First Flight Cover Manila To Hong Kong

Always curious about Philippines philately, which is why I saved this scan I found online.


First flight Calcutta to Manila on April 18, 1926

The envelope is address to General R. Ridgway CB, c/o The British Consulate, Manilla.

Ridgway received his Companion of the Bath designation in 1916 when King George V posted his birthday honours. He was a captain at that time and later became a Brigadier-General in the British Indian Army.

PIONEER FLIGHT MANILA - DAVAO 1931



The flight was scheduled to take place MAY 11. The arrival in Davao shows as MAY 21. This ten-day trip gives you some idea how challenging aviation in the Philippines was back in the day. Weather, mechanical issues and any other issue could have been a factor determining the length of the trip.

The cachet postal marking on the front reads: VIA U.S. ARMY AIR SERVICES PIONEER FLIGHT AIR MAY 11 1931 MAIL. The envelope is backstamped DAVAO, DAVAO P.I. REC'D MAY 21 1931

FIRST FLIGHT MANILA-SAN FRANCISCO DEC 2 1935



The route is shown in the cachet.

There is a good listing of Philippine first flight covers from 1911 to 1946 in the American Air Mail Catalogue, Seventh Edition, Volume One, on pages 215 through 357. This catalogue is available through the American Philatelic Society who handle sales of the AAMC catalogues for the American Air Mail Society. If anyone is interested in collecting Philippine first flights a good first step would be to join the American Air Mail Society at https://www.americanairmailsociety.org/join/ and buying this catalogue at .https://stamps.org/shop/products/pr...ctcd/ameri71