently have sold off the balance.

Maybe you can think of some other ways! I'd be grateful if you'd write me.

Once having the covers, then comes the problem of housing and mounting them. I tried many ways before I came up with a satisfactory system. I have accumulated newspaper and magazine clippings for years. These encompass acci­dents all around the world and are accompanied by photos, letters, official C.A.B. reports, and original press photographs. This means that if today, for example, I acquire a 1939 cover, chances are that I have the material to document it. I use special transparent acetate envelopes, linen hinged, mounted in albums with three­inch ring binders. These envelopes are large enough to display an 8~ x 11 letter­head. I mount the cover and clippings on both sides of a gray sheet, and if there are markings on the back of the envelope, cut away the gray sheet so that they can be seen both front and back. I embellish the set up with headlines and a map showing where the interruption took place. If the pilot lived-and some of them do-I've tried to get his autograph on my cover. When the whole thing is put to­gether, the story is pretty complete. Being loose leaf, and fully protected by the acetate envelope, these can be passed around when giving a talk about them.

I know of one or two collections about the size of mine (I have about 600 different accidents represented-with perhaps 100 to 150 duplicates for trading). Most every cover collector has one or two such covers but too few go out to build a collection of this specialty. The Society's American Air Mail Catalogue has a special section listing cataloguing th~se items, which is kept up to date with sup­plementary listings in the Airpost J oumal.

Remember me when you get one! I'll gladly tell you all I know about your cover.

(This article originally appeared in the Western Stamp Collector.)

IN MEMORIAM

Stephen Hector Smith, late Honorary Member of the American Air Mail Society.

On February 14 1961 Stephen Smith would have had his 70th birthday. The next day is the tenth anniversary of his death. This unusual aerophilatelist not only established aerophilately in his country as a field of collecting but actually created it by his own active work. During the period when the early pioneers of long distance flights arrived in India from all parts of the world to continue their flights to all ends of the earth he contacted each of them him­self, offered them the hospitality of his house, and instructed them how to carry and redespatch the covers to commem-

FEBRU ARY, 1961

orate the flight. He designed and pre­pared the labels and the covers for their proper use.

When rocket mail was born, he con~ structed rockets and started them. He carried out the greatest one man cam­paign for rocketry in his distant country and again he did it all by himself, from the design and the building of the rock­ets to the design and preparing of the stamps and covers. He interested people like Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, the founders of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts and the Maharajah of Sikkim, deep in the mountain world of the Hima­lajah to start his rockets. He had friends around the world and many in this country and so we remember him again at this anniversary.

Dr. M. Kronstein

PAGE 123

Airs of the Month Described and Illustrated through courtesy of Nicholas Sanabria Co .• Inc.

521 Fifth Avenue, New York 17, N. Y.

BOLIVIA: Variegated set of uniform design marks the work of the Rotary Inter­national Club for the Children's Hospital ( #251-4)

CHILE: Commemorating South American Conference of Rotary International at Santiago ( #282)

GUATEMALA: Lincoln Centenary set, a limited issue ( # 283-5) Commemorating the opening of the Unesco building in Paris ( #286-9)

HAITI : #139 and #140 have been overprinted for air parcel post use. Only 8,000 of the 5G value were overprinted. ( #239-240) Dessalines type of #140 issued in new value and color ( #241) Commemo:rating 15th anniversary of United Nations ( #242-3) Small imperforate souvenir sheet completes the set ( #244)

LIBERIA: Stamp centenary ( #186) Scarce sheet with marginal inscription completes set ( # 187 )

PANAMA: Inauguration of Jet Air Service ( #292-4)

PAGE 124 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

ROMANIA: New definitive value (#158) SOMALIA: Charity single depicts leopard ( #55)

1960 Rome Olympics set ( #56-7) URUGUAY: Change of values in Winged Victory series (#232-8) VENEZUELA: !30th anniversary of the death of Gen. Jose de Sucre

THE PHILATELIC STORY OF FLIGHT by Frank R. Gracey

After the first successful flight across the channel by the Frenchman, Blanchard, his countryman, de Rozier, tried the same trip in a double balloon, a hydrogen balloon above, a fire balloon below. Part way across the balloons burst into flames and de Rozier was killed.

In the same year, 1785, a young Italian, the Chevalier Vincent Lunardi, made the first ascension in England.

The Duke de Chartres in a balloon of this sort, fitted with oars and a rudder, made an ascent in 1784. The opening through which gas could escape became closed by an air bag inside. The balloon began to swell, but the duke, with his sword, gashed the envelope and prevented a tragic explosion.

WE NEED AUCTION MATERIAL!

For many years, at our annual conven­tion, we have held donation auctions of aerophilatelic material. All proceeds go either to the general fund or the Society's catalogue fund. In the past the Society has counted heavily on contributions to this auction by members, and those in attendance have always been very gen­erous in their bids. The results have proved a financial success.

We need your donated material again this year and we hope you'll be generous. It isn't exactly a tax-saving proposition to you however. The goodness of your heart will determine your contributions, and they are not tax deductible. Please, though, no material. that would not real­ize at least $2.00 at auction. Can you get this material to us by March 7th? Send it to: Samuel S. Goldsticker, Jr., 70-D Fremont Street, Bloomfield, N. J.

You're helping yourself and your

FEBRUARY, 1961

hobby by these generous donations. Thanks in advance!

P. S. Sam says he needs airmail stamps, in particular (but he'll take any­thing).

LUPOSTA WIEN 1961

On May 14 - 21, 1961 an Inter­national Airpost Exhibition will be held in Vienna, Austria, under the auspices of the international FISA organization. The exhibition is called LUPOSTA VIENNA 1961, after the first Luposta in Danzig in 1932.

The exhibition will display airpost stamps as well as flown covers and air­post stationary and there will be a sec­tion for airpost literature, There will be special airpost flights on this occasion.

For additional information write to Bundesverband Osterr. Briefmarkensam­mler-Vereitie/L U P 0 S T A Wien VIII, J osefstadter Strabe 3, Austria,

PAGE 125

!'~~~l~'Il ~~i~~\: :>-..

By William R. Ware. P.O. Box 595, Malden, Mo .

• NEWS-Recent decisions by the CAB involve

an extension of LAKE CENTRAL'S Route #88 from Terre Haute, Indiana to Evansville, Indiana. In a supplemental opinion in the Southeastern Area Local Service Case, Route #98 flown by SOUTHERN AIRWAYS has been award­ed additional service in Tennessee. Jack­son, Tennessee has been awarded for ser­vice by this carrier on a new segment between Memphis and Nashville. Since SOUTHERN presently serves Memphis and Nashville, the addition of Jackson will simply amount to the addition of an immediate point between Memphis and Nashville. Still another segment of Route #98 has been awarded to SOUTHERN which will operate between Memphis and Nashville via Clarksville, Paris, Union City and Dyersburg, Ten­nessee. As is the case with Jackson, the addition of the new cities to this route will simply amount to intermediate cities being added between Memphis and Nashville. In connection with this ser­vice, it will be recalled that the exten­sion of Route #98 by SOUTHERN from Nashville via Knoxville to Bristol, Va.-Tenn. - Kingsport-Johnson City, Ten­nesseee, has been held up through court action by SOUTHEASTERN AVIA­TION, INC. It is understood that the Court with jurisdiction in this proceed­ing has affirmed the Board's decision in awarding this additional service to SOUTHERN but its formal opinion has not been issued.

PAGE 126

In the Piedmont Local Service Case progress is being made toward a final decision. It appears that present service by CAPITAL AIRLINES between Nor­folk, Va., and Knoxville. Tenn., via Rocky Mount, Raleigh, Durham, High Point, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Char­lotte and Ashville, N. C., will be trans­ferred to Route #87 flown by PIED­MONT AVIATION, INC.

AM ROUTE #14 - ADDITION OF WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.: This city had the distinction of two inaugurals on Jan. 15, 1960 at which time it was add­ed to Capital Airlines' Route #14 and also Delta's Route #54.

