Wikipedia talk:Translation/Airmail

This page is about the mail transport service. For the 1932 John Ford film, see Air Mail (film). For the 1925 silent film, see The Air Mail. For the Epicure album, see Airmail (album).

Airmail (or air mail) is mail that is transported by aircraft. Typically it arrives more quickly than surface mail, and sometimes costs more to send. Airmail may be the only option for sending mail to some destinations, such as overseas, if the mail cannot wait the time it would take to arrive by ship, which can sometimes be weeks.

Historical development

The origins of airmail reach back to long before the invention of the first flying machines. During the 5th century seige of Potidaea messages attached to arrow shafts were fired from behind the besieging lines and a traitor within the city received these missives. Arrows with tiny scrolls attached were a common form of short distance communication. In ancient times messages were delivered by airmail; through various breeding methods it became possible to use homing pigeons to carry communications, though tame frigatebirds were used in the South Pacific Ellice Islands in the mid-19th century. The Chinese are recorded as having used kites to deliver messages to a beleaguered city in AD 549. The same method was employed in May 1807 by Admiral Cochrane to send propaganda messages to the French during the Napoleonic Wars and again during the Peninsular Campaign. such as the Zeppelins, which were used until the 1930s.

Pigeon post

Main article: Pigeon post

Nineteenth century oil paining of a young oriental lady with a carrier pigeon and its mail

The earliest known records of homing pigeon use for message delivery in ancient Egypt are from 5600 B.C. More and more military, political, and economic importance was attributed to this fast method of delivering messages. In 1279 B.C., the news of the coronation of pharaoh Ramesses II was spread by this method. Soon, pigeons were also used by several other advanced cultures. The Roman commander Julius Caesar used this special method to send commands to his troops as quickly as possible. A particular example was his use of carrier pigeons to communicate the disturbances in conquered Gaul.

In the Middle Ages the homing pigeon was also in great demand for message delivery. It was brought to Europe by crusaders in the 12th and 13th centuries. Prior to this it was used mainly in the orient. The caliph of Baghdad, Nur-Eddin, established his own homing pigeon post from Cairo to the Euphrates river, but it terminated after the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258. In the Middle Ages, Egyptian sultans established their own National Pigeon Post.

Carrier pigeons with messages attached

Pigeons were used during the 1870–71 Siege of Paris to bring messages back to the city. The pigeons were flown out of the city on the balloons and sent by railway to the Espérance (Paris society of pigeon-fanciers) base in Tours where despatches, initially hand written and later microphotographed onto tiny flimsies, were placed inside quills and fixed to the tail feathers of the birds. Upon arrival, the message was projected onto a wall and transcribed before delivery. Essentially this was a similar process to the lightweight photographic Airgraph or V-mail systems of World War II.

The use of pigeons to carry mail has been associated with military situations though, after experiments in 1896, a regular pigeon post was inaugurated on the Great Barrier Island on May 14, 1897.

World War I saw further military pigeon mail use during the Siege of Przemyśl and the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France flew more than 600 birds of which one, Cher Ami, was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for his heroic service in delivering 12 important messages, despite having been very badly injured.

First flying machines

Montgolfière

The first flying machine designs that can be taken seriously appeared in Europe in the Renaissance. The best-known were drawn by the Italian genius Leonardo da Vinci but the first constructions capable of actually flying were not made for another 250 years. The Montgolfier brothers by chance discovered that hot air is strong enough to lift a paper bag into the air. This discovery was the basis for the development of the first hot air balloon, the Montgolfière. On November 21, 1783 the first flight of a human in a hot air balloon took place.

The invention of the hot air balloon had a great impact on the history of airmail. Just one year after the first manned balloon flight, the pilots took smaller messages or notes with them on their flights, but it was not until 1793 that proper balloon post first occurred. From the besieged fortresses of Valenciennes and Condé in France, notes for the confederates of those who were trapped were flown with small free-flying balloons. Indeed, these messages were caught by the enemy. During the first aerial balloon flight in North America on January 9, 1793, from Philadelphia to Deptford, New Jersey, Jean-Pierre Blanchard carried a personal letter from George Washington to be delivered to the owner of whatever property Blanchard happened to land on, making the flight the first delivery of air mail in the United States. In the following decades there was further use of balloons for the purpose of message delivery during war.

Wise asends on the first United States balloon airmail from Lafayette in 1859

John Wise piloted an unofficial balloon post flight that took place on July 17, 1859 from St. Louis, USA to Henderson, New York, a distance of 1,290 km, on which he carried a mailbag entrusted to him by the American Express Company. One month later, on August 17, Wise flew from Lafayette, Indiana to Crawfordsville, Indiana and carried 123 letters and 23 circulars onboard that had been collected by the postmaster Thomas Wood and endorsed "PREPAID", but only one of these historic postal covers has been discovered, in 1957. In 1959 the United States Postal Service issued a 7 cent stamp commemorating Wise's flight in the Jupiter.

