Up In The Sky! It's ... An Autogiro?

There's been some interest in helicopter covers lately, so I thought I'd start a thread on their oddball cousin the autogiro (or autogyro if you're British). These differed from helicopters in that the rotors above were not powered, but instead spun freely, giving the craft lift as the propeller in front supplied forward momentum. This allowed for slower flight and the ability to take-off and land on short runways (like the roof of the Philadelphia Post Office).

The USPO did a number of experimental mail flights along short routes, like Philadelphia and Camden, using an autogiro and I believe they were put into regular use along some routes. But they were soon replaced by helicopters, which required no landing strip at all.

I've always been fascinated by this mode of mail transport and I've got three autogiro covers in my collection. None are backstamped, but the cachets are fun.

Perhaps someone has a nice, mint set of these Spanish Juan de la Cierva airmails. Except for this one, all of mine have heavy cancels.

#MeToo



Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

This article may be of interest:

http://postalmuseumblog.si.edu/2015...he-mail.html

I can't help but think of this conversation from The Simpsons:

Here's one from my collection.

Robert

I believe there are only one or two antique autogiros still operational in the U.S. Here's a video of one from 2010. Really interesting to see how they fly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwd...-UmdryQn2PzA

Bumping this topic.
I recently acquired the following two covers from 19 May 1938 which are from an autogyro flight from the small suburban town of Media, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia. Perhaps 11 or 12 miles as the autogyro flies.

It's billed as the first airmail flight from Media to Philadelphia. I do not know if there were subsequent such flights. This is one year before the experimental route 2001 postal autogyro flight of 5 July 1939 from Philadelphia to Camden from which a cover is shown above in this thread.

The first cover, on a UC3 (die 2a), bears a rather rudimentary cachet which I believe was rubber stamped. The second, bearing a US C23, is much more detailed, appears printed, and you can make out the forward propeller of the autogyro as well as see more detail of the post office.









The flight was made from a field about 1/2 mile outside of the town and was intended to go to the roof of the downtown Philadelphia post office, but the autogyro was apparently unable to land on the roof.

Here is a newspaper clipping showing the aircraft in question. The caption notes the location of the "Media Aviation Field" which was turned into a housing development about 1950. The autogyro seems to have some distinctive design elements so I will have to try to identify the make and model. There were two autogyro manufacturers in the Philadelphia area at the time.

Great addition, jleb! I've never seen this cover before. It looks like one cachet was printed, the other was rubber stamped -- perhaps it was intended for mail that arrived without a cachet.

Watch this first flight happen:

https://www.google.com/search?q=aut...:ao3rKXJlqus

Nice video!

This arrived in "swaps" no card, just as is.
Ephemera.
Full gum on back

Autogyros are still being made today and there is a market for used ones if you would like to buy a few. For example, here is just one place that sells used ones - this place is in the UK: https://www.aerosales.co.uk/for-sal...-gyrocopters

Rod,

Here is a postal card evidently carried on the 8 May 1934 autogiro flight to which your label pertains.

First the front which bears
+ several rubber stamps
+ a sequential number 288 at lower left (I have seen a #1425 so there were quite a few in the mail-sack),
+ and the signature of John S. Davis, the intrepid passenger, who one surmises was attending the mail. He was apparently a collector who arranged this flight for the exhibition.

I do wish the cancellation had been applied better, but it reads Air Post Exhibition London, with the date.



Second, we have the back of the card which depicts the autogiro and bears the same light blue label Rod showed in his post above, in this case tied with a rubber stamp to the card. Again, imperfectly applied, but clear enough.

Serendipity
Bravo Jleb

As appreciation, your postmark Pictormark (7th-12th May)

I belive Trainwreck's Spanish autogiro posted above is the 1938 issue, Scott C72B. The sky was re-engraved from the initial June 1935 issue which has a clear sky. They depict the C30 autogiro, which was invented by Juan de la Cierva (1895-1936) flying over Toledo, Spain.

Here is the clear sky version, Sc. C72A. It is also perfed 11 1/4. There are other perf and imperf varieties out there. I like how the rotary wing seems to be cutting through the lettering of "Republica Espanola" at the top of the frame. Hard to get these with decent centering BTW.





Spain dominates the autogiro stamp - they issued quite a few, some of which are shown above in the thread. Very few countries have issued autogiro stamps, but below is a 1996 issue from a certain Caribbean nation a few nautical miles south of Florida. Sc. 3727 is the low denomination in a set of four historic aircraft (the others conventional fixed wing). The depiction is of another Cierva autogiro.



ed to correct mispelling.

This 1961 issue is the last stamp issued by Spain to feature an autogiro. Naturally it is a Juan de La Cierva model of autogyro. Scott 1040. the 1 Peseta value was for domestic mail.

There were another four stamps in the set issued to commemorate 50 years of Spanish aviation, but they depict conventional fixed wing aircraft and are not nearly as attractive as this one in my opinion.



I have to suspect Spain will issue another stamp or two this year, which marks the centennial of Cierva's invention. His C4 model was first flown January 9, 1923 in Madrid.

edited to correctly spell Cierva's name which I have messed up more than once now.