At the time of the inaugural flight of West Palm Beach to Route #14 on Jan. 15, 1960, this city was served by this route by Southbound flights terminating and Northbound flights originating at West Palm Beach. Therefore, there was no Southbound flight on the inaugural date, all mail being flown Northbound via Flight #702, Capt. W. M. Lively. This flight handled 722 pcs of philatelic mail and 348 pcs of non-philatelic mail. A blue official cachet was used in the same design as previously for the expan­sion of tl1is route in Florida. First flight mail was postmarked at 3:30 PM, Jan. 15th, and was backstamped at Buffalo, N. Y., AMF at 2 AM, Jan. 16th.

AM ROUTE #54 - ADDITION OF WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.: Delta Airlines also embraced this city on Jan. 15, 1960, the inaugural flights being made with DC-7 equipment.

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

Capt. Edmund W. Thomas command­ed Northbound flight #504 which hand­led 2656 pcs of philatelic mail postmark­ed at 7 AM, Jan. 15th, and subsequently backstamped at Chicago Midway AMF at 2 PM, same date. The inaugural Southbound flight was made by Capt. W. F. Williams. There were 1317 pcs of mail postmarked at 7 :30 PM, back­stamped at Miami AMF at 11 PM, same date of Jan. 15tl1. Official cachet in pur­ple of the same design as previously for the expansion of this route in Florida was applied. This cachet erroneously carries designation "AM-8" although ser­vice is actually by Route #54, Delta op­erating both routes.

Although not connected with inau­gural service at West Palm Beach, we cannot refrain from mentioning the un­timely death of this pilot at Atlanta on May 23rd, while on a training flight with a Convair 880 Jet. Capt. Williams with other crew members were being instruct­ed in the handling of the new equipment ,being received by Delta and immediately after take-off The craft crashed, resulting in the death of Capt. Williams and other crew members. Following the inaugural flight at West Palm Beach, we had cor­respondence with Capt. Williams and found him very cooperative.

AM ROUTE #87 - ADDITION OF STAUNTON, VA.: This city was added to the Washington - Ashville segment of Route #87 flown by Piedmont Aviation, Inc., on Feb. 1, 1960.

Inaugural Northbound flight #380 as well as the inaugural Southbound flight #317 was made by Capt. J. E. Pierce. Flight #380 carried 3596 pcs of phila­telic mail postmarked at Staunton at 7 AM, Feb. 1st, and backstamped at Wash­ington AMF at 9:30 AM, same date, while 600 pcs of mail of which 372 were reported as philatelic were dispatched via Southbound flight #317. This mail was postmarked at 10:30 AM and was backstamped at Roanoke, Va., at 1:30 PM, same date. Official green cachet was put on mail originating at Staunton., It was usual map and shield design show­ing map of Virginia.

AM ROUTE #143 - DILLINGHAM TO KING SALMON, ALASKA : This route is operated by Western Alaska Air­lines, Inc., which has operated in the

FEBRUARY, 1961

Bristol Bay area of Alaska for a number of years, handling mail from some ten or twelve post offices on a Star Route basis.

On February 28, 1960, this carrier in­augurated service between Dillingham and King Salmon which had been certi­fied and designated as Route AM #143 for regular air mail service. Inaugural flight #1 from Dillingham and flight #2 from King Salmon to Dillingham were made by Captains Myron S. Moran and John F. Ball operating two sections on each flight. Due to two craft being op­erated on each flight, it is impossible to assign first flight mail to either pilot. We have no information as to the number of pieces of mail flown on the inaugural flights of this service. However, the De­partment recognized this service with of­ficial cachets for each office, magenta at King Salmon and blue at Dillingham, showing sketch of points served by West­ern Alaska and featuring a salmon fish.

AM ROUTE #77F - EXTENSION SPOKANE TO CALGARY, ALBERTA: Although designated as Route AM 77F (foreign) for service outside of U. S. Territory, service to Calgary is actually provided by an extension of Route #77 flown by West Coast Airlines, Inc.

Capt. Patrick E. O'Grady was in charge of inaugural flight #738 from Spokane to Calgary, and also made the inaugural flight #735 from Calgary to Spokane handling a total of 5106 pcs of mail of which approximately 40 pcs were dispatched from Calgary AMF. It is thought that a large part of the dispatch from Calgary was commercial mail. Most collectors were not aware of the fact that the Canadian Post Office Department maintained an AMF office at Calgary which no doubt accounted for the small dispatch from that office. We have no record of the amount dispatched from Spokane and Spokane AMF via the first flight of this service to Calgary. How­ever, this mail was favored with an of­ficial green cachet at Spokane and pur­ple at Spokane AMF. A number of first flight covers from Calgary received an attractive black cachet furnished through the courtesy o_f the Calgary Philatelic As­sociation. This was neatly applied and reminded us of the attractive cachets formerly used by our neighbor to the North.

PAGE 127

THE DEPARTMENT STORE OF PHILATELY

May We Delp You? Regardless of whether you are buying or

selling, you will likely find The Depart·

ment Store of Philately ahie and willing

to help you.

Your inquiries coupled with your A.A.M.S.

membership number will he welcomed.

A large and varied stock of stamps, seals

and covers will he found as close to you as

your mailbox. A complete line of albums,

catalogs and supplements is maintained in

the Elbe, Scott, Minkus and White Ace

line. You may send your orders for

prompt attention: all orders of $2.00 or

more sent Postfree anywhere in The U.S.A.

Interesting covers are always available on

approval. As you know, you can't buy

covers from a price list! You'll find un­

usual and even unique covers in Long's

stock, available to you on approval on

request. Write today!

IELMIEIR lllo L<O>~G

PAGE 128 THE MRPOST JOURNAL

Action in Auctions For more than a quarter of a century we

have held monthly Mail Auction Sales

whereby fine and unusual philatelic ma­

terial is sold by mail to collectors and

dealers in all parts of the world. If you

receive our catalogs, he sure to send your

hid sheet in the current auction. If you

do not receive these catalogs monthly, ask

for the current one!

These auctions contain almost anything

philatelic, ranging from rarities to entire

collections and accumulations. Every sale

features a special section on COVERS,

usually running into several hundred sep­

arate lots. This may he a grand oppor­

tunity for you, whether you are buying or

selling!

There is always plenty of action in a Long

Sale! All bidding is done via mail and if

you're interested, we will he glad to hear

from you!

22 ~ORTH 2~D S'lro, IHA\RRISIBUURG, ][» A\o

Life Member:

FEBRUARY, 1961

AAMS APS SPA

PAGE 129

A.A.M.S. Chapter News By FLORENCE KLEINERT

213 Virginia Avenue, Fuller:ton. Pa,

• The chapters report Christmas parties, Community House. It was a very suc-banquets, auctions, stamp shows and cessful and unusual exhibit with 1200 election of new officers. collectors visiting the show.

Allen:town Philatelic Society, #29 At the November 15th meeting, Earl

L. Apfelbaum, Philadelphia stamp deal­er, spoke on "The Ethics of Stamp Deal­ing'', at the Y.M.C.A., Centre Square, Allentown, Pa. Several frames of stamps were displayed. Refreshments were serv­ed.

Our annual Christmas Party was held on December 13th at the Y.M.C.A. A program of colored scenic films, door prizes, Christmas carols and refreshments were the highlights for this party, ac­cording to Herman Kleinert, President. Charles F. Duran:t Air Mail Society.

#28 This chapter held their annual ban­

quet at the Callahan Restaurant in Troy, N. Y. Special guests were the members' wives to see William Blaun's "Slides of His European Trip", according to Wil­liam J. Franke, Secretary, 56 Excelsior Ave., Troy, N. Y. • Motor City Air Mail Society, #11

Bliss R. Bowman, Secretary, 8191 Chatham, Detroit 39, Mich., invites all air mail collectors to visit their monthly meetings at members' homes.

Please contact the secretary for future meetings. Minnesota Stamp Club, #26

bn November 22nd, the annual auc­tion took place, and an election of offi­cers was held. 1961 officers will be: Walter P. Koch, President; Keith Mo­berg, Vice Prnsident; J. H. Weisenber­ger, Secretary, 5200 37th Ave., So., Min­neapolis 17, Minnesota; and H. V. Payne, Treasurer.