Address page of a French balloon letter 1870/71

The Franco-Prussian War saw the use of balloons as a means of maintaining communications from the sieged cities of Metz and Paris to unoccupied France. Between September 5, 1870 and October 3, thirty–one unmanned mail carrying balloons were released from Metz, a few of which were flights carrying pigeons; no pigeons ever returned. Perhaps the most well-known balloon mail flights are those that took place during the Siege of Paris and were effected by the interplay of balloon mail and homing pigeons. A total of 65 flights took place; six were captured and two were blown out to sea and never found. Besides 2,500,000 letters and postcards, 363 homing pigeons were delivered by the balloons, to enable the return of replies and other messages.

In Germany the first official balloon post flight took place in June 1897 during the Leipzig business fair. The pilot Louis Godard flew in the Aug. Polich for 18 hours. He handed over the postcards he had carried, which had received a despatch marking "Leipzig 19.10.1897" and a "Tarnau 21.10.1897" arrival cancel, to the Reichspost for forwarding, following a flight of 1,665 km.

Until the end of the 19th century such airmail deliveries always took place in the course of special events or for military reasons. In a widely noticed speech, the German general postmaster Heinrich von Stephan, initiator of the Universal Postal Union, pointed out the possible importance of airmail for everyday post delivery in 1874. His speech was even released as a book under the title "Weltpost und Luftschiffahrt" (World Post and Airship Travel).

Invention of the airplane and early flights

Allahabad cover flown on the world's first aerial post in 1911

Nothing had greater impact on the history of airmail than the invention of the airplane. After the first flight experiments by Otto Lilienthal with his hang-glider in the summer of 1891, the first motorised flight by the Wright Brothers took place on December 17, 1903. Five years later, the first mail delivery by airplane took place; on August 12, 1909 special cancellations for a sightseeing flight over Milan were issued during the course of an aviation exhibition. One month later, on September 20, 1909, on the occasion of a sightseeing flight over the Italian city of Brescia, covers were carried which were provided with a similar special cancellation. However, at these two events the postal consignments were not forwarded.

The first official postal delivery flight between two towns took place on February 18, 1911, during the United Provinces Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition in India. The young French pilot Henri Pequet carried approx. 6,500 letters from the exhibition place Allahabad to Naini, which is approx. 8 km away. It took Henri Pequet and his biplane "Sommer" about 13 minutes for the distance. The carried covers were provided with the large circular bright magenta postmark "First Aerial Post, U.P. Exhibition Allahabad 1911" and a few cards were autographed by the pilot.

Posting box from the 1911 George V Coronation mail flight between Windsor and London displayed at the London Guildhall in 2009

Another official airmail flight took place in 1911 to mark the coronation of King George V flying mail between London (Hendon Aerodrome) and Windsor from September 9-15 carrying 926 pounds of mail. A variety of specially printed postcards and envelopes were produced in different colours inscribed with the route; LONDON TO WINDSOR and visa versa. These provide a wide range of scope for philatelic scholars. This was the sole official pre-World War I British flight; while most other internal flights had been sponsored by newspapers and other commercial and private entities.

In the United States September 23 saw the first of many airmail flights when, during the first US aviation meeting the first official American airmail was flown from Garden City to Mineola, New York under the authority of the United States Post Office Department. Several subsequent flights took place around the country in 1911 and 1912. Also in September 1911 an aviation meeting took place in Italy, when a bag of mail, said to have comprised 20 postcards, was carried from Venice to the Lido di Jesolo. One month later there was another experimental Italian flight between Milan and Turin. In subsequent years Belgium, South Africa, Scandinavia and Egypt followed the 1911 initiatives.

1912 German airmail between Bork and Brück

Next year, on May 19, 1912, the first official German Reichspost postal flight took place between Mannheim and Heidelberg. Previously, there had been several private postal deliveries with airplanes in Germany without post office approval. The first such event was carried out on November 13, 1911, in Berlin. At the event Flug um Berlin (Flight around Berlin), postcards for collectors were carried. On February 18 1912, a second event of this kind was an 8 km flight between the villages of Bork and Brück; privately produced airmail stamps were issued for the first time, used on the second flight on February 26, solely to finance the event and had no postal value. Occasional flights between the two towns continued until 1913. On March 9, 1913, Swiss flight pioneer Oskar Bider transported the first Swiss airmail on the route between Basel and Liestal.

World War I

The world's first airmail flights from a besieged city took place during both sieges of Przemyśl, in 1914 and 1915, when airmail postcards, mostly military mail, were flown from the besieged city on twenty seven flights. Following a forced landing, mail from one flight was confiscated by the Russians and sent to Petrograd for censorship and onward transmission. Balloon mail, on manned but mainly unmanned paper balloons, was also carried out of the city. Pigeon mail was also used to send messages out of the city.

Austro-Hungarian Empire stamps overprinted "FLUGPOST" for the 1918 Vienna, Kraków and Lviv flights

In the following years until the outbreak of World War I the Reichspost cooperated extensively with organisers of postal flights. Notable in this context is the airmail at Rhine and Main from 10-23 June, 1912 and in Australia the first official airmail was carried by French pilot Maurice Guillaux, who on July 16-18, 1914, flew his Bleriot XI aircraft from Melbourne to Sydney, a distance of 584 miles (940 km) carrying 1,785 specially printed postcards, some Lipton's Tea and some O.T. Lemon juice. At the time, this was the longest such flight in the world. However, other countries worked on establishing a civil airmail network even during the war.

