Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
The Stamp
A very small issue (100 stamps, 1 sheet?) of a specimen of Sc #756. The stamp that was issued was in gray only, no green, on November 5, 1954. The specimen is overprinted and with a small security hole near the overprint. The issued stamp was part of a set of seven, denominated 1c through 1 Cordoba. The 3c depicted the A-20 attack plane, the 4c depicted the B-24 bomber and the 5c depicted the AT-6 trainer.
The Subject
This stamp is, at first glance, most peculiar, in that I cannot find any evidence that FAN ever had an F-86 in inventory. I searched all F-86 serial numbers from 1951 through 1956, and none were transferred to FAN. FAN did operate the MiG-17 and MiG-21 in this era. In the late 1940s, FAN also operated a number of US propeller fighters, including the P-47, P-51, and P-38. The piece of history of the F-86 in Nicaragua that is relevant to this stamp is that, on January 19, 1954, Capt. Dean Ray of the USAF was killed at Managua, Nicaragua in the crash of the F-86 Sabre he was piloting as part of a goodwill tour of Central America. Indeed, Capt. Ray is depicted on the 1c stamp in this series, also in gray. That leads me to conclude that the 2c is depicting Capt. Ray's F-86. The fact that both 1c and 2c are printed in gray only may signify a tribute to Capt. Ray's death.
Anecdotally (to me, at least) contemporary stamps (printed in the 1950s) seem to rarely depict fighter jets.
-Paul
*** Moderator note: moved to the topical section ***
(Modified by Moderator on 2021-03-12 05:13:35)
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At first glance i thought MIG , when i was in the service the U.S. offered a $50,000 reward for a Mig fighter, One Bulgarian pilot took us up on it and landed in an olive grove near where i was stationed in Puglia. Both the pilot and the plane were banged up pretty good. It was big news in the local papers.
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Next up is the Republic F-105 Thunderchief:
The Stamps
These three are from three of the nine sets of stamps issued by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to commemorate the "downing of American jets in the North". There was a new issue for each increment of 500 aircraft. The first issue was in August, 1965, for the 500th aircraft, the next was for the 1000th aircraft, issued in April, 1966. The final issue depicting an F-105 was for the 2500th aircraft, issued in November, 1967. The final issue (4 stamps, not depicted) was for the 4181st aircraft, issued in October, 1973. These three all appear to be CTO. They are also part of my Propaganda on Stamps collection.
The Subject
The subject of all three of these stamps is the Republic F-105 Thunderchief, tactical fighter-bomber used extensively in North Vietnam. Of the 833 F-105s built, 320 were lost in combat in Vietnam. I have two family acquaintances who flew the F-105 in combat over North Vietnam. Both survived their service.
-Paul
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I wonder who thought this was a good idea for a stamp. Apart from the obvious - Icarus's flying career was not exactly crowned with success, which can't inspire confidence in nervous passengers - the plane itself is a bit odd. It looks like it's flapping its wings, perhaps to avoid the same fate.
But maybe Argentinians were made of sterner stuff in 1947.
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You are right, its not a stamp that stands out in my Argentina album .
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Could not find much info on the Semana de Aeronautica from 1947. Apparently this may have been the second in a series of events, that continued to 1957, at least. In 1947, the event was held in the city of Villa Mercedes in the province of San Luis.
I would make the highly stylized image of the flying boat to be the Latecoere 631. Here's a photo of the plane in flight, and it shows the distinctive, long, highly tapered wings:
The prototype first flew in December, 1942, and with 6 engines, was the largest flying boat built to that date. The second one built did not fly until March, 1945. Four entered service with Air France in July 1947 for use on the route to the Caribbean. To me, this timing further cements my presumption as to the stamp's design inspiration. On the other hand, I could find no evidence that the Latecoere 631 ever visited Argentina.
There were only 11 built, as it was not a commercial success. Five were written off in accidents and one more was destroyed during WWII. The planes were all withdrawn from Air France service in August, 1948 after a catastrophic crash at sea which killed all 52 on board. A further SEMAF crash, in 1950, killing 12, sealed the plane's fate to the scrapper.