On December 27th, the various mem­bers gave fifteen-minute talks on their stamps and cover collections.

This chapter welcomes stamp collect­ors to attend their monthly meetings. Suburban Collectors Club, #30

Their Stamp Exhibition was held on November 19th and 20th at the Hinsdale

PAGE 130

On December 14th, an election of 1961 officers was held, reports Mrs. H. H. Oetjen, Secretary, 13 E. Hickory St., Hinsdale, Illinois.

Jack Knight Air Mail Society, #23 Earl H. Wellman, Secretary, writes

that 30 Junior members visited the Suburban Collectors' Stamp Exhibit on November 20th at Hinsdale, Illinois.

November 25th, Roger Swanson show­ed "His Iceland Airmails" at the Hotel La Salle, Chicago, Illinois.

Joseph Jancek discussed "The Cham­pions of Liberty Series" at the Brookfield Recreation Comillission Building, in Brookfield, Illinois, on December 18th.

The Fourth "COMPEX" will take place during the Memorial Day holiday, May 27-29, 1961 at the Hotel La Salle. "Intra Hemispheric Solidarity" will be the theme for "COMPEX 1961".

"COMPEX" officers are as follows: Dr. James J. Matejka, .President; Roger A. Swanson, Vice President; Howard J. Selzer, Secretary, and Earl H. Wellman, Treasurer, from Jack Knight Air Mail Society. Ben Reeves will be Honorary Chairman, Frank Kovarik, Directory Ed­itor, and John F. Matschinegg, Exhibi­tion Chairman.

Write to COMPEX, 216 Hotel La Salle, Chicago 2, Illinoiis for further show and bourse information. Metropolitan Air Mail Cover Club,

#31 Harold J. Frankel, President, 6201 Bay

Parkway, Brooklyn 4, N. Y., writes about their November 11th Club Benefit Auction at the Willkie Memorial Build­ing, 20 W. 40th St., New York City.

Air mail collectors are invited to write for a free copy of their "M.A.A.C. Bul­letin'', from Miss E. Anne Britney, Cor­responding Secretary, 322 77th St., North Bergen, N. J. Please send a stamped envelope for the bulletin.

For their November issue, a special

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

bulletin was sent to the members, " In Memoriam" for Gus F. Lancaster who was Recording Secretary and co-editor of their bulletin. Gus Lancaster was hit by an automobile on November 14th and passed away on November 28, 1960. He was a fine member of the American Air Mail Society and th e Metropolitan Air Mail Cover Club, and will be missed by your societies.

Please extend my best wishes for the New Year to all chapters.

UP! UP! UP!

$9,200 Paid for 24c Airmail 'Invert' A New England collector paid $9,200

for a sheet-margin copy of the U.S. 24c inverted center airmail stamp of 1918 in the recent auction of the T. Charlton Henry Collection of U. S. stamps held by the New York auction house of Har­mer, Rooke & Co., Inc. T·he entire sev­en-album collection realized $132,000.

The previous record for this popular rarity, $6,400, was paid last January in a New York auction by an anonymous col­lector.

In the Henry sale, bidding on the fa­mous invert started with a book bid of $7,750, leaving the Scott price of $7,000 well behind. The book bid was tele­phoned by a midwestern collector. Two floor bidders ran it up to $9,000. One of these, Herbert L. Shapiro, a collector at Beach Haven Park N. J., bid $9,100, and was topped by the New Englander.

Gordon Harmer, who conducted the sale, pointed out that $9,200 is the sec­ond highest price ever paid for a single airmail stamp. The "Black Honduras" (Scott #Cl2) was sold for $11,500 in a 1957 Harmer Rooke auction.

FEBRUARY, 1961

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES TO THE II AIRPOST FLIGHTS ON THE RHIN,E AND MAIN" 1912

Since the report on these flights was published in the October, 1960 issue of the Airpost Journal collectors have asked for a few additional listings.

a) 'The Dates of the Zeppelin Post Flights of This Airpost Event:

The mail flights took place on June 12, 13, 17, 18 and 19, 1912. On these flights the airship carried the official flag of the German Reichspost. At the official end of the "airpost week" a con­siderable amount of mail was still on hand, with the airpost cancellation, but not yet flown by the airship. Although an additional Zeppelin flight took place on June 27 and the airship still carried the flag of the Reichspost, no new mail was accepted that day.

Therefore the cards dated after the June 19 flights could have been flown on this las t post flight. The airship crashed the next day and the flag of the postal administration was still on board and was lost that day .

b) The Dates of the Flight of the Yellow Hound

Although the report gave quite spe­cific dates, collectors have requested a specific listing of the dates. Here it is: The post flights took place on June 10, June 11, June 17, and June 22, 1912. Since the agreement between the postal authorities and the organizers of the air­post week provided that each item which carried the airpost cancellation had to be flown before it was to be delivered, cards which did not reach the above airplane flights were finally flown by airship. The cards did not receive special mark­ings when this change in the means of air transportation was made.

- Dr. Max Kronstein

PAGE 131

F. A. M. N 0 T E S by Frank H. Blumenthal - 3040 Idaho Ave .. N. W. Washington 16, D.C •

• Perhaps the flood of jet inaugurations Mexican agreement. Pan American ask-in 1960 was responsible for the paucity ed for immediate authority to fly from

. . . Miami to Merida and Mexico City, but of new F.A.M. services. At this bme the CAB instead ordered a hearing on all there seems little prospect that the situ- requests for new routes, which was held ation will improve from the point of in December. Service to Mexico from view of the FAM collector. Tampa or St. Petersburg is also em­

The inauguration of service between San Antonio, Texas, and Mexico City by Braniff Airways (FAM 34) was made possible by the comprehensive bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Mexico in August. Braniff had been certificated 'by the Civil Aeronautics Board for this service more than ten years ago but lack of Mexican approval had held up actual flights. The inauguration took place on November 9 from San Antonio, when the Post Office (this' city has no AMF) dis­patched 5049 pieces to Mexico City. An attractive magenta cachet showing part of the flags of the two countries was ap­plied, and covers were postmarked at 1 p.m. at San Antonio but not back­stamped. They were, however, given the return flight cachet· in blue and appar­ently flown back on the first flight from Mexico. The regular return flight covers were posbnarked ·at Mexico City on No­vember 10 at 12 :noon and backstamped at San Antonio .five~ and a half hours later. The blue (!achet was the same as the San Antonio, cachet except for the substitution of Spanish in the inscription.

Braniff's service does not start at San Antonio but at Minneapolis - St. Paul, with stops at Kansas City and Dallas. However, these three cities are part of Braniff's domestic route and are not de­signated as "gateway" cities qualifying for FAM listing. Collectors attempted to dispatch covers from all three and as far as is known, only Minneapolis and St. Paul accepted them. The latter cov­ers were duly flown without cachet, backstamped, and sent back on the first flight from Mexico after receiving the blue cachet. They are not eligible for listing.

Other Mexican mutes will undoubted­ly be certificated as the result of the

PAGE 132

braced by the agreement, and Eastern Airlines has put in a bid for this. An American cargo mail line, Aerovia's Sud Americana, may also fly from Miami and Tampa to Merida, Cozumel and beyond.

" " " With no advance notice, Eastern Air­

lines added Northern cities to its F.A.M. 29 which flies from the continent to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Hitherto service has been from New York and Miami, as well as a short-lived service from Chicago (see below), and it is not definite that the addition of continental cities ordin­arily part of domestic routes should be considered listable under an F.A.M. Route. If the Puerto Rico route were being inaugurated today it would prob­ably be designated as a domestic route, but since it originated as an FAM it probably will be continued as such.

The Eastern inaugurals took place on September 2 when a flight originating at Detroit, stopping at Cleveland and Pitts­burgh, went to San Juan without calling at any previous gateway city. 137 covers were dispatched from Detroit Post Office and AMF combined, 61 covers from the Cleveland P.O. (no quantities from AMF recorded), and 142 from the Pittsburgh AMF ( no covers were mailed at the P.O.). San Juan sent covers to all three points on September 3; it is known that 68 went to Detroit. All covers are back­stamped but not cacheted.