In 1917 the first airmail stamps in the world were issued in Italy. These were used for postage payment for airmail delivery on the routes Turin - Rome and Rome - Palermo, although it was still a trial service. In Austria–Hungary the first regular international airmail route between Vienna, Kraków and Lviv was established on March 31, 1918 and terminated on October 15. Three definitive stamps were overprinted "FLUGPOST" for this flight and showed that a regular airmail delivery was feasible even during wartime. Many philatelists consider this regular post delivery with airplanes to be the actual start of airmail history. During the last months of the war, another early regular airmail route was established by Aéropostale between Toulouse and Barcelona pioneered by Pierre-Georges Latécoère. This route later pushed on via Morocco and Senegal to Latin America.

Post World War I

The 1928 book So Disdained by Nevil Shute - a novel based on the author's interest in and knowledge of aviation - includes a monologue by a veteran pilot, preserving the atmosphere of these pioneering times: "We used to fly on the Paris route, from Hounslow to Le Bourget and get through as best as you could. Later we moved on to Croydon. (...) We carried the much advertised Air Mails. That meant the machines had to fly whether there were passengers to be carried or not. It was left to the discretion of the pilot whether or not the flight should be cancelled in bad weather; the pilots were dead keen on flying in the most impossible conditions. Sanderson got killed this way at Douinville. And all he had in the machine was a couple of picture postcards from trippers in Paris, sent to their families as a curiosity. That was the Air Mail. No passengers or anything - just the mail".

Bridging the Atlantic

Alcock and Brown crash landed their Vickers Vimy at Clifden on June 15 1919

Newfoundland featured prominently in the attempts to fly airmail between Europe and North America. In 1913 Lord Northcliffe of the Daily Mail offered a prize of ₤10,000 for the first non-stop trans-Atlantic oceanic flight, but the war intervened. It was 1919, when the prize was reoffered, that the first serious attempts were made to complete the feat. Mail was carried on each of the three flights from Newfoundland in mid-1919, but Alcock and Brown were the first to successfully cross the Atlantic from West to East, crash landing in a bog near Clifden, Ireland after a 16 hours and 12 minutes flight from St. John's, Newfoundland. They were carrying 196 letters and 1 package that were delivered to the Postmaster General in London for further transmission. Mail was carried on the two other unsuccessful attempts (Hawker and Martinsyde) though their mail was recovered and delivered.

Alcock and Brown's flight eclipsed the successful NC-4 flight, from which one cover has been discovered, because it was inelligible for the Daily Mail prize; they took longer than the stipulated 72 consecutive hours. 1928 saw Hermann Köhl, James Fitzmaurice and Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld complete the first East–West flight from Baldonel Aerodrome, Ireland to Greenly Island, Canada, with the Bremen battling storms, rain, snow and fog for thirty–six hours, on April 12 and 13. Unofficial mail (10 letters have been reported) was carried on this flight.

With the developments of long distance flights during the 1930s, the Atlantic again became of interest for the establishment of regular air services. Imperial Airways and Pan American Airways both flew survey flights in opposite directions over a route between Foynes and New York commencing on July 5, 1937. The planes passed within 60 miles of one another and both carried a few souvenir covers. This led to the start of a regular passenger and airmail return service by Pan American on June 24, 1939, followed by the inauguration of the Imperial Airways service on August 5, 1939. In between these two inaugurations, American Export Airlines flew a survey flight on which five covers were carried which were posted at various stops along the route, vis; New York, Botwood, Foynes and Marseille. With the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, Pan Am moved its terminals in Europe to Foynes, for the northern routes via Shediac and Botwood, and Lisbon, for the southern route via Horta, both terminals being located in neutral countries. All trans-Atlantic northern route flights between North America and Ireland were terminated by October 1939 and not restarted again until May 1942, though flights took place over a southerly route via Bermuda and the Azores for most of World War II terminating in Lisbon with a twice-weekly schedule.

Europe

Airmail being loaded at Johannisthal Air Field for 1919 flight Berlin to Weimar

The first regular national airmail connections under German administration were established at the end of World War I at the eastern front in Russia and the Baltic provinces. The history of German civil airmail started on February 5, 1919. Airplanes took off twice a day from Berlin-Johannisthal to transport postal consignments—initially newspapers but letters from the second day—from the Berlin to the location of the convention of the constituent Weimar National Assembly in Weimar. At first this airmail facility could only be utilised by delegates, who had moved to Thuringia's capital at that time, to avoid the revolutionary situation in Berlin. A few months later this airmail route was made available to the public.

Cover flown from Weimar National Assembly in Weimar dated March 1 1919

In the following years, airmail connections quickly developed in Germany, as well as in the whole of western Europe and the USA. On August 11, 1920, the first airmail flights from Germany to foreign countries took place. The destination was the Swedish seaport of Malmö.

As of 1921, the German Reichspost introduced special airmail confirmation postmarks and airmail etiquettes. In 1922 there were already 13 airmail routes. In May of 1923 Germany's first airmail post boxes were installed in Berlin. These special blue-varnished letterboxes served only for posting airmail consignments and were designed to enable fast processing and forwarding of the airmail. In 1924 the first night airmail took place between Berlin, Copenhagen, and Stockholm.