-Paul
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Planes on stamps is kind of new for me but I found this on the GERMAN POST site :
What is the STAMP INDIVIDUAL?
The STAMP INDIVIDUELL gives your most beautiful motifs an exclusive space - because as a real, self-adhesive stamp on the sheet,
on the roll or in the folding card, it offers you the opportunity to design the motif of your stamp yourself with your own photos and images.
In which variants is the STAMP INDIVIDUELL available?
The STAMP INDIVIDUELL is available in different versions from our online shop or from our service team.
Online shop:
The STAMP INDIVIDUELL is on DIN-A5 sheets with 10 self-adhesive stamps each or on DIN-A4 sheets with 20 self-adhesive stamps each
available in our online shop at www.deutschepost.de/individuell.
In addition, the STAMP INDIVIDUELL is also available here as a 4-sided and 6-sided folding card in business card format,
optionally with 1 or 2 self-adhesive stamps.
Service team:
You are also welcome to purchase the STAMP INDIVIDUELL on a roll of 100 or more.
You can also determine the format of your folding card and the number of self-adhesive stamps individually.
Please contact our service team: by phone on 0961 38183940 or by email to team-briefmarkeindividuell@deutschepost.de.
Do you have any questions about the product or would you like to order directly?
You can get more information about the product or about ordering in our online shop or from our service team.
Online shop:
You can find more information about STAMP INDIVIDUELL in our online shop at www.deutschepost.de/individuell.
Here you can also design and order your desired product directly.
Service team:
Our service team is available for larger quantities, individual custom-made products or personal advice
by phone on 0961 38183940 or by e-mail to team-briefmarkeindividuell@deutschepost.de
Herr Sieger sees money in it (I think)
https://www.briefmarken-sieger.de/search/index/sSearch/flugzeuge
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Can someone move this thread to the Topical section where it will be found more easily in future times. Ta ! 
Not sure if the plane drawn on these is a C-17 or a Short Scion. The latter was certainly around in the last years of the Mandate so I'll go for the latter.
When I first wrote about these I copied the note that came with the stamps and got it all wrong !
Most likely a fantasy production, possibly by a Mendel Shapira from Haifa who made up some Philatelic covers around 1947-48 bearing these stamps. But there certainly was an 'Aviron' flying school on a Kibbutz in the Jordan Valley, where Israeli pilots were learning their stuff for the upcoming War.
PATCO may have been a reference to Palestine Airways (see image of the Short Scion below).
Whatever the truth, these labels/stamps are scarce and I can no longer afford to add to my little lot.
These are the 25 Mils values. Other values exist.
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The plane on the stamp can't be a Short Scion, which is a low-wing plane. The ones on the stamps are high-wing. Other than that, I don't have a clue about the stamps/labels, except that they are interesting! A C-17? The only C-17 I know about is the current Globemaster:
Bob
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It looks like a Vickers Wellington but quite where that fits into the Palestine Airways story I'm not sure.
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Ya, over-interpretation of artist's impressions is easy to do, especially when they're very stylized.
The Vickers Wellington actually does have a place in Palestinian history. I found this image rather easily using google:
The caption: Royal Air Force in the Middle East, 1944-1945.
A Vickers Wellington of No. 76 Operational Training Unit taxies out for a training flight at Aqir, Palestine.
That said, the Wellington is a mid-wing design, but the artist's impression depicts a low-wing aircraft. Probably close enough... Too bad the tail isn't shown. The Wellington's tail is rather distinctive:
The Wellington doesn't appear to be well-suited for adaptation to transport. However, the earliest reference I could find to the Vickers Wellington in Palestine was a crash, on August 11, 1942. PATCO was apparently defunct after 1940, due to WWII.
I did find a detailed history of PATCO, here:
Land of Israel Airways (Palestine Airways)
It starts about halfway down the page. The only aircraft mentioned in this section are the Short Scion, the Scion Senior, and the deHavilland Rapide.
I think also that such stamp designs are sometimes inspired by visions of the future. Visions that may or may not come to fruition...
