Lufthansa first flight cover signed by crew.

Recently acquired a unique Lufthansa first flight cover flown from New Delhi to Cairo.  LH 649 operated by Boeing jet 720B.  The cover has been signed by the entire crew.  The Captain's signature appears in green just below the cachet.

Concorde World Flight 1987.

Air France organized a world flight of Concorde aircraft from 30th September, 1987 to 16th October 1987. The last leg of the flight was New Delhi-Bahrain-Paris.

Here are covers flown from Kathmandu to New Delhi and New Delhi to Paris. Also showing the certificate that the covers were flown and the schedule.

Indian Air Transport Nationalization

There were 9 Air Transport operators in India in 1953 most of who were facing problems. From time to time many policies were framed to help the Airways Companies but they were not sufficient for them to survive. Then the Ministry of Communication, Government of India appointed the air Transport Inquiry Committee to scrutinise all the problems affecting the Indian Air Transport Industry and to recommend measures to stablize its economic position and ensure future development. A tentative decision to nationalize air industry was taken.

The Air Corporation Bill was legislated into an Act by which two nationalized Air Corporations were formed on on 15th June 1953. These were Indian Airlines Corporation (for operation of internal air services in the country and adjacent countries like Burma, Ceylon and Pakistan) and the Air India International for operation of long distance International Services.

Nine companies were nationalized from 1st August, 1953:

1. Air India Ltd.

2. Air Services of India Ltd.

3. Airways India

4. Bharat Airways

5. Deccan Airways

6. Himalayan Aviation Ltd.

7. Indian National Airways

8. Kalinga Airlines

9.Air India International Ltd.

A Special Cover with a Commemorative Cancellation was issued on the occasion from all Philatelic Bureaux. The cancellation is found in black and violet inks.

I have listed aircraft stamps for sale on my aviation stamps blog:

http://aviationstamps.blogspot.sg/

My prices are very reasonable and much lower than those quoted by sellers on ebay.  Have a look.

Here are a few of the items listed:

Cameroon.   1976.Concorde's First Commercial Flight, Paris to Rio de Janeiro.  SG MS769.

Cat. £.7.75.  MNH. Price: US.$4

Cuba  2006 Aircraft.  SG 1961-67.  MNH

Cat. £7.70  MNH.  Price: US.$3.50

Djibouti Republic. 1978 Air. Djibouti Aero Club.  

SG 721-723. Cat. £3.75. FU Price: US.$1.75

Dominica. F1 fighter souvenir sheet. 

SG SG MS251a. Cat. £.4.25. MNH.  Price: US.$2.

French Southern & Antarctic Territories. 

 1969  1st Flight of Concorde.  SG 53. 

Cat. £60. MVLH  Price: US.$20.

Gabon.  1983 Air. Ballooning Anniversaries. 

SG 857-59. Cat. £4.05.