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

First Day cover of the 2023 Spanish stamp celebrating the centennial of de la Cierva's first successful flight. Nice cancel showing an autogiro. Stamps are badly pixelated in my scan for which I apologize...

A big shout out to Roberto who first posted this issue to the thread and who has been very generous with his help to me.

Tanzania 2007. Scott no. 2507c depicts a "Cierva Autogyros" [sic]. One of four stamps in a minisheet celebrating the centennial of helicopter flight. The other three are modern helicopters.

Reversed fuselage codes? Error of design?

ETA: Did the stamp designer flip the image to improve the look on the sheet? Hard to figure.

Yeah, I wondered what in blazes was going on with this one's registration number. Only one of the other aircraft on the mini-sheet (see below) shows a number "54" which is correctly oriented. The other two are unmarked.

I speculate that the designer first set the text elements in place for the stamp design. After that, s/he then pasted in some "helicopter" artwork. s/he wanted to have some symmetry in the mini-sheet flying to the centerline, and the swirl motif, so had to flip the artwork of at least the Cierva.

Either way, either no one noticed or if they did, it was either too late or they didn't care about the registration number. Whoever was churning out Tanzanian issues at this point would not have stopped the presses....

The other odd thing about these four stamps is that while they appear to be flying against a blue sky, there are no pilots in evidence in any! Later model Cierva's had space for a pilot and a passenger. Both are unoccupied in this illustration.

Above I posted the Spanish centennial stamp on FDC from January 2023. At the 50th anniversary, in 1973, Spain did not issue a stamp, but Valencia celebrated the occasion with a cancel.

Here's the cancel, depicting an autogiro; the strike is a bit blurred. The cachet also shows a nice autogiro.

Here's a postcard from 1934 depicting an autogiro and apparently carried on the first autogiro flight to occur in Australia. This was during the yearlong festivities for the centennial of Portland, Victoria, and the flight went from Melbourne to Portland which is about 220 miles or 350 kilometers.

There's a sequential number "1187" stamped on the back; wish I knew how many pieces were carried. Also the fine print disclaiming responsibility for loss or damage in transit, postponement or abandonment of the flight.... No one too confident about the autogiro in Oz.

Wow! lovely card, and what a surprise.
and a MOO Postmark to boot.

I'll have a look in my Airmail Catalogue.

Here is a note that appeared in the Melbourne Argus the next day:




It looks like the pilot flew mail to Portland, where it was deposited in the mails and sent back to Melbourne through the regular postal service?

This auction description from Leski claims 3100 postcards and ten covers were flown to Portland:



The full link is here:
https://auctions.leski.com.au/lot-d...nbsp-Aerial-

From a cursory look, seems the only Autogiro flight listed.
None shown in Index. ( Lots of Hovercraft)

"Wintery weather" ! Ballarat is the coldest place I have experienced in Australia
Early morning stopover by train, it was Freezing!

I was pleased to get it Rod. Looks as though 3,100 cards were carried per the AAMC entry 461 which is mentioned in a post on another board I finally dug up. So they're unusual, but not rare I would say. The fellow posting the total said he has four!

And from yet another board there was a post giving details on the aircraft itself:
"G-ACIN Cierva C-30P (c/n 659) first registered 20/07/33,then withdrawn from use 12/12/36 and finally broken up in 1938.Built by A.V.Roe as Avro 671."

Edited to add after seeing cross post:
Many thanks for posting your findings above.
This is why I love stamp collecting - the rabbit holes are so many, so varied, and so interesting!

Ain't it grand?!

Now the illustration of the Postcard.
Inspiration?

Perhaps a Postage Stamp. 1934 (2nd July) recess John Ash
First Nations Australian, Melbourne and the River Yarra
Scott # 144


https://www.prints-online.com/early...4115361.html


Aircraft Type : Gyroplane
https://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/G-ACIN.html

Time for some more modern autogiros.

There were four issued in 2007 depicting ultralight autogiros which have a pusher propeller behind the single cockpit, rather than a tractor prop in front as in the classic Cierva models we've seen thus far. The occasion was the centennial of the first helicopter flight.

These four all appear to show Bensen autogiros. On some models of Benson, the overhead rotor is powered, making it a gyrocopter, but other models have unpowered rotating wings making them autogiros. All bear the text "Do-it-yourself flying."

edited to correct spelling of Bensen, which is incorrect on one.

Gambia Sc. 3073e July 2007



Grenada Carriacou & Petite Martinique Sc. 2686e 2007 July
I suspect this shirtless guy is in for a rude awakening at altitude and speed.



Grenada - Grenadines [ Sc. I do not have, but it is Michel 5931] October 2007



St Vincent Grenadines - Union Island Scott 329 2007 October
Last of the four says autogyro, but with the rotor configuration I think it is a helicopter despite the labeling.