-Paul
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Yes the wing position is wrong for the Wellington. Otherwise it's pretty close. Artistic license can make identifying aircraft difficult at times. Below is a 1944 stamp from Finland often referred to as a DC-3. Finland did have some DC-2s which were moved from commercial use to the military during the war years, but the only reference I can find to a Finnish red cross plane in this period was a de Havilland Express, the 4 engine version of the Dragon Rapide biplane. Now if you cut off the top wing of the Express and removed 2 engines it would look very similar the plane in the stamp.
Maybe I should just go with the DC-2
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Further to Pigdoc's (Paul's) post about U.S. aircraft shot down during the Vietnam War:
When I first started collecting North Vietnam stamps (as part of my collection of stamps and covers representative of the Vietnam War and Vietnamese history generally), I assumed that the stamps picturing American planes falling from the sky were nothing but communist propaganda. I just didn't think that it was possible for anyone to shoot down that many American planes, not with America's overwhelming technilogical superiority. I was wrong. Of course I went into Vietnam in January, 1966,* I believed that it would be a short war because our enemy was technologically backward. I was wrong about that, too.
The stamps seem to be reasonably accurate in their statements of the number of aircraft shot down. Trying to determine the exact number of planes and helicopters that were shot down is a real dog's breakfast — guesstimates seem to be in the neighbourhood of 3,500 to 4,500 combat losses as opposed to accidental losses, but few web sites provide numbers that are more than somewhat similar, and some clearly are inaccurate to greater or lesser degree. For example, Wikipedia lists the number and model of Marine Corps helicopters that were lost, but doesn't mention that any UH-34D Seahorses were lost, but I know that at least one was shot down in Operation Utah (the operation in which I was wounded), and I've seen photographs of others. Anyway, here are images of a North Vietnamese propaganda folder, including all of the "aircraft-downed" stamps:
Bob
*Not voluntarily. I'd become a U.S. Navy hospital corpsman, and was shanghaied by the Marines when the war started.
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More on the Latecoere 631 in South America in a write-up, here:
Latecoere 631
As to the Latecoere visiting South America, the write-up describes plans to take the second 631 on a propaganda flight to Rio de Janeiro on October 10, 1945. However, the day of the flight, the airplane struck a concrete mooring while taxiing and the hull was severely damaged. The plane eventually made it to Rio, where on a flight from Rio to Uruguay on October 31, 1945 it suffered a propeller failure which ripped an engine from the wing. A flying propeller blade killed two passengers.
In February, 1946, three Latecoere 631s were purchased by ARGENTINA but were never paid for. Those three aircraft went to Air France in May, 1946.
So, we have more evidence that the Latecoere 631 could have been (or, was probably) the inspiration for the design of the Argentina stamp near the top of this topic. Not only that, but taken as a whole, the history of this particular aircraft, as described in the write-up is well-represented by the fate of Icarus!
-Paul
PS, if you are a fan of engines, particularly of large, experimental aircraft engines, the site in the link above is a gold mine! Not comprehensive, but there is a lot of stuff there on air racing and extreme engineering.
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Here's another:
This stamp represents a dream, not fulfilled.
The plane depicted is a Sikorsky S-40, built in 1931 (first flight was August, 1931). It was the vision of some promoters, who thought they'd finance the venture by selling 300,000 of these stamps, purchased at $0.20 each from the printer to be sold for $1 each to patrons. Another 100,000 stamps were for the Post Office to sell to frank mail carried on the proposed circuit to Ireland. The whole thing flopped, and the stamps subsequently were degraded to 'label' status.
To promote the venture, a Sikorsky S-36B was leased:
...and sat on Lake Wayzata, near Minneapolis MN. This is an 8-place plane and would never have been considered for a trans-Atlantic voyage.
But it gives the stamp issue its name, the "Wayzata" stamp. I have not found any details on this S-36B airplane. But, the venture failed, and no flights were ever undertaken.
Nevertheless, it remains a beautifully composed stamp, and makes an interesting sidebar to a collection of trans-Atlantic airmail stamps...A few 'used' covers have been discovered, and these typically are the result of uninformed mail clerks cancelling the stamps as a favor.