Berlin airmail post box, 1923

On January 6, 1926 Deutsche Luft Hansa (since 1934 named Deutsche Lufthansa) was founded. Until then, Aero Hansa AG, Deutsche Aero Lloyd AG, and Junkers Luftverkehr AG were responsible for airmail delivery. Since the Reich, the states, and the municipalities threatened to cancel subsidies to the companies, which were in cut-throat competition with each other, they merged into the new airline under pressure from banks and the government. Luft Hansa was obliged to save enough space for the transport of postal consignments on every flight. The continued expansion of the worldwide aviation network and constant enhancements of airplanes lead to the brisk development of airmail. Before the beginning of World War II the majority of foreign consignments were already carried by plane.

One of the famous French airmail pilots of that time was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and helped establish airmail routes to French colonies in northwest Africa and the South Atlantic.

An extensive system of airmail routes to the Pacific colonies were developed by European countries such as the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and France, flying over the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Additionally, both France and Germany developed intercontinental routes to Brazil in South America via West Africa in the 1930s.

British Empire routes

Irish acceptance for first flight from London to Tiberius by Imperial Airways: 1931 (Oct. 15) addressed from Dublin to Tiberias, Palestine

An air route between Cairo and Baghdad was started in June 1921 by the Royal Air Force that followed a track made in the desert's stoney landscape by a plough and tractor to aid navigation. Initially the air fee was 1 shilling an ounce, but as the route became established this was reduced to 3d (old pence) by November 1923. In 1926 Imperial Airways took over the route and using three-engined de Havilland Hercules aircraft of greater range than the RAF Vickers Vernons, the route was extended first to Basra in January 1927 and then to India, as part of their passenger service.

April 1935 map showing Imperial Airways Empire routes to Australia and South Africa

Air Mail pillar box in original blue colour scheme, now at the Isle of Wight Postal Museum

In 1932, the airmail service commenced in, and from, Great Britain operated by Imperial Airways. Imperial's aircraft rarely had room for more than 10 passengers because the importance of carrying mail was greater than carrying passengers and in 1932 the Empire Air Mail Scheme, EAMS, was proposed that would carry all colonial and dominion first-class mail by air. Approved by the government in 1934 and envisioned to start by 1937, mail was to be carried without any surcharge. The EAMS was first introduced to South Africa in 1937, followed by India and in 1938 to Australia, where its first real test took place. The 1938 Christmas mail amounted to 200 tons compared to 27 tons in 1936, causing passenger service was restricted due to the priority given to the mail.

To facilitate easy collection of airmail letters and their speedy onward transmission, a fleet of special vehicles and dedicated postboxes were introduced. To distinguish them from red regular post boxes, they were painted Air Force blue, with prominent royal blue signage.

The service ran successfully until the outbreak of war in 1939, when it was suspended. Although airmail re-commenced after the war, the postboxes and vehicles were no longer identifiable, because the postboxes had been overpainted red from 1938 and now airmail could now be posted anywhere.

United States

Cover flown on first scheduled U.S. airmail flight from Washington, DC in 1918

Main article: Airmails of the United States

The first scheduled U.S. airmail service began on May 15, 1918, using U.S Army Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" biplanes on a route between Washington, D.C. and New York with an intermediate stop in Philadelphia. the route was designed by aviation pioneer Augustus Post.

A service between New York and San Francisco was opened on August 20, 1920 being the first transcontinental airmail route, but the mail was only flown during daylight hours. The first night-time airmail flight leg on this service was flown from Omaha, Nebraska, to Chicago by James Knight on February 22, 1921. The first daily service involving night flying over this entire route was opened on July 1, 1924, reducing the time for a letter crossing the country to 32 hours.

U.S. Post Office Department map of the First Transcontinental Air Mail Route involving both day and night flying over the entire route opened July 1, 1924.

Cover carried on the first Transcontinental Air Mail trip (NY to SF) involving night flying, July 1, 1924

Contract Air Mail

Cover flown by Charles Lindbergh from Chicago to St. Louis on the opening day of CAM-2

In 1925 the United States Congress passed HR 7064 entitled "An Act to encourage commercial aviation and to authorize the Postmaster General to contract for Air Mail Service" (aka "The Kelly Act") which directed the U.S. Post Office to contract with commercial air carriers to fly the mail over designated routes, many of which connected with the government operated transcontinental airmail route between New York and San Francisco.

The first two Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to begin operation were CAM-6 between Detroit (Dearborn) and Cleveland and CAM-7 between Detroit (Dearborn) and Chicago, inaugurated simultaneously on February 15, 1926, under contract to the Ford Motor Company, operating as Ford Air Transport.

On April 15, 1926, the third route to open (CAM-2) began operation with pilot Charles A. Lindbergh, the then unknown 25-year old airmail pilot who became famous for flying the Spirit of St. Louis on the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris in May, 1927.

A total of 34 Contract Air Mail routes were awarded and opened between early 1926 and October 25, 1930, and by 1931, 85% of domestic airline revenue was from airmail. However with the 1934 "Air Mail Scandal" the USPOD cancelled all the contracts on February 9, 1934, that resulted in the suspension of commercial CAM service effective from February 19.