'At the same time a direct flight from Chicago to San Juan was started, but it now appears that this was merely a re­sumption of a service inaugurated June 4, 1958, which was overlooked in pre­paring the catalogue. Eastern also sched­uled a flight from Chicago, making stops

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

at Indianapolis, Atlanta, St. Petersburg and Miami before going on to San Juan, but since Miami is the gateway city (and previously served), the other cities do not list. In this connection, it may be observed that if Detroit and Cleveland are listed on the flight which left the U.S. at Pittsburgh (the gateway city), it will be only because they were first served at the same time. This may seem, and probably is, inconsistent with the treatment of Braniff's domestic points on the Mexico flight. This is a difficult problem which will have to be solved when catalogue time comes around . It arises, of course, primarily because some airlines are both domestic and foreign and have combined the two types of services on one single-plane flight.

0 "

Pan American Airways started FA~ [ (and jet) service from Baltimore - Wash­ington to Paris on June 18, through Friendship Airport (nearer Baltimore than Washington) which is capable of taking jets. This flight stops at ew York but postai recognition was accorded this flight , partly because it was a new jet service and apparently partly because Pan American is exclusively a foreign· carrier. The Baltimore Post Office dis­patched 3060 covers (there is no AMF), the Washington Post Office 2445 pieces and the AMF 2019 pieces. Cachets were black at Baltimore, blue at the Wash­ington PO and magenta at AMF. All covers were backstamped at Paris on the 19th at 9:30 P.M. An undetermined number of covers made the return flight, all backstamped at Baltimore. Flight officers were Holman and Anderson.

The airline's November schedules show that this flight was extended at this time to Rome and points beyond, termin­ating in Baghdad. Although covers from this extension would probably qualify for listing, none yet at hand.

" " Correction: In reporting on South Pa­

cific Airlines' new service to Tahiti (see APJ, Aug. '60), the FAM route number was erroneously printed as number 4. The correct number is 40. Incidentally, since October the airline's planes have been flying directly to Tahiti since the airfield there has been completed .

FEBRUARY, 1961

BOOK REVIEW INTERPHILA 1961 - International

Directory of Philately Edited by Lothar Kruger, published

by Hermann Rathmann, Marburg/Lahn, P.O.B. 150, West Germany. Price: $1.50.

This directory contains approximately 5,000 addresses of collectors, dealers, clubs and associations, magazines and collectors' services. It is completely re­vised annually, prior to publication, to insure that the contents are up to date.

Code tables, remarks, headings and prefaces are printed in ten major lan­guages, thus giving it practically univers­al usage. There are 208 pages and a two-color cover. Collectors and dealers interested in international exchange, or business associations, can make good use of this book.

"Interphila" can be obtained from Stamp Procurement, Service, 129 - 2B Willow Spring Roa~, B"altimore 22, Md.

FIRST 11961 I EDITION

UNITED STATES STAMPS ~ 160 Pages • Nearly 2000 Illustrations Brand new edition of America's most widely used U.S. & B.N.A. Catalog - published by the world's largest stamp firm. A complete illustrated listing of all major U.S. issues, U.S. Possessions, and British North America, including up-to-the-minute prices. Also spe­cialties, Confederate States, United Nations, "Americana", etc. PLUS: The U.S. Stamp Identifier .. : .a comprehensive illustrated booklet which enables you quickly to distin­guish between rare and common " look-a like" stamps. All this and ~ more, in one BIG volume! ~ ¢ Send for your copy NOW! ~ 1

-H. E. HARRIS & co.· Catalog Dept., Boston 17, Mass.

PAGE 133

Cities on the Airmail Routes By James A, McNally

• #4 Si. LOUIS, MO.

Recently, on a vacation trip I had an opportunity to stay over in St. Louis, Mo., and naturally, I utilized this period to obtain some historical facts and back­ground for this series.

St. Louis, Mo., located, as it is, in almost the center of these United States, was sure to become the heart of the nation's trade and transportation system. I wonder if the Indians of the Sauk, Fox, Peoria, and Osage tribes, who lived in this area and certainly started the traf­fic lanes that were later to be used by the horse, train, bus, and the airplane, ever dreamed what they were creating. Over the space of a century, St. Louis has changed from a fur trading village to a metropolis of approximately two mil­lion people and the Indian footpaths are now highways and airlanes.

The first delivery of mail to St. Louis, Mo., was probably from overseas in the 17th century and addressed to some of the white settlers located in this region about where the foot of Walnut St., is today. Other groups from France fol­lowed over the next decade and enlarged the settlement or moved on to discover other places. The first recorded mail dispatch to St. Louis was on February 14, 17 46, from Fort Charles, fifty miles down the Mississippi River, requesting the purchase of some furs and other commodities. The area laid in a great wilderness which meant many things had to be brought from France to be used as barter.

The area around St. Louis was origi­nally settled by the French about 1730 to be followed by others from Spain and England---all three vied for control. The city was named to honor the reigning French King. The people, mcstly of Catholic faith, erected a church which still stands today, completely surrounded by commercial activity. Spain followed France in authority as ruler, The authori­ty went back to France on Napoleon's re­turn to power, and later it all went to the United States in tl1e Louisiana Purchase. With control in the hands of our govern-

P AGE 134

ment, St. Louis, like Pittsburgh in pre­vious years, became the starting point for hundreds traveling to the west and northwest in search of new frontiers.

With the steady growth in population, industry began to flourish and mail, re­gardless of its fee or means of trans­portation, also made its mark - for this city, from 1823 to 1850 moved in r~nk among the other cities of tl1e nation, from 44th to 20th position; the main reason for tl1is advance was the change from water traffic to the railroad as a means of transportation. The effect of the railroad in this area's economy in those days is comparable to the same effect air travel has today. As the popu­lation of St. Louis soared to about 90,000 in 1910, it was only natural that some faster means of communication and travel be developed, Walter Brookins must of had this in mind when he at­tempted his delivery of mail by air on October 4, 1911. The next airmail de­livery was on June 17, 1919, by the U. S. Navy - this time from Chicago, Ill. While the Navy was normally stationed at New Orleans, La., it volunteered to fly the full length of the Mississippi River deadhead to carry the mail from Chicago. The first experimental air route was opened by the United States Govern­ment in August 16, 1920, but it was suspended in less than a year because of the lack of equipment.

St. Louis' industrial advancement helped it become a most important re­tail center as new homes appeared all over the suburban area. Accordingly, be­cause the economy of this region is widely diversified, agriculture played a prominent role, especially, with crops of wheat, corn, and barley. The Post Office Department had records of all this when it arranged the airmail routes following the passage of the Kelly Act in 1925; for St. Louis was made the terminal point for Airmail Contract #2 when it was leased Robinson Aircraft Corp., for ser­vice from Chicago, Ill., on April 15, 1926, and when this carrier was permitted to extend its service from St. Louis to

'THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

Omaha, Neb., over C.A.M. #28. St. Louis was so important that it became the base for the introduction of airmail flights by night. Another carrier - Inter­state Airlines moved into St. Louis on December l, 1928, via C.A.M. #30.

Its big advance in airmail history came on October 25, 1930, when it was made part of the transcontinental route flown by the Maddox Airline. From then on, as the city grew, airmail moved with it. In 1931, C.A.M. #2 was extended to Mem­phis, Tenn., Eastern Air Lines made St. Louis its terminal for A.M. #47 in 1940; so did Mid-Continent Airlines a month later with A.M. #48. Trans World Air­lines moved in on August 15, 1942, with A.M. #58.

The Second World War made most big cities grow in trade because of the advantages of their transportation facili­ties; consequently, many military bases were located nearby. St. Louis had, be­sides its good highways in and around the city, railroads and air transportation, and the double advantage of water trans­portation. It is only reasonable to believe that when the conflict was over, this city was certainly to put its good fortune to use.