-Paul
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11:17:29am
Starting this topic off with a bang:
The Stamp
A very small issue (100 stamps, 1 sheet?) of a specimen of Sc #756. The stamp that was issued was in gray only, no green, on November 5, 1954. The specimen is overprinted and with a small security hole near the overprint. The issued stamp was part of a set of seven, denominated 1c through 1 Cordoba. The 3c depicted the A-20 attack plane, the 4c depicted the B-24 bomber and the 5c depicted the AT-6 trainer.
The Subject
This stamp is, at first glance, most peculiar, in that I cannot find any evidence that FAN ever had an F-86 in inventory. I searched all F-86 serial numbers from 1951 through 1956, and none were transferred to FAN. FAN did operate the MiG-17 and MiG-21 in this era. In the late 1940s, FAN also operated a number of US propeller fighters, including the P-47, P-51, and P-38. The piece of history of the F-86 in Nicaragua that is relevant to this stamp is that, on January 19, 1954, Capt. Dean Ray of the USAF was killed at Managua, Nicaragua in the crash of the F-86 Sabre he was piloting as part of a goodwill tour of Central America. Indeed, Capt. Ray is depicted on the 1c stamp in this series, also in gray. That leads me to conclude that the 2c is depicting Capt. Ray's F-86. The fact that both 1c and 2c are printed in gray only may signify a tribute to Capt. Ray's death.
Anecdotally (to me, at least) contemporary stamps (printed in the 1950s) seem to rarely depict fighter jets.
-Paul
*** Moderator note: moved to the topical section ***
(Modified by Moderator on 2021-03-12 05:13:35)
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re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
At first glance i thought MIG , when i was in the service the U.S. offered a $50,000 reward for a Mig fighter, One Bulgarian pilot took us up on it and landed in an olive grove near where i was stationed in Puglia. Both the pilot and the plane were banged up pretty good. It was big news in the local papers.
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08:56:35pm
re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
Next up is the Republic F-105 Thunderchief:
The Stamps
These three are from three of the nine sets of stamps issued by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to commemorate the "downing of American jets in the North". There was a new issue for each increment of 500 aircraft. The first issue was in August, 1965, for the 500th aircraft, the next was for the 1000th aircraft, issued in April, 1966. The final issue depicting an F-105 was for the 2500th aircraft, issued in November, 1967. The final issue (4 stamps, not depicted) was for the 4181st aircraft, issued in October, 1973. These three all appear to be CTO. They are also part of my Propaganda on Stamps collection.
The Subject
The subject of all three of these stamps is the Republic F-105 Thunderchief, tactical fighter-bomber used extensively in North Vietnam. Of the 833 F-105s built, 320 were lost in combat in Vietnam. I have two family acquaintances who flew the F-105 in combat over North Vietnam. Both survived their service.
-Paul
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re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
I wonder who thought this was a good idea for a stamp. Apart from the obvious - Icarus's flying career was not exactly crowned with success, which can't inspire confidence in nervous passengers - the plane itself is a bit odd. It looks like it's flapping its wings, perhaps to avoid the same fate.
But maybe Argentinians were made of sterner stuff in 1947.
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re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
You are right, its not a stamp that stands out in my Argentina album .
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11:24:35am
re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
Could not find much info on the Semana de Aeronautica from 1947. Apparently this may have been the second in a series of events, that continued to 1957, at least. In 1947, the event was held in the city of Villa Mercedes in the province of San Luis.
I would make the highly stylized image of the flying boat to be the Latecoere 631. Here's a photo of the plane in flight, and it shows the distinctive, long, highly tapered wings:
The prototype first flew in December, 1942, and with 6 engines, was the largest flying boat built to that date. The second one built did not fly until March, 1945. Four entered service with Air France in July 1947 for use on the route to the Caribbean. To me, this timing further cements my presumption as to the stamp's design inspiration. On the other hand, I could find no evidence that the Latecoere 631 ever visited Argentina.
There were only 11 built, as it was not a commercial success. Five were written off in accidents and one more was destroyed during WWII. The planes were all withdrawn from Air France service in August, 1948 after a catastrophic crash at sea which killed all 52 on board. A further SEMAF crash, in 1950, killing 12, sealed the plane's fate to the scrapper.