Foreign Air Mail

Cover carried from Key West, FL, to Havana, Cuba, on the first contract foreign air mail (FAM) flight operated by Pan American Airways, October 19, 1927

To connect the United States with foreign destinations foreign airmail contract routes, Foreign Air Mail (FAM) routes were introduced, the first of which, FAM-2, was flown from Seattle to Victoria, British Columbia on 15 October 1920, by Eddie Hubbard. The FAM routes essentially track the development and expansion of the postal service deliveries by air to the wider world from the United States. FAM routes were changed, altered or had legs added or removed and were numbered from 1 to 98.

FAMs can be divided in to three chronological time periods; the first being pre-World War II (October 1920 to December 1941), following by the World War II (December 1941 to August 1945) and the last from being the Post-World War II period from August 1945 until the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act.

First flight covers from these routes were popular with collectors who sought out the special cachets applied.

World War II

The war affected the intercontinental airmail routes, that had been established during the 1930s, throughout most of the world causing disruptions, diversions, shut downs and the opening of new routes especially after the United States entered the conflict in 1941. Much European mail was affected from late 1939.

Temporary end of German airmail

During World War II, military airmail became one of the most important possiblities for communications between the front and the homeland. The airmail network was decisively expanded in almost all participating countries, and airmail was further developed. In the German Reich, the delivery of letters by military airmail was intended for the fronts furthest away from the homeland. From April 17 to May 9, 1942, in Biała Podlaska near Brest-Litowsk the first point of departure for the German military airmail was established. The destination depended on the frontline at any given time. Most of the transport planes used were Junkers Ju 52s. In May of 1944, the point of departure was moved to Łódź. A few months later, on July 6, 1944, the German military airmail service was finally completely stopped.

On April 18, 1942, the German Reich issued its own Zulassungsmarken (literally: authorisation stamps) for military airmail letters. Each German soldier received four of these stamps per month, which was increased to eight stamps after an increase in postage in May of 1943. With those, he could stamp a total of four letters or postcards to his homeland. The stamps were given to soldiers on the eastern front, in the Balkans, and in Scandinavia, provided that they were connected to the military airmail network. Besides the German Reich, other countries also issued their own military airmail stamps during World War II. In June of 1943, Germany's ally Italy even issued its own airmail express stamps.

Like the German Reich, the Allies had a similar well-developed airmail network. In fact, only British and US soldiers were entitled to use it. The allied Airgraph service, primarily for military mail, started on 21 April 1941 on a military mail route from Cairo to London. Soldiers wrote their messages on special forms, that were subsequently photographer onto microfilm. After the film arrived in the homeland, the individual messages were enlarged and delivered to the recipients. It existed until 1945 allowed 1,600 letters be photographed onto a film weighing just 5 ounces, instead of transporting 1,600 ordinary letters weighing about 50 lbs. A similar system called v-mail was adopted by the United States Post Office which sent over a billions letters by this method. It was from this idea of sending messages by airplane in the lightest possible way that the aerogram was developed.

After the defeat and capitulation of the German Reich on May 8, 1945, airmail operations in the occupied German-speaking areas of Austria and Germany were taken over by foreign companies. In Austria, regular airmail service had already begun again just two years after the war; in Germany, it was not until October 20, 1948, that all inhabitants of West Germany could send airmail consignments. In 1954, Deutsche Lufthansa, which had stopped its air services after the end of the war, was re-established in West Germany. On April 1, 1955, there were again regular German airmail flights. A short time later, on May 17, 1955, Lufthansa again connected international destinations with each other by post. In East Germany, there was also an airline named Lufthansa which was responsible for airmail.

Post World War II

Berlin airlift

Some 2 pfennig Notopfer stamps as applied to inter-German mail towards the end of the Berlin Airlift

Main article: Berlin Blockade

The airlift during the Berlin Blockade forms a special period in the history of airmail. For the first time, it was not possible to support or replace airmail by any other kind of postal delivery. The Berlin airlift was established with airplanes by the Allies to provide the largest city in Germany with vital goods. This could only be done by air, because the Soviet occupying power set up a total blockade of West Berlin by severing tha land and water communications between the non-Soviet zones and Berlin and halting all rail and barge traffic in and out of Berlin on June 24, 1948 leaving open only the air corridors.

Although the airlift was initially intended only to transport vital goods, mail was soon delivered in both directions. No additional airmail fees were charged by the Allies. West Berlin's post used two postmarks that were made specifically for these airmail consignments. The machine postmark bore the inscription Luftbrücke Berlin (Berlin Airlift) or Kauft vom Blockierten Berlin (Buy from Blocked Berlin). Besides these two official postmarks, several private confirmation cancellations were also used.

After almost one year of the Berlin Airlift, the Soviet Union finally realised that the Allies were able to guarantee the supply of Berlin and that this could be continued indefinitely. As a result, they decided to lift the blockade of West Berlin again on May 12, 1949, at 00:01.

Modern airmail and the influence of philately

When airmail flights were started, the public was prepared to accept high airmail postage fees to receive letters more quickly. A good example of this is an airmail letter of ensign Edwin Müller, who was later to become one of Austria's most famous philatelists. On the reverse of this airmail cover from 1918 he wrote:

“ I would very much like to have an airmail letter Budapest-Vienna – that would be all that is lacking for my perfect happiness. ”

Cargo airplane of the DHL.