During the post-war years the Post Office Deparment had began experi­menting with local or feeder air trans­portation of mail to and from the smaller communities. Among the carriers used was Parks Air Lines - which was award­ed a certificate to carry airmail from Chicago to St. Louis, via a number of communities enroute. Because of lack of financial stability on the part of the air­line the award was nullified and trans­ferred to Ozark Air Lines. From St. Louis as its base of operation Ozark now feeds airmail to and from this ter­minal to approximately fifty local stat­ions.

A shining example of St. Louis' climb to air transportation prominence is Lam­bert Field, its municipal airport. At a cost of nearly eight million dollars it is ready to handle efficiently, with the most modern facilities, all the freight, cargo, and airmail that would pass through its terminal. Lambert Field is served by five trunklines - American, Trans-World, Eastern, Delta, and Braniff and by two feeder carriers - Ozark and Central Air-

FEBRU ARY, 1961

lines, and Slick Airlines in the field of freight.

St. Louis, today, stands among the leaders in the field of transportation, cul­ture, the arts, and recreational facili­ties. Airmail has a great future in St. Louis, Mo.

KLM INCREASES SERVICE

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has in­creased its trans-Atlantinc jet service be­tween New York and Amsterdam to two daily round trips.

This brings the Dutch airline's number of round trips per week up to 31.

Of these 31 flights, 28 are between New York and Amsterdam with 14 to be made in Douglas DC-8 intercontinental · jets and 14 in Douglas DC-7C propeller aircraft.

The remaining three round trips are on the Houston, Texas - Amsterdam run. Two of these flights are made in the DC-8s and the other one in a DC-7C. This is the only direct air service be­tween Texas and Europe.

INTERNATIONAL GESTURE BRINGS FLIGHT COVERS

TO MEMBERS

If you received a first flight jet cover from Mexico City to New York via Aer­onaves de Mexico air lines (and most members did get one), it was through the thoughtfulness of the Sociedad Fil­atelica de Mexico and its Secretary, Jack M. Verrey. The suggestion that this be done came from our good friends south of the border, who feel that much good­will between our two nations can be engendered by such activity.

They would possibly welcome an ex­change service between individual mem­bers of both societies. There are numer­ous Mexicon first flights frequently, as well as first day Mexican Air Mail cov­ers. If of interest, to any member, please contact Mr. Verrey at Apartado Postal No. 21,386, Mexico 7, D. F.

The editor has a few of these covers intended for people no longer members of the A.A.M.S. If you'd like to have one, send us a #10-sized self-addressed stamped envelope. We'll supply them as long as we have them.

PAGE 135

TIPS BY JULIUS By JULIUS WEISS

502 E. 18Sih St., Cleveland 19, Ohio

Braniff recently made history with a first from San Antonio to Mexico City. The USA dispatch of November 9 has a violet cachet reading "Inaugural Air Mail Flight - Braniff International Airways -USA - Mexico City". This is backstamp­ed at Mexico City with a blue cachet showing the map of USA and Mexico. Mexico used the same cachet for the first dispatch from Mexico City, posted on Nov. 10.

Aeronaves de Mexico, S. A., of Mex­ico had a first jet flight on November 20, using a special red cacheted envelope

- showing their emblem with a sketch of a DC-8B jet. Cover is backstamped at New York, Nov. 20, 1960.

January, 1961, saw Lufthansa, Ger­many Airlines extend its routes to Hong Kong and Tokyo via 707 Boeing jets. The twice-weekly flights services Rome, Cairo, Dhahren, Karachi and Calcutta.

October 3 saw Air France and Japan Air Lines make a Boeing 707 jet first from "Hamburg - Tokio". The P.O. used a special violet cachet on Oct. 3. The item is backstamped at Tokyo on October 5, 1960.

KLM (Dutch) flew the DC8 into Ja­pan recently, and on Oct. 20 flew from Tokyo to Amsterdam. A special brown cachet showing a jet plus a map showing Tokyo and Amsterdam was used by Jap­anese P. 0., as well as a green cachet showing the KLM emblem plus a DC8 craft, a new egg-shaped cachet about an inch in length. There was also a dis­patch from Manila, which we have not seen. Tokyo to Manila dispatch is back­stamped, "Oct. 21, Air Mail Recd - Man­ila, Philippines".

We have suggested that readers watch some of the world refugee airmails. Some of these are quite high in price today. If you took our tip you now have some elusive items; we understand the hottest of the airmails are the two red over­prints which went on sale in Lebanon. These may turn out to be some of the most elusive airmail overprints of this year. Other refugee airmails are quite high, mainly souvenir sheets.

PAGE 136

• Delta issued covers for its "End of an Era" flight of the great DC3. Delta used this plane from December 23, 1940 to October 29, 1960 ..

We begin a new feature in this col­umn. From time to time we receive let­ters asking about various airmail stamp enthusiasts. We intend to tell about col­lectors, pilots, writers who do much for our hobby. We wish to hear from you with names of those whom you feel we should profile. We do not care as to age, sex, or length of collecting. Merely drop us a note giving name, address and a brief bit of information, or if there is a collector, writer or enthusiast you wish us to write about, please submit his or her name, address or membership num­ber. People must be members of AAMS. This is the only rule, as profiles will be about AAMS members only.

We will also use these profiles in some of our columns in the philatelic press. Many readers of the world phila­telic press are interested in flight covers, airmail stamps, airmail stationery, rocket items, Zepps and most every aerophila­telic phase of our hobby.

At the year's end we shall honor whom we feel has contributed most for our hobby during the year. This could be a collector, a collection, a society (branch of AAMS or a foreign airmail group), airmail stationery collector, a dealer, a philatelic writer or someone whom we feel has contributed most during the year 1961.

We hope to make this the yearly high­light of "Tips by Julius". Needless to say, this will not be an AAMS opinion, but merely the opinion of Julius Weiss.

Since we start off the new brainchild with this issue, we wish to mention the member of AAMS who in our opinion contributed most to our hobby in 1960. The honor must go to a man, who is also selected by editors of several major hobby publications. One man in this world of ours has been unselfish and has aided collectors obtain material from all parts of the globe, thanks to his refresh­ing news. He has spent many hours of

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

time, without pay, as well as money out of his own pocket in order to have some philatelic mail serviced by an interna­tional Glaciological Expedition in Green­land.

Few collectors know that when the first Polar flight from Frankfurt to Cali­fornia took place in October, 1958 a special cachet was proposed by this great philatelist. TWA confirmed the proposal and thousands of covers arrived at Fra11kfurt, to be cacheted by TWA­this due to one of our fellow members.

Many of the major weekly stamp jour­nals contain his "by-lines". This man who has contributed so much to the aero­philatelic world is JOACHIM DILL of Bad Neustadt/ Fraenk, Saale, W est Ger­·many.

Mr. Dill (member 4725), living in Western Germany, suffered from t:he pangs of World War IL Things were hard on him for many years, yet he has never ceased trying to bring about good­will through stamps, covers and the like. His news items appear in journals from Britain to Hong Kong. Many of us have seen his first flight covers in various philatelic shows. He has also done much for first day covers, ship cancels, and Polar items as well.

He spends time and money for news tips from many parts of the globe. He does not keep things secret (you will note, most writers mention things when they are past); not Dill, for in his col­umns in the majo.i: German stamp jour­al, Deutsche Zeitung fore Briefmarken­kunde, he gives much advance news, telling where to procure items.

Born on May 16, 1913, in Germany, young Dill dabbled with newspaper writing, for he is a journalist at heart. He read Hans Dominik's story about a newsboy who became a great editor; this led him to writing news stories for several German newspapers. He left newspaper work in 1937 when he enter­ed Wuerzburg University, but the guns went off in 1939 and Dill became a sol­dier in the Germany army.

After the war things were bad for Jo­achirn; food was scarce and to obtain it he built artcraft materials. Stamp col­lecting was out of t:he question. His holdings were lost in the war and after much hardship Dill went to work at his

FEBRUARY, 1961

father's brewery. From 1955, at his father's death, he and his brother have managed the brewery. In 1959 the firm reached t·he point where it produced more beer than before the war.

Joachim is president of Bad Neustadt Aero Club, vice president of Volkshoch­schule (People's High School) and is known to airline public relations folks in all parts of the globe . .