-Paul
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re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
Planes on stamps is kind of new for me but I found this on the GERMAN POST site :
What is the STAMP INDIVIDUAL?
The STAMP INDIVIDUELL gives your most beautiful motifs an exclusive space - because as a real, self-adhesive stamp on the sheet,
on the roll or in the folding card, it offers you the opportunity to design the motif of your stamp yourself with your own photos and images.
In which variants is the STAMP INDIVIDUELL available?
The STAMP INDIVIDUELL is available in different versions from our online shop or from our service team.
Online shop:
The STAMP INDIVIDUELL is on DIN-A5 sheets with 10 self-adhesive stamps each or on DIN-A4 sheets with 20 self-adhesive stamps each
available in our online shop at www.deutschepost.de/individuell.
In addition, the STAMP INDIVIDUELL is also available here as a 4-sided and 6-sided folding card in business card format,
optionally with 1 or 2 self-adhesive stamps.
Service team:
You are also welcome to purchase the STAMP INDIVIDUELL on a roll of 100 or more.
You can also determine the format of your folding card and the number of self-adhesive stamps individually.
Please contact our service team: by phone on 0961 38183940 or by email to team-briefmarkeindividuell@deutschepost.de.
Do you have any questions about the product or would you like to order directly?
You can get more information about the product or about ordering in our online shop or from our service team.
Online shop:
You can find more information about STAMP INDIVIDUELL in our online shop at www.deutschepost.de/individuell.
Here you can also design and order your desired product directly.
Service team:
Our service team is available for larger quantities, individual custom-made products or personal advice
by phone on 0961 38183940 or by e-mail to team-briefmarkeindividuell@deutschepost.de
Herr Sieger sees money in it (I think)
https://www.briefmarken-sieger.de/search/index/sSearch/flugzeuge
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re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
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re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
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re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
Can someone move this thread to the Topical section where it will be found more easily in future times. Ta !
Not sure if the plane drawn on these is a C-17 or a Short Scion. The latter was certainly around in the last years of the Mandate so I'll go for the latter.
When I first wrote about these I copied the note that came with the stamps and got it all wrong !
Most likely a fantasy production, possibly by a Mendel Shapira from Haifa who made up some Philatelic covers around 1947-48 bearing these stamps. But there certainly was an 'Aviron' flying school on a Kibbutz in the Jordan Valley, where Israeli pilots were learning their stuff for the upcoming War.
PATCO may have been a reference to Palestine Airways (see image of the Short Scion below).
Whatever the truth, these labels/stamps are scarce and I can no longer afford to add to my little lot.
These are the 25 Mils values. Other values exist.
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re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
The plane on the stamp can't be a Short Scion, which is a low-wing plane. The ones on the stamps are high-wing. Other than that, I don't have a clue about the stamps/labels, except that they are interesting! A C-17? The only C-17 I know about is the current Globemaster:
Bob
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re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
It looks like a Vickers Wellington but quite where that fits into the Palestine Airways story I'm not sure.
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10:03:46am
re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
Ya, over-interpretation of artist's impressions is easy to do, especially when they're very stylized.
The Vickers Wellington actually does have a place in Palestinian history. I found this image rather easily using google:
The caption: Royal Air Force in the Middle East, 1944-1945.
A Vickers Wellington of No. 76 Operational Training Unit taxies out for a training flight at Aqir, Palestine.
That said, the Wellington is a mid-wing design, but the artist's impression depicts a low-wing aircraft. Probably close enough... Too bad the tail isn't shown. The Wellington's tail is rather distinctive:
The Wellington doesn't appear to be well-suited for adaptation to transport. However, the earliest reference I could find to the Vickers Wellington in Palestine was a crash, on August 11, 1942. PATCO was apparently defunct after 1940, due to WWII.
I did find a detailed history of PATCO, here:
Land of Israel Airways (Palestine Airways)
It starts about halfway down the page. The only aircraft mentioned in this section are the Short Scion, the Scion Senior, and the deHavilland Rapide.
I think also that such stamp designs are sometimes inspired by visions of the future. Visions that may or may not come to fruition...