Over time however, the airplane lost its special status and finally became something quite ordinary. Amongst other things, this led to airmail being taken for granted. In most European countries, it has been a long time since additional airmail postage has been required. However in the USA, there are still such fees. This is a result of the strong competition between private express mail services, such as FedEx and UPS, and the federal post, "United States Postal Service". Because of that, these companies always have to make a point of offering their services more cheaply than their competitors. This leads to the lower costs of postal delivery by ground or by sea being passed on the customers. The apparently higher prices for airmail delivery result from that.

In most European countries, there is no such competition between federal and private companies, which can be mostly attributed to existing or recently closed down postal monopolies. Private carrier services in Central Europe mostly focus on faster, but more expensive postal delivery.

Airmail volume in Germany, especially from Germany to foreign countries outside of Europe, continuously increases. This shows how important airmail is for connecting places that are far away from each other quickly by post. It is especially important in regions of the world which are difficult to get to, except by airplane. One country representative of this is Australia, especially the areas in the centre of the continent, remote from the large metropolitan areas along the coasts.

Most of the time today, airmail is used together with other methods of transport, such as by railway or ship, to guarantee the fastest and also the cheapest delivery of postal consignments. The importance of airmail is much higher in countries without mail transport by rail and ship than it is in Central Europe, because there are no real alternatives to airmail there. This mainly concerns parcels, because nowadays pure message delivery does not rely on the post anymore.

Today, airmail is delivered nearly exclusively by plane. Other kinds of airmail delivery have mostly philatelic backgrounds and are of no postal importance.

In the European Union today, an airmail letter is only considered to be a letter that is delivered to the addressee within 48 hours. Whether the letter is transported by air or by ground plays a secondary role.

European airmail is currently subject to the change of European liberalisation. In the past, an airmail letter was transported by the federal airline for the federal post, secured by monopolies. The federal airlines in the European region are increasingly subject to the need to economise, due to the price offensives started by low-cost carriers. As a consequence, smaller airplanes are used, which cannot transport as much freight as is required.

Due to the shutting down of the monopolies for transporting letters, the former federal postal companies have become part of the competition and are developing a greater interest in working economically.

The competition of the airlines and of the postal companies has resulted in letters being transported by plane to only a limited extent. More and more letters, which are called Luftpost, Priority, or A-Post depending on the country, are moved between European countries by ground.

Non-aeroplane airmail

In addition to pigeon post and balloon mail other methods have been employed to carry mail through the air, such as by airships, gliders, helicopters and rockets, some of which are done mainly for collectors.

Mail by airships

Main article: Zeppelin mail

1934 registered cover from Gibraltar by Christmas Zeppelin flight via Friedrichshafen, Germany to Rio de Janeiro.

The first airship to complete a trans-oceanic mail carrying flight was the British R34 in 1919 from Scotland to the United States dropping its 14 letters over Nova Scotia which were not found for four months though one cover is recorded as having reached its destination and being returned to Britain with US postage applied. While the R100 carried mail on its 1930 flights, the R101 crash, also in 1930, terminated the British airship programme.

Airmail carried on the Zeppelins comes from two periods; pre and post World War 1, with possibly the most well known being the 1920s and 1930s flights to South America, the United States and within Europe. The few surviving pieces of mail from Hindenburg disaster are highly prized crash covers.

Glider posts

Even though gliders were invented before powered flight, they were not used much until the sport became popular, especially in Germany after World War I due to the Treaty of Versailles restrictions on aviation development. Austria, and later Russia, Great Britain and the United States became centres for the sport. 1923 saw the Britain, Germany and Austria produce glider mail at virtually the same time. In 1935 Jack O'Meara carried mail on the Glider Train from Cuba to Miami for which the Cuban authorities issued an overprinted stamp. Generally glider mail emanates from aviation meetings, exhibitions and fairs in several countries though Austria and Germany remain the leaders as they were in the 1920s and 1930s.

Helicopter mail

First airmail service by helicopter in Los Angeles, 1947

Experimental helicopter airmail flights took place in Los Angeles in July 1946, in Chicago the following October, and in New York in January 1947, all of which used pictorial cachets on the mail. These flights led to Los Angeles Airways establishing the first regularly scheduled helicopter mail service on October 1, 1947. November 1947 saw a mail carrying flight between The Hague and Brussels. In the following year British Airways Helicopters started to carry mail over a 102 mile route, with 14 calling points, in East Anglia. Sweden also made use of helicopters to relieve offshore islands during the winter months from 1948 including the carrying of mail. In the 1950s there was an increase in helicopters carrying mail on regular flights, such as the Sabena 270-mile route covering 10 cities in Belgium. A few covers were carried by the first trans-Atlantic helicopter flight made by two USAF Sikorsky S-55s in 1952 and in more recent years special mail has been carried on flights from space capsule recovery ships of the Apollo program. Since 1982 mail has been delivered to the island of Diomede, Alaska by helicopter since 1982 and is currently delivered weekly. The postal contract is the only one that uses helicopters for mail delivery, and with a cost of over $300,000 annually, is the most expensive in Alaska.

