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Copyright, Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc. - Permission Granted. tk RirpaH'T ..Jaur1711I VOLUME 33 NUMBER 5 FEBRUARY, 1962 ~ lllllllllllllClllllllllllllCJlllJllllllllClllllllllllllClllllllllllllDllllllllllllClllllllllllllClllllllllllllCllllllllllllltllllllllllllltlllllllllllllEJllllllllllllCllllllllU~ I I I WE are philatelic auctioneers i ~ ~ ! and specialize I a ~ I in providing I I a competitive market I I for stamp collections I w w i and other philatelic properties I I Over 30 years' experience I I assures the maximum ; ~ ~ I . ! I in results I i Your inquiry is welcomed i ~ ~ i~ IR'11 IN HEl~IAN~ i~ Inc. Serving American Philately Since 1926 2 WEST 46th STREET 4 NEW YORK ~6. XY. Telephone: JUdson 2-2393 Suite 708 1inm111n111111111111ci111m111111ci111111111111a111111111111n1111111111uci111111111111n111111111111n111111111111n111111111111ci111111111111c1111111111111c1111111111111c -~ The American Air Mail Society A Non-Profit Corporation Incorporated 1944 Organized 1923 Under the Laws of Ohio Official Publication of the PRESIDENT AMERICAN AIR MAIL SOCIETY Dr. James J. Matejka, Jr. LaSalle Hotel VOL. 33 No. 5 ISSUE No. 381 Chicago, Illinois SECRETARY Ruth T. Smith Contents ............ for February, 1962 102 Arbor Road Riverton, New Jersey The Air Post History of Tristan da TREASURER Cunha. ..... ..................... 130 John J. Smith 102 Arbor Road Airline Flight Numbering Simplifies Riverton, New Jersey Interpretation .... .... ...... 131 VICE-PRESIDENTS Early Days in Ecuador, 1928-30, Part II 132 Joseph L. Eisendrath Samuel S. Goldsticker, Jr. Herman Kleinert F. A. M. Notes 138 Lester S. Manning Official Section 139 EDITORS - Other Publications L. B. Gatchell The Post Riders of the Sky (concluded) 143 Geo. D. :£9.ngdom Balloon Post of the Siege of Paris, ATTORNEY 1870-71 ........... ... .. ·············· 146 George D. Kingdom DIRECTOR OF Two New Airpost Catalogues in FOREIGN RELATIONS Europe 149 Dr. Max Kronstein Airs of the Month . 150 AUCTION MANAGER Samuel S. Goldsticker, Jr. A. P. J. Ads. ...... Inside back cover DIRECTORS Alton J. Blank EDITOR Herbert Brandner Paul Bugg Joseph L. Eisendrath Robert E. Haring 350 No. Deere Park Drive, HigblaDd Park, m. Dr. Max Kronstein George L. Lee ASSISTANT EDITORS Narcisse Pelletier Robert W. MUTch Horace D. Westbrooks Ernest A. Kehr L. B. Gatchell DEPARTMENT AND ASSOCIATE EDITORS MEMBERSHIP DUES R. Lee Black, N. Pelletier, Florence L. Kleinert, $4.00 Per Year Dr. Max Kronstein, Richard L. Singley, ·William R. Ware, Julius Weiss, James Wotherspoon, Johp. Watson, William T. Wynn, Frank Blumenthal, Dues include subscription to Samuel S. Goldsticker, Jr., J. S. Langabeer. THE AIRPOST JOURNAL. Ap plicants must furnish two ref Published monthly at Albion, Erie Co., Pa., U.S.A. erences, philatelic preferred. At Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office least one must reside in Appli at Albion, Pa., February 10, 1932, under cant's home town. Applicants the Act of March 3, 1879. under 21 years must be guar The AIRPOST JOURNAL is not conducted for teed by Parent or Guardian. profit. The Editor and all others serve without Membership may be terminated compensation. Receipts from advertising, sub by the Society in accordance scriptions and contributions are applied tp the with its By-Laws. betterment of the magazine and the pron10tion Correspondence concerning sub of aero-philately. scriptions, back numbers and The Editor and Officers of The American Air bound volumes, address changes Mail Society assume no responsibility for the and other matters and all re accuracy of statements made by contributors. mittances should be sent to the Every effort is made to insure correctness of Treasurer. All general com all articles. munications and advertifling Subscription Rates: $4.00 per year, 35c per copy. should be sent to the Editor. Advertising Rate Card available from the Editor. THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, FEBRUARY, 1962 129 The Air Post History of Tristan da Cunha By I. H. C. Godfrey • T may seem paradoxical to talk about the airmail history of an island on which no aeroplane ever landed; on which no aerodrome was ever constructed,. and I which was never visited by seaplane or flying-boat, although helicopters did, on rare occasions, hover over the island-but not for mail carrying purposes. Yet Tristan da Cunha does have an interesting, short airpost history, of which a few souvenirs exist. 