Lets See Your Aviation Stamps

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Aviation
December 17, 2003
The stamp set depicts Wright Flyer I (1903), Glider No. 16 by Otto Lilienthal, Airliner Airbus A380, Airliner Douglas DC-5.

South Africa
Aviation in South Africa
May 7, 1993
The stamp set depicts Bristol Boxkite and Boeing 707-344.

Souvenir sheet from France, issued 1999, commemorating French author/aviator Antoine de Saint Exupery, and his most famous literary creation, The Little Prince, one of the most popular children's books of all time. Exupery began his flying career in the early days of the Airmail, and flew in Europe, Africa and South America which he wrote about in one of his earlier books: Southern Mail. During World War II he flew reconnaissance missions for the French Air Force and was lost, presumed crashed, during a mission over the Mediterranean Sea in July 1944. If you are ever in Paris, and are an aviation buff, a must see is the Air and Space Museum at Le Bourget airport, just north of the city (this was the airport where Lindbergh landed on his famous 1927 trans-Atlantic flight)One of their outstanding exhibits is a whole collection of artifacts on the life of Exupery, including a beautiful Caudron Simoun plane painted dark blue, that once belonged to him.

Set of stamps, Lithuania C79-C84, to commemorate the ill-fated flight of Lithuanian-American pilots, Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas, who were attempting a nearly 7,000 km non stop flight from Floyd Bennett Field in New York, to Kaunas, Lithuania, in a specially modified Bellanca CH-300 named the Lituanica. They crashed about 33 hours into their flight near the town of Kuhdamm, Germany (present day Mysliborz, Poland). The crash has never been satisfactorily explained. An Art Deco monument to Darius and Girenas was put up in Marquette Park, Chicago

France
Air Mail
1997: Breguet XIV
1998: Potez 25

I was gazing at those Lithuanian stamps from two posts back, and wondering, as I often have since acquiring them a while back, what the phrase "oro pastas" means. Then it finally dawned on me: nothing to do with Spanish gold or macaroni and linguini, oro pastas must be Lithuanian for "airmail". Sure enough, a quick perusal of the entire Lithuania section in my Scott Specialized Classic catalogue, which goes up to 1940, confirmed that these words appear only on airmail stamps.

Argentina
Air Mail
September 15, 1990
This partial set depicts Junkers JU 52-3M and Fokker F27.

Cayman Islands

That last one with the souvenir sheet from the Cayman Islands reminded me of something. The lower left stamp depicting an Airspeed Oxford reminded me of a terrific book, which anyone with an interest in the history of aviation would enjoy. The British author, Nevil Shute who was hugely popular from the 1930's until his death in the 1960's was by profession originally an aeronautical engineer and began his career at Airspeed, and probably had a hand in designing the Oxford. He also worked on the R100 Airship. In addition to his many novels, which included The Pied Piper (made into a movie with the very young Roddy McDowell in the 1940's), A Town Like Alice, Trustee From the Toolroom, On The Beach, etc. he published his autobiography called Slide Rule, in which he discussed his long and very interesting career in aircraft design. A terrific read.

Here is another from South Africa.

Serbia

And South Africa again.

Brazil
Centenary of Santos-Dumont Dirigible Flight
July 18, 1998
The se-tenant pair shows portraits of Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a Brazilian inventor and aviation pioneer, and his balloon and dirigible flights.

Hungary
History of Hungarian III
March 16, 2006
The stamp set depicts Boeing 767 and Lockheed Sirius 8A.

This January 17, 1990 issue of New Zealand commemorates the 50th anniversary of Air New Zealand. Shown is the aircraft from the 1940 inaugural flight, a Short Empire flying boat. Flight was from Auckland to Sydney, Australia.

Also shown is a Boeing 767-200ER which was in use at the time of the stamp's issuance.