Rocket mail

Main article: Rocket mail

Although there were definitely serious experiments by some postal administrations with postal delivery by rocket, they have mostly been private initiatives and have little postal purpose. The first rocket mail was performed by rocket engineers; in 1931 the Austrian Friedrich Schmiedl and Gerhard Zucker during the 1930s made several experiments including firing rockets over the English Channel from Belgium. In India, between 1934 and 1944, Stephen Smith was the pioneer of rocket mail, launching 270 rockets, of which around 80 carried mail.

Airmail consignments

Common postal consignments

Strictly speaking, there is no difference between airmail consignments and common postal consignments. An airmail consignment is also a letter, a postcard, or a parcel, like a common postal consignment, but parts of its delivery route had been covered by air, and it received a special confirmation. In the past, airmail consignments were indicated with the words "By Airmail" or with a special sticker which bore that inscription. Usually, extra postage was due for airmail delivery. Since the establishment of the night airmail network, a major part of the total volume of mail covers a part of its delivery route by airplane, but does not receive a special flight confirmation mark. Because the sender no longer has to pay airmail postage, he only apparently still has any influence on the type of postal delivery.

Airmail covers are the core of every aerophilatelic oriented collection. The collector pays attention to all kinds of special features of these covers. These include the stamps, as well as the postmarks used during delivery. Further, the collector looks for special flights, for example an inaugural flight Special "treats" are postal consignments which had been recovered from a plane crash. For the most part, these are provided with their own postmarks.

Special postal consignments

Over time, several types of postal consignments have been developed which were produced especially for airmail. The first were the balloon letters from the time of the Paris balloon post. Especially during World War II, the advantages of uniform postal consignments became apparent. From these ideas, the aerogram was developed, which is only still used rarely nowadays. However in Great Britain, specially designed Christmas aerograms are issued annually.

Airmail stamps

Main article: Airmail stamp

Unofficial and semi-official airmail stamps

1877 Buffalo airmail label affixed to flown balloon cover

Semi-official airmail stamps, also referred to as unofficial airmail stamps are stamp-like labels, some of which existed before the first officially issued airmail stamps and some also pre-date the heavier-than-air craft. They were issued privately, as opposed to airmail stamps that were issued by a postal authority. They served to finance aviation events that included delivery of the airmail. For this purpose, a flight stamp was bought from the organiser and affixed on the mail. If the addressee wanted delivery to another destination by the post office following the flight, additional stamps needed to be added.

For example, such labels were issued in the early days of airmail in Germany and Switzerland, and as early as 1877 for the Buffalo balloon flight in the United States. After the popularity of the airplane had decreased after a while, the number of such aviation events decreased as well. In 1933, Germany's last airmail stamp was issued.

Not all aerophilatelists incorporate these labels into their collections, because they were not postally valid and were mostly only authorised by postal administrations, but integrate them into their collections.

Official airmail stamps

1917 Italian airmail stamp

The first official airmail stamps in the world were issued on May 16, 1917, when Poste italiane overprinted their existing special delivery stamps. The express mail stamps, of which 200,000 were overprinted exclusively for aerial delivery. With these stamps, the postal administrations wanted to take into account the initial special characteristics of this kind of postal delivery.

Airmail stamps are an inherent part of every aerophilatelic collection. The most famous stamp to collectors is also known to many non-philatelists as the 1918 "Inverted Jenny". This rare invert error differs from the original stamp in that the airplane, a Curtiss Jenny, in the centre of the stamp, was printed inverted relative to the frame. Only 100 copies of this rarity are known.

Several of the early airmail stamps were produced by surcharging other stamps with overprints; Italy had used express stamps, but regular stamps were used by Austria in 1918, Sweden used official stamps in 1920, while some other examples are the use of fiscal stamps, telegraph stamps, postage due stamps, and parcel stamps by other countries. Airmail stamps have been issued for extra services, such as registered airmail, express airmail, airmail fieldpost, and even with welfare surcharges.

1930 United States 65-cent "Zeppelin" stamp, issued for the Pan-American flight of the Graf Zeppelin

Over time, many different forms of official airmail stamps emerged, such as, the 1931 Guatemalan Foreign airmail stamps, that could only be used on mail to foreign countries, and analogously Domestic airmail stamps. Russian Post issued its own Airmail official stamps, for use on airmail correspondence of the Russian consulate.{ With the introduction of airships, such as the zeppelins, a number of countries, including the United States, issued special stamps to prepay zeppelin air transport.

Nowadays, because airmail is a regular mail transport method, most countries have discontinued issuing specific airmail stamps; they have been replaced by common definitives or commemoratives or since 1991, in the case of the United States no longer inscribe them as airmail. However, some countries continue issuing their own airmail stamps to increase their earnings by selling them to collectors.