W e thank Joachim Dill for his efforts to bring us news of the airlines of the world .

Fellow members, send u your choice for the person you would like to see in profile.

JAMES ERROLL BOYD

An Associated Press report of Nov. 27 says that the man who flew the first gov­ernment mail between the United States and Europe died Nov. 27th while visit­ing in Sharon, Conn. He was James Er­roll Boyd, 69, who logged more than 9,000 hours during a 42-year flying ca­reer. Boyd had lived at Pompano Beach, Fla., for the past 10 years. In the 1920s he flew the famed plane, Miss Columbia> and made the first non-stop flights be­tween New York and Bermuda and be­tween New York and Haiti.

PAGE 137

Legal Footnotes to Aviation History By Nicholas Shymko

• Prior to the advent of heavier-than- with her husband, sued the park owner air craft with an accompanying crop of for damages in respect of injuries sus­new causes of legal action, many suits tained. arose from injuries to spectators at bal- In the lower courts there was a ver­loon ascensions .in amusement parks, of diet for the plaintiffs but on appeal by which the following is typical. the defendant, this was reversed on the

In 1898 one Joseph P. Smith had leas- ground that Hanna being an independ­ed a tract of land near Baltimore, Mary- ent contractor, Smith as his employer land, and had converted it into an was not responsible "for such negligence amusement park with bowling alleys, as is entirely collateral to and not a shooting galleries and a restaurant, as probable consequence of the work con­well as fireworks, acrobatic performances tracted for." and other features. These attractions The judgment of the learned Justice were extensively advertised and drew reads in part as follows: from 1000 to 1500 people on weekdays "The accident in this case is not at­and three times that number on Sunday. tributable, to any defect in the plan of No admission fee was charged. ascension, nor to anything growing out

Among other features designed to at- of what was intended or likely to occur tract visitors were balloon ascensions by in the usual process of sending up the an experienced and competent balloonist balloon. The cause of it, the record named Hanna who had an agreement shows, was proved to be as follows; 'On with Smith to "furnish and pay for the the afternoon of the accident, August 29, material and appliances used in making 1895, the balloon was in the process of the ascensions, and in addition thereto, inflation, and the two supporting poles to employ and pay for all of the men re- were in position, when a violent thun­quired to conduct the ascensions." Smith der gust came up and so disarranged was to have no part to perform except to the balloon as to cause it to veer over, furnish the field, pay the price and name and permit a supporting pole to fall to the hour for ascensions. the ground, delaying the ascension but

The method of ascension was that causing no injury. In order to get ready usually adopted: Two poles of proper for a new inflation of the balloon after height were first erected, and maintained the thunder gust ceased, it became in position by guy lines. A rope passed necessary to re-erect the fallen pole. A from the top of one pole to the top of carpenter's horse was placed under it at the other and from this by means of a convenient stages to support it in the ele­loop, the balloon was left in position vation. When the top of the pole was while being inflated. When it was in- at a height variously estimated from six flated, the rope was loosened from one or eight inches to five or six feet higher of the poles, and allowed to slip over than the horse it fell striking the horse the top of the balloon, thus releasing it. in its descent, which it probably upset When the rope over the balloon, (called and slid or bounded to the ground. As the "ridge rope") is loosened, one of the it struck the ground it either fell or poles falls to the ground. A guard rope bounded on the heel of the plaintiff intended to keep the people off, is causing the injury complained of." placed around the balloon enclosing a "It is not contended there was any­space in the shape of a lid of a coffin so thing in the sending up of the balloon, that if the pole did not fall at the prop- or in the needed equipment for such an er angle it would fall outside the space. event, that created concealed dangers On the day in question the pole fell from which it became the duty of the without causing injury but while being proprietor to shield the careless or un­re-erected it fell again, striking a car- wary by the exercise of extraordinary penter's horse and bouncing off, struck precautions; and there is nothing in the one Mrs. Mary Benick who, together record to show that in the appointed and

PAGE 138 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

usual method of ascen. ion there was anything dangerous to persons using reasonable care. It is clear, however, from the admitted facts, that Mrs. Benick received her injury in consequence of circumstances which did not involve the safety of the ordinary method. The poles had fallen without damage, and the operator then introduced of his own accord, without the knowledge of the appellant, a new appliance not contem­plated by the usual method-that is, a carpenter's horse-and certainly not with­in any consent or agency of the appel­lant. If it was careless to make use of the horse, or if Hanna or his agents were guilty of carelessness in the manner in which it was used, the appellant cannot be held liable; it being shown that Han­na was an independent contractor."

IN MEMORIAM

Captain Max Pruss From Germany comes word of the

death of Captain Max Pruss, one of the early pionee of the Zeppelin Airship . During the first World War he was an active Zeppelin Officer. After the war he continued hi airship activity and was one of the officers of the "Los Angeles" at its transfer to Lakehurst in 1924. For about a year he remained in the U. S. as instructor to the American crew.

In the years of the regular transatlan­tic Zeppelin ervices he participated in about 170 transatlantic crossing as well

FEBRUARY, 1961

as the Graf Zeppelin flight around the world and the flight to the Arctic in 1931. On May 6, 1937 he was in com­mand of the "Hindenburg" at the Lake­hurst crash and was injured seriously.

He was a very friendly and good na­tured person and a good friend of the airship mail collectors all over the world. During the years of the "Graf Zeppelin" he was in ·charge of the mail services. That Zeppelin mail was handled properly in all parts of the world, was mainly his work.

This illustration was made during those years, a a Zeppelin officer, when the airship landed in Karlsruhe, Ger­many on November 9, 1930. The writer accompanied his young daughter at the landing field, where she was a flower­girl to greet the airship crew. The offi­cer at the window to the right is the late Captain Flemming. Max Pruss is at the middle window in a characteristic po ·e of tho days. (Am. Air Mail Cata­logue 1950, p 909, No. Z-B-8)

After the econd World War he did not abandon his belief in the develop­ment of the airship as a helium filled ship and eventually to operate with nuclear power. He expected that this airship would carry 200 passengers.

With his death we feel the period of Count Zeppelin and his followers is ac­tually coming to and end. His old frie11ds and the collectors all over the world will always remember l\fax Pruss.

-Dr. Max Kronstein

PAGE 139

·Foreign Pioneer Airpost Flights 1909-1914 A. THE PIONEER AIRSTAMPS OF THE WORLD 0909 - 1914)

THE FINAL GROUP OF PIONE,ER AIRSTAMPS IN SWITZERLAND, 1913

By Dr. Max Krons:tein

• During the preceding period of airpost flights for the Swiss National Aviation Collection, Oskar Bider had been the most frequent airpost pilot, although Charles Favre, Emile Taddeoli, and Attilio Maffei carried mail. Later in the year Bider became more occupied with military activities and was reported to have gone to foreign airplane factories to become familiar with newer developments. He was reported to have undergone training in Berlin on the Rumpler "Taube" (or dove). Late in October he purchased for himself a new French airplane. But he was no longer seen quite as frequently at domestic aviation days or as a mail pilot.

Another young aviator, Theodor Barrer of Solothurn, was the mail pilot of the last airpost events with special airstamp, in 1913. His life as an aviator was very short. He earned his pilot license in Rheims, France, on June 3, 1913 and was killed in an air crash in Basle on March 22, 1914. Thus he appeared for only a short time at the air meetings of Switzerland.

On August 3 Borrer left Rheims, France for Switzerland. He flew a Pennier­Hanriot monoplane and Monsieur Labarre, the chief pilot of the Hanriot factory, accompanied him as a passenger. His goal was his home town Solothurn. The first 350 km ( 217) miles) all went well. But at Lure, near Belfort, Alsace, he was forced to make an emergency landng. The next day, the aviators proceeded into Switzerland, but made a second landing at Delemont. This is not a large city, but it provided the required mechanical assistance and its wide valley between pro­tecting hills offered a good landing gronud, before crossing the Jura Mou11tains for the destination at Solothurn. This last leg of the trip was made in August 5. A week later he made a passenger flight to the national capital in Berne where he received an invitation by the Army authorities to participate as a ~tary aviator in the coming Fall Maneuvers of the Army. On the return flight to Solothum he

PAGE 140 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

again made an emergency landing, at Deitingen, but returned to Solothurn by air later that day. A few days later he participated in the Air Meeting of his home town at Solothurn. ' I. The Airstamp of Solothurn, August 17, l913 ('The Tenth Swiss Airstamp)

The Solothurn airstamp was issued for the Solothum air meeting and the special post-flight of this occasion. This stamp showed the old city church of Solo­thurn and in the background the mountain chains of the Jury, one of these, the Weissenstein, the actual destination of the post flight.