1933, APRIL. The date of acceptance of the first airmail from Great Britain was notified by the G.P.O., London, as closing on April 4th, 1933, some two years after Imperial Airways had inaugurated their weekly service from Croydon to Cape Town. The postal notice stated that the mail would connect with the S.S. Carinthia (on her round-the-world cruise) at Cape Town and that an additional air fee was necessary. Registered mail carried on this service bears the following interesting postal markings: - (a) "Croydon Aerodrome/ ap/33/Croydon Sy." ( b) Black diamond shape marking, presumably used for a contemporary postal census. ( c) Tristan da Cunha rubber hand-stamp in blue-27 mm. in diameter, known as Type Vin Douglas Armstrong's listing (See "Stamp Collecting No. 2,500, September 29th, 1961") Backstamped: ( d) Paquebot/24 sp/1934/Singapore. ( e) Purple boxed cachet in French and English "Returned to England without/ a reason for non-delivery." It is assumed that the cover was re-posted for return to England by ail' when the Carinthia reached Singapore, but why, according to the posb1Jark, it took nearly 18 months to reach that city is a puzzle. Perhaps the date in the postmark is an error, and should read "1933". 1936-37. During the Empire Exhibition held in Johannesburg in 1936-37, special illustrated airmail postcards were on sale at the Ei<hibition Post Office from October 19th and they could be used until the closing date, January 16th, 1937. They were inscribed "Affix a halfpenny stamp to this card, post it at the Exhibition, and it will be sent by AIR MAIL to anp part of the world." A few of these cards were sent to Tristan da Cunha and were flown by Im perial Airways either to Cape Town or London (there is no knowing which) to await dispatch by the first available ship sailing to the island. They received the purple hand-stamp Armstrong Type V. 1938, FEBRUARY. The South African Postal authorities issued a notice on February 1st, 1938, reading:- A mail for Tristan da Cunha-letters only-will close this week. The letters will be forwarded via England and must connect with the flying-boat leaving Dur ban on Thursday (February 3rd). The rate of postage will be l1hd. per half ounce. This meant, in effect, that the world's most isolated inhabited island had been included into the Empire Airmail scheme and for the first and last time in history, letters were conveyed by air the whole length of Africa, without air fee, in order to connect with one of Great Britain's warships prior to her sailing from England on one of those rare official visits to Tristan da Cunha. These letters were carried 7 ,200 miles by air and some 5,900 miles by sea, all for 1 lhd. 130 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL, FEBRUARY, 1962 The South African mail connected with the sloop H.M.S. Milford which sailed from Portland on February 11th, ·and in due course received the Tristan da Cunha purple hand-stamp-31 mm. in diameter listed as Armstrong Type VIII. 1950, JANUARY. The first recorded use of an Air Letter Sheet from Tristan do Cunha seems to have been on January 25th, 1950, when H.M.S. Natal sailed from the island carrying mails, in accordance with a South African Postal Notice, at Commonwealth rates of postage. Union of South Africa "Letter Cards" of that period (reddish purple on grey paper, with green micro-print overlay) imprinted with l 'hd. stamps for inland trans mission by air in South Africa, exist. They bear the rectangular purple hand-stamp (Continued on page 152) Airline Flight Numbering Simplifies Interpretation • ONFUSED about the great variety of numbers designating flights operated by various airlines? You shouldn't be, says C. L. Stewart, Vice President C of Economic Planning, Northwest Orient Airlines, under whose jurisdiction Northwest's schedules are prepared and numbered. Flight numbers are arrived at scientifically, according to Mr. Stewart. Each flight number designates the route flown, the direction, and the approximate time of day the flight priginates. Westbound flights usually have odd numbers and east bound even numbers. In addition, the lower ·the digits following the route key number, the earlier in the day the flight departs from its originating station. Let us examine Northwest Orient Airlines schedules to see what this means: Flights numbered 10 and under denote transcontinental, trans-Pacific, and operations beyond Tokyo. Flight 1, for example, is NWA's daily DC-8 jet from Chic~g0 to Seattle/Tacoma and on westward across the Pacific. Flights 7 and 9 originate in New York and operate via Anchorage ... then to Tokyo and beyond. Flights numbered between 11 and 49 are transcontinental flights between New York and Seattle/Tacoma ... while flights designated 50 through 69 are also transcontinental flights, but operate from Portland via Seattle/-Tacoma and have their eastern terminal at Newark Airport. Likewise, those in the 70-89 series are also transcontinental, but with the eastern terminus at either Baltimore or Wash in~ton. Flights in the 100 series operate between Chicago and the Pacific Coast. Flights numbered in the 200 series fly between Minneapolis/St. Paul and New York/Newark, while those in the 300 series fly between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Baltimore/Wash ington. The 400s denote midwest area flight operations . primarily the Chicago \V mnipeg route. Flights between Anchorage and the other states are numbered in the 500s, while flights in the local area between Billings, Mont., and Portland - Seattle/Tacoma carry the 600 series numbers. All flights originating or terminating in Florida carry a 700 series number, while any NWA flights serving Hawaii have 'm ·800 number.