Airmail etiquettes

Bilingual Deutsche Post airmail etiquette

Main article: Airmail etiquette

Route specific airmail etiquette provided by Czechoslovak postal authority in 1920

Initially mail intended to be carried by air was superscribed in manuscript with words, "Flugpost", "Par Avion", "By Airmail" or similar before special labels were issued by postal administrations. Airmail etiquettes, are stamp-like labels and because of their perforation, shape, and gum, have the appearance of a stamp, however they have no postal value. These adhesive etiquettes are issued, for the sole purpose of marking consignments to be transported by air, by the postal authority, airlines, hotels and privately, mostly free of charge. Airmail etiquettes are normally blue and, per a Universal Postal Union's regulation where French is it's official language, have the French inscription "Par Avion". Additionally the issuing country's language equivalent is often inscribed; more rarely some etiquettes are trilingual to include the English "By Air Mail". The use of French, chosen as the international postal language UPU, founded in 1874, means any mail addressed only in French could theoretically be delivered worldwide without difficulty.

Airmail postmarks

Official airmail postmarks

Airmail postmarks differ from normal postmarks only by the addition of an airmail inscription as opposed to just a town or airport identification. This usually has information on the special delivery of the cover. An example of an inscription of an airmail postmark is * Wien * /30. 3. 1929 / (Flugpost).

Nowadays, airmail postmarks are rarely still used by the post. They were discontinued largely for reasons of easier handling. Also, a special marking is no longer necessary because this type of delivery is nearly always used for longer distances.

Confirmation cancels

In contrast to airmail postmarks, confirmation cancels are rarely official postmarks. They are mostly produced on private initiative. The confirmation cancels are intended to provide additional proof that the letter was delivered in a certain way. Therefore, the confirmation cancel is applied to the consignment, but never to the stamp. The first confirmation stamp of this type dates to February 18, 1911, on the occasion of the first official postal delivery between two different places in India.

When airmail by plane was begun, confirmation cancels were used freely and often. Especially confirmation cancels of Zeppelin post were and are very popular with philatelists. Today confirmation cancels are only used for special airmail deliveries, such as helicopter flights as part of a philatelic event.

Cancellation postmarks

A cancellation postmark is a special type of airmail cancel which is used when a flight is cancelled or delayed. Nowadays, a replacement flight can usually be found. Nevertheless, for special flights, for example announced inauguration flights, it must be noted on the postal consignment with a cancellation postmark. These cancellation postmarks are usually rubber cancels which have to be produced on the spot.

Cancellation postmarks are philatelically nothing very special because all postal consignments of a cancelled first flight are always affected. This means that a cover of a cancelled first flight can only exist with a cancellation postmark.

Disaster postmarks

Main article: Crash cover

The rarest and most popular airmail cancels for philatelists are the disaster postmarks. These are used when it is possible to recover postal consignments after the crash of an airplane or Zeppelin. Usually such postal consignments are marked with an improvised rubber cancel, which provides information on the reasons for the tattered appearance usually present on such postal consignments.

Due to the rarity of such covers, they often reach considerable prices at stamp auctions.

See also

• Airmail etiquette
• Airmails of the United States
• Air Mail scandal
• Airmail stamps of Denmark
• L-mail
• Mail plane
• Nellie Brimberry
• Surface mail
• V-mail

References and sources

Notes

Literature

• Dienstbach, Carl (Feb 1919). "The Flying Mail's Big Debt to War". Popular Science. 92 (2). Winter Park, Fl: Bonnier Corporation: 78. ISSN 0161-7370. Retrieved 2009-02-07.
• Ferrugia, Jean; Gammons, Tony (1980). Carrying British Mails. London: National Postal Museum, London. p. 87.
• Heyd, Günther; Jakubek, Wolfgang (1973). Paris par Moulins, 1870/71. Hamburg: Edgar Mohrmann.
• Hofinger, Wilhelm (1976). Die älteste Luftpost der Welt : histor. Studie nach Orig.-Dokumenten d. Pariser Ballonpost 1890/71. Stockach: Johannes Scheer. ISBN 3921583012.
• Newell, Alexander (1987). British External Airmails until 1834. London: Newall Consultants Ltd. p. 227. ISBN 0951074903.
• Paganini, Robert (1920). Geschichte der Luftpost. Historischer Katalog sämtlicher Luftposten. Potsdam: Edmund Stein. p. 39.
• Proud, Edward B. (1991). The Postal History of British Air Mails. Heathfield, UK: Proud-Bailey Co. Ltd. ISBN 1872465722.
• Robinson, Howard (1964). Carrying British Mails Overseas. New York: New York University Press. p. 327.
• Robinson, Martin (2000). Old Letter Boxes. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. p. 40. ISBN 074780446X.
• Stenzke, Jochen (2002). Michel Zeppelin- und Flugpost-Spezial-Katalog. Unterschleißheim: Schwaneberger Verlag. ISBN 3-87858-536-5.
• Smith, Henry Ladd (1942). Airways: The History of Commercial Aviation in the United States. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 460.
• Vachon, Georgette; translated by Mary Downey (1974). Goggles Helmets and Airmail Stamps. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Co. Ltd. p. 150. ISBN 0772006199.
• von Stephan, Heinrich (1874). Weltpost und Luftschiffahrt. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
• Zilliacus, Laurin (1956). From Pillar to Post. London: William Heinemann. p. 217.
• edited by Simine Scott (1992). Via airmail: an aerophilatelic survey of events, routes, and rates. Chicago: American Air Mail Society. p. 242. ISBN 0939429012. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)

External links

• 1859 Jupiter flight cover National Postal Museum
• American Air Mail Society