The stamp was brown in various color shades, usually a deep brown lake, but it exists in a lighter shade and in chocolate-brown shade, all on white paper, and perforated 12. Some imperforated stamps are known. There are also some double impressions, which are rarely found today.

It is surprising that the number of the mint stamps has never been released. But the fact, that it was printed in sheets of 50 ( 5xl0), makes it probably that quite a few were printed. Since only about 1700 were sold on the occasio~, the stamp few have been printed. Since only about 1700 were sold on the occasion, the stamp is found most frequently in a mint state rather than on flown card. To make it easy for the spectators at the airfield to use the special cards, issued for this flight, the cards were sold at the aviation ground with the airstamp attached and with a 5 centimes postage stamp for the redespatch. All the sender had to do was to write and to address the card and to post it for the air despatch.

The post office used a special air cancellation in Solothurn. This circular violet cancellation had the inscription "Schweizer Flug-Post - (no date) - Solothurn­Weissenstein" and was applied to the airstamp only, and not as in earlier events on the postage stamp for the redespatch. In this case the stamp received the postal cancellation of the redespatch, that is at W eissenstein, Solothurn. The special cards for these despatches showed (in three types) the pilot and his passenger Labarre with the plane usually at their arrival from Rheims, France, or the pilot ready to start.

FEBRUARY, 1961 PAGE 141

On the occasion of the flight as the citys' air meet, thousands of people thronged the airfield . After a number of demonstration flights , and passenger flights with three passengers, he took on board the mail in several bags ( 1650 items) and left with his French passenger and a reported postweight of 25 kilos for his destination on the Weissenstein. This mountain is a well known overlook point over the area of the Jura Mountains and the Lake of Biel. One of the early rope-car railroads connect­ed the valley near the City of Biel with the top of this mountain. It took the mail pifot 25 minutes to reach this point and to achieve the successful landing. It took him 41h minutes to fly back to the airfield at Solothurn.

II. Borrer's Postfligh:t from Grenchen :to Solothurn, Aug. 31, 1913 Two weeks after the W eissenstein flight Barrer carried an airmail from Grenchen

(about half way between Biel and Solothurn) to Solothurn. At this interesting event, with no special airstamp issued, mint airstamps of earlier airpost flights were allowed to be attached to the cards for this Grenchen flight. Of the Solothurn airstamp of Au­gust 17, 1913,, proofs and double impressions were used on this occa ion. There was an official airpost cancellation in violet or blue on the 500 cards of this flight. They belong to the very rare items of the period. The photo shows here instead of a flown card a sheet of proof impressions of this official cancellation, was discovered, some years ago, in the files of the General Postal Direction in Berne.

III. The Laufen Airstamp of September 28, 1913 This airstamp of Laufen is the last of the pioneer airstamp issues of Switzerland.

It was issued for an Aviation Day at Laufen. Oskar Bider had been expected to be the pilot of the Laufen airpost flight, but he had sustained a head injury during the first Swiss military aviation maneuvers when he made an emergency landing near Zollikofen on Sept. 10 _and became hospitalized. Barrer pinch-bitted for him at the Laufen Aviation Day. Laufen is situated just north of Solothurn, about half way to Basle and is not far from the border 'between Switzerland and the Alsace.

PAGE 142

DIRECTION GtN~RALE DES POS1ES ' rfltGRAPiiES fT JfLEPHONE:S

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

The meeting was held at the Rabacker air field of Laufen on a beautiful autumn day which brought several thousand people to the field. Borrer arrived by air from Solothurn by a 50 mile flight across the Jura Mountains. These are not very high mountains but they are quite "wild" and even today's map of automobile routes does not show a single road directly across this area.

At the meeting Borrer made four demonstration flights over the Laufen valley with his Ponnier Hanriot monoplane. Finally he started for his post flight, a return passenger flight to Solothurn.

For this flight a special airstamp was issued showing an old building in the city of Laufen with a monoplane in the air. Inscribed "FLUGPOST LAUFEN - 19 - 18 -PILOT - 5 0 - BORRER" it had been printed in green by the print shop of Fentzl'ing in Solothurn. There are two variations, lighter green, and darker green. 3000 stamps had been printed in sheets of 50 ( 5 x 10) and perforated 12. A special official air­post cancellation was used in violet or in light blue, readng "SCHWEIZ FLUG­POST - 28.9.13 - LAUFEN - SOLOTHURN". This air cancellation was applied to the airstamp as well as the postal stamps of the redespatch but our illustration shows a Solothurn postal cachet of this redespatch after the arrival of the mail from this flight.

It was not a fully successful flight as motor trouble set in near Rohrgraben about half way from the destination, where there is no suitable place for a success­ful emergency landing. The plane crashed and was so completely wrecked, that it · had to be abandoned. The pilot and the passenger and the mail load were saved and were brought to Solothurn. f.

This Laufen airmail represents the first Swiss crash airmail. Only 900 items were flown.

The coming of the winter and the two accidents - to Bider and to Barrer -brought the 1913 airpost with their special airstamps for the Swiss National Air Collection to an end.

At the coming of spring, 1914, the aviation events in the country were resumed. An international aviation meeting at the St. Jacob field near Basle took place on March 22. French pilot Montmain demonstrated "looping the loop" flights, there were special "official" cards commemorating these flights. When Borrer attempted to imitate such flights with his heavier plane, he crashed, the plane was fully de­stroyed and he was killed.

There were a few more aviation meetings in Switzerland in the spring and early summer of 1914. However, there were no special airstamps issued on these occasions. When the first world war broke out that summer, the Swiss Army went to protect the frontier and the youthful Swiss military aviation entered its first great period of active duty.

AUSTRALIA INTRODUCES A "LETTERSHEET"

Australia introduced a new item of stamped postal stationery known as a "letter-sheet" at all post offices on Janu­ary 18th. Attractively designed and print­ed, the lettersheet is the same size and format as the current aerogramme with the imprint of a 5d. stamp. It has a writing area three times greater than that of the previous lettercard.

The lettersheet will be transmitted by

FEBRUARY, 1961

airmail within Australia without addi­tional payment. If the weight limitation of one ounce is exceeded by the inser­tion of additional sheets within the let­tersheet, then the necessary additional postage will have to he added.

Additional postage will also need to be affixed when a lettersheet is posted as surface mail to overseas countries t<> which the charge of 5d. for one ounce does not apply. The lettersheet cannot be substituted for an aerogramme.

PAGE 143

TRUBY COLLECTION TO BE AUCTIONED BY HEIMAN

One of the most notable collections of airmail material to reach the market in a long time is the Harry A. Truby collection of airmail covers and stamps. Mr. Truby who recently passed away was one of the founders of the Amer­ican Air Mail Society. His collec­tion was often termed "fabulous".

It contains a wealth of early pioneer flights, both United States and foreign. The rare Transatlantic flights are all there, including the Hawker and De­Pinedo.

There is quite a bit of work yet to be done to sort out the vast material, which means that Mr. Heiman will auc­tion it in early Spring, April or May. We suggest early requests for catalogues, and in order to avoid needless correspon­dence, we are advised that no part will he offered at private sale, but all by auction. Irwin Heiman, Inc. is located at 2 West 46th Street, New York 36, N. Y.

AIR MAIL ENTIRES envelopes

postal cards leiiersheeis

Finest Stock Jn. the World

'THE NEW ISSUE SERVICE PLUS the outstanding specials that

characterize this service

ATTRACTIVE PAGES FOR MOUNTING

THE AIRMAIL ENTIRE TRUTH . newsletter. Send as many Be stamped & addressed No. 10 en­velopes for as many copies as you

wish to receive.

