OK, you got two for the price of one there. Here's the image that should have been there in place of the duplicate:
Bob
Looks like a US Navy Ventura, PV1.
Nope, it's a Beechcraft Beech 18, aka Twin Beech. The do look similar, but the Twin Beech has a low wing configuration, while the Ventura's wing is mounted slightly higher on the fuselage. The Twin Beech is also called the "Baby DC-3" because of similar size and handling characteristics.
The history of the Twin Beech and DC-3 are similar, too. The DC-3 first flew in 1935, the Twin Beech in 1937. The Twin Beech set a record for the longest-ever production of a single aircraft design, with the last Beech 18 rolling off the assembly line in 1970. Many Twin Beeches and DC-3s are still in service.
Here's another photo I took that day, on the ground at Fort Ware:
Bob
is it possible that the twin beech is the civilian variant of the Ventura, or merely its civilian name, or am I delusional?
David
Delusional, I'm afraid, David. Delusional for sure. :-)
Wikipedia has good articles on both the Ventura and the Beech 18.
Bob
Trying again with that photo:
Bob
Great story. Stamps allow my partner and myself to travel the world and never leave home!!
It is good to see this cover go to a new home where it will be treasured.
missy
Tim's new thumbnails alerted me quickly to this cover:
And if those other people really want it, they've got a fight on their hands! :-)
It's described correctly as "VERY NICE FIRST FLIGHT COVER 1938 WARE, B.C. TO PRINCE GEORGE B.C. CANADA".
If you haven't heard of Ware, B.C., it wouldn't be surprising. It's a tiny native community 570 km north of Prince George, BC, which itself is 800 km north of Vancouver. Until recent years, it was accessible only by air.
It's actual name is not "Ware," but Fort Ware; locals have called it "Ware," hence the postmark, I suppose. It was never a military fort, but a Hudson's Bay Company trading post. Of course, that company was virtually a nation in its own right, and its trading posts apparently operated like forts.
In the mid-1990s I was hired to fly to Fort Ware in a Twin Beech aircraft belonging to Northern Thunderbird Airlines, in order to take photographs of one of the planes in the airlines new livery. We took off from Prince George in the plane I was to photograph, landed at Ingenika at the head of Williston Lake, and I transferred to the co-pilot's seat of the other Twin Beech for the flight to Fort Ware. Here are some photos that I took that day:
At some point in fairly recent years, Fort Ware was renamed Kwadacha, after the aboriginals who live in the area.
Bob
(Message edited by bobstamp on December 29, 2009)
re: FIRST FLIGHT COVER 1938 WARE, B.C. TO PRINCE GEORGE B.C. CANADA
OK, you got two for the price of one there. Here's the image that should have been there in place of the duplicate:
Bob
re: FIRST FLIGHT COVER 1938 WARE, B.C. TO PRINCE GEORGE B.C. CANADA
Looks like a US Navy Ventura, PV1.
re: FIRST FLIGHT COVER 1938 WARE, B.C. TO PRINCE GEORGE B.C. CANADA
Nope, it's a Beechcraft Beech 18, aka Twin Beech. The do look similar, but the Twin Beech has a low wing configuration, while the Ventura's wing is mounted slightly higher on the fuselage. The Twin Beech is also called the "Baby DC-3" because of similar size and handling characteristics.
The history of the Twin Beech and DC-3 are similar, too. The DC-3 first flew in 1935, the Twin Beech in 1937. The Twin Beech set a record for the longest-ever production of a single aircraft design, with the last Beech 18 rolling off the assembly line in 1970. Many Twin Beeches and DC-3s are still in service.
Here's another photo I took that day, on the ground at Fort Ware:
Bob
re: FIRST FLIGHT COVER 1938 WARE, B.C. TO PRINCE GEORGE B.C. CANADA
is it possible that the twin beech is the civilian variant of the Ventura, or merely its civilian name, or am I delusional?
David
re: FIRST FLIGHT COVER 1938 WARE, B.C. TO PRINCE GEORGE B.C. CANADA
Delusional, I'm afraid, David. Delusional for sure. :-)
Wikipedia has good articles on both the Ventura and the Beech 18.
Bob
re: FIRST FLIGHT COVER 1938 WARE, B.C. TO PRINCE GEORGE B.C. CANADA
Trying again with that photo:
Bob
re: FIRST FLIGHT COVER 1938 WARE, B.C. TO PRINCE GEORGE B.C. CANADA
Great story. Stamps allow my partner and myself to travel the world and never leave home!!
It is good to see this cover go to a new home where it will be treasured.
missy