-Paul
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re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
Yes the wing position is wrong for the Wellington. Otherwise it's pretty close. Artistic license can make identifying aircraft difficult at times. Below is a 1944 stamp from Finland often referred to as a DC-3. Finland did have some DC-2s which were moved from commercial use to the military during the war years, but the only reference I can find to a Finnish red cross plane in this period was a de Havilland Express, the 4 engine version of the Dragon Rapide biplane. Now if you cut off the top wing of the Express and removed 2 engines it would look very similar the plane in the stamp.
Maybe I should just go with the DC-2
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re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
Further to Pigdoc's (Paul's) post about U.S. aircraft shot down during the Vietnam War:
When I first started collecting North Vietnam stamps (as part of my collection of stamps and covers representative of the Vietnam War and Vietnamese history generally), I assumed that the stamps picturing American planes falling from the sky were nothing but communist propaganda. I just didn't think that it was possible for anyone to shoot down that many American planes, not with America's overwhelming technilogical superiority. I was wrong. Of course I went into Vietnam in January, 1966,* I believed that it would be a short war because our enemy was technologically backward. I was wrong about that, too.
The stamps seem to be reasonably accurate in their statements of the number of aircraft shot down. Trying to determine the exact number of planes and helicopters that were shot down is a real dog's breakfast — guesstimates seem to be in the neighbourhood of 3,500 to 4,500 combat losses as opposed to accidental losses, but few web sites provide numbers that are more than somewhat similar, and some clearly are inaccurate to greater or lesser degree. For example, Wikipedia lists the number and model of Marine Corps helicopters that were lost, but doesn't mention that any UH-34D Seahorses were lost, but I know that at least one was shot down in Operation Utah (the operation in which I was wounded), and I've seen photographs of others. Anyway, here are images of a North Vietnamese propaganda folder, including all of the "aircraft-downed" stamps:
Bob
*Not voluntarily. I'd become a U.S. Navy hospital corpsman, and was shanghaied by the Marines when the war started.
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10:18:05pm
re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
More on the Latecoere 631 in South America in a write-up, here:
Latecoere 631
As to the Latecoere visiting South America, the write-up describes plans to take the second 631 on a propaganda flight to Rio de Janeiro on October 10, 1945. However, the day of the flight, the airplane struck a concrete mooring while taxiing and the hull was severely damaged. The plane eventually made it to Rio, where on a flight from Rio to Uruguay on October 31, 1945 it suffered a propeller failure which ripped an engine from the wing. A flying propeller blade killed two passengers.
In February, 1946, three Latecoere 631s were purchased by ARGENTINA but were never paid for. Those three aircraft went to Air France in May, 1946.
So, we have more evidence that the Latecoere 631 could have been (or, was probably) the inspiration for the design of the Argentina stamp near the top of this topic. Not only that, but taken as a whole, the history of this particular aircraft, as described in the write-up is well-represented by the fate of Icarus!
-Paul
PS, if you are a fan of engines, particularly of large, experimental aircraft engines, the site in the link above is a gold mine! Not comprehensive, but there is a lot of stuff there on air racing and extreme engineering.
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06:35:21pm
re: Topical: Airplanes on Stamps
Here's another:
This stamp represents a dream, not fulfilled.
The plane depicted is a Sikorsky S-40, built in 1931 (first flight was August, 1931). It was the vision of some promoters, who thought they'd finance the venture by selling 300,000 of these stamps, purchased at $0.20 each from the printer to be sold for $1 each to patrons. Another 100,000 stamps were for the Post Office to sell to frank mail carried on the proposed circuit to Ireland. The whole thing flopped, and the stamps subsequently were degraded to 'label' status.
To promote the venture, a Sikorsky S-36B was leased:
...and sat on Lake Wayzata, near Minneapolis MN. This is an 8-place plane and would never have been considered for a trans-Atlantic voyage.
But it gives the stamp issue its name, the "Wayzata" stamp. I have not found any details on this S-36B airplane. But, the venture failed, and no flights were ever undertaken.
Nevertheless, it remains a beautifully composed stamp, and makes an interesting sidebar to a collection of trans-Atlantic airmail stamps...A few 'used' covers have been discovered, and these typically are the result of uninformed mail clerks cancelling the stamps as a favor.
-Paul
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