AUTHORIZED AGENT FOR THE GODIN AS CATALOGUE

LAVA The Distributor of the Barbados Error !lox 186 New York 59

PAGE 144

ARIZONA PIONEERS

Member William L. Alexander, Honor­ary Curator, has advised us that the Arizona Pioneers Historical Museum has established a Postal History Department, having the following objectives:

To encourage study and research of the postal history of the west, and its special application to the following states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming.

To develop a collection of postal history covers, representing the mail of the west, from the earliest to the latest. To establish a collection of topical post­age stamps dealing with the west.

To gather and make available to phila­telists and others, a postal history re­ference library.

The Museum philatelic activity will be sponsored by the Philatelic Rangers, a club having no annual dues. Charter membership is still open in this club.

For information please write Mr. Alexander at the Postal History Depart­ment, Arizona Pioneers Historical Mu­seum, 949 East Second Street, Tucson.

B A M S Elects New Secretary and New Treasurer

At the annual general meeting of the British Air Mail Society last October 29th, Mrs. C. M. Gray of 35 Southwood Rd., New Eltham, London, S. E. 9 was elected the new Secretary. C. K. Beech­am, 58 Capstone Road, Bromley, Kent, England is the new Treasurer.

President Jimmie W otherspoon has done a fine job with this young society. Its monthly news letter and quarterly review are fine contributions to aero­philately. We suggest readers investi­gate the modest membership fee. Write to Mrs. Gray for information .

MINT AIRMAIL SETS WANT LISTS welcomed for Mint only for South and Central America, Mex­ico, Canada-AIR MAILS, POSTAGE, etc. Complete sets our Specialty; singles also furnished.

Woodmere Stamp Company P.O. Box 145 Woodmere, N. Y.

THE AIRPOST JOURNAL

APJ ADS RATES:

FOUR CENTS PER WORD per insertion. Minimum charge one dollar. Remittance must accompany order and copy. The AIRPOST JOURNAL. 350 No. Deere Park Drive, Highland Park, Ill.

6 3/4 AIRMAIL ENVELOPES, Barber Pole design, 24 lb. Parchment Stock, 100% Rag Content. Prices and Samples Ten Cents. Milton Ehrlich, 34-15A 31st Ave., Long Is­land City 6, N. Y. Member A.A.M.S. 372

YOU OWE it to yourself to join Airmails Exclusively. No cash fees for next sixty days. Join now. Airmails Exclusively, 1757 Henderson St., Chicago 13, II. *371

FOREIGN Used Airmail Stamp, Single3 and Complete sets on and off covers. Want list filled, Price list free. H/R Stamp Co., Box 89-N Long Beach, N. Y.

*3'12

AAMS EXCHANGE ADS

WANTED: "New York Times Aeroplane" covers flight November 2, 1916, Chicago­New York, Victor Carlstrom, Pilot: Also "New York Times Advertising Flight" covers, May' 23, 1918, Catherine Stinson, pilot. David Lidman, 390 West End Ave., New York 24, N. Y. *369

I HA VE a few hundred rocket covers, in exchange for other rocket covers I need in my collection. Anton Hobling, 1725 Put­nam Ave., Brooklyn 27, N. Y., U.S.A.

*369

WANTED - Covers to & from the U.S. carried by lighter-than-air craft. Pioneer, crash, historical, etc. Will exchange basis Amer. Air Mail Cat. W. J. Chamberlin, 3320 Chintimini Avenue, Corvallis, Oregon.

'35U

WANTED - Air Mail and Sport issues, Transatlantic jetflights, etc. In exchange: Jetflights and FDC from Scandinavia. Nils Ekstrom, Angermanhagatan 176, Valling­by, Sweden. *369

WANTED - United Nations specialized material; meters, stamps, related matter. Will exchange flights, etc., or purchase outright. Malkin, 123 Walnut St., Bloom­iield, New Jersey. *389

WANTED - U.S. First Day covers Cl to C24, offer many types covers and stamps. What do you want? Herman Kleinert, 213 Virginia, Fullerton, Penna.

WANTED - Flight Covers, Papua, New Guinea, Canada semi-official, Alaska; of­fer many types covers and stamps. What do you want? Herman Kleinert, 213 Vir­ginia, Fullerton, Penna.

FFC BRANIFF Route Nov. 9, 1960, Min­neapolis, GPO 8 am. to Mexico, Only three map cachets covers exist. Offer ex­change takes. N. Rieger, 5323 Baccich St., New Orleans, 22, La.

FEBRUARY, 1961

AAMS EXCHANGE DEPARTMENT BUY SELL WANT LISTS

w ANTED -Pre 1939 TransAtlantic flown covers. Pioneer Zeppelin covers. "\Voth­erspoon, Broxburn, West Lothian, Scot­land.

WANTED - Great Britain 1919 Railway Strike Flown covers. Australia and South Africa Air Race covers. Wotherspoon, Broxburn, West Lothian, Scotland.

WANT Crash Covers, Army Emergency Flights, Postal Stationer:\:'; will trade li~e m~terial, or what you might need, or will tuy. Joe Eisendrath, 350 No. Deere Park Drive, Highland Park, Ill.

-------------TRADE - First-Firing Polaris George Washington, U.S.S. Seadragon Polar Trip, 'lnd other Arctic Covers for flown man­Ded Rocket Research Craft (pre-X-15). E. C. Browne, 120 Kenilworth Place, Brooklyn 10, N. Y.

HAVE X-15, Wallops Island Rocket cov­ers, pre-commercial jet flights signed, for Atom and Hydrogen Test covers, flown, etc. E. c. Browne, 120 Kenilworth Place, Brooklyn 10, New York.

WANTED - Catalogues 1961 Scott's com­bined Sanabria. Give Egypt: Commem­orccthes, F.F. & Graf Zeppelin covers. Ab­c'hl Hamid Elitriby, P. O. Box 218, Port S1id, Egypt. U.A.R.

WANTED Flown Covers of Czechoslovakia up to 1946. Also essays, proofs, or col-13.teral philatelic material. Dr. Matejka, 216 Hotel LaSalle, Chicago, Ill.

-------EXCHANGE Airmail - By lot, approval b-:>sis or by want list. Scott basis. R. E. MacLean, 39 Vocational Drive, So. Port­land, Maine *370

WANTED: F.F. to and from Philadelphia, will buy or exchange for CAMs or Jets. R. L. Suter, 3100 Glenview St., Phila. 49, Pennsylvania.

COT.LATERAL Material "Allahabad 1911" flight, Pictures, Clippings, etc. Albert P. Cohen, 137 E. 28th St., New York 16, N.Y.

COLLATERAL Material "Coronation 1911" flights, Pictures, Clippings etc. Albert P. Cohen, 137 E. 28th St., New York, 16, N.Y.

UNITED NATIONS Emergency Force can­cels from all contingents wanted. Have UNEF stationery from Medical Services (cachet) to exchange, also UNEF sheet on first flight Beirut-Vienna. Wm. K. Simon, 0-101 Midland Ave., Fair Lawn, N. J.

W."....l\TTED: Lest catalogues: Americ2n cirmail, Graf Zeppelin, D. Field. Give: Egypt Commemorativeo, Airmails, F.F. & Graf Zeppelin Covers. Abdel Hamed El Itriby, F'. O. Box 218, Port-SElid (Egypt)

\YHAT HAVE YOU in Foreign, Central, S:>uth America obsolete motor V·ehicl,2 license plates to exchange for Canadian Stamps. A.A.M.S 4597, John J. McHale, 55 Con!lolly St., Halifax, N. S., Cano.da.

We are philatelic auctioneers

and specialize

in providing

a competitive market

for stamp collections

and other philatelic properties

Over 30 years experience

assures the maximum

in results

Your inquiry is welcomed

IRWIN HEIMAN~

Inc. Serving American Philately Since 1926

2 WEST 46th STREET A Telephone : JUdson 2-2393

NEW YORK 36, N.Y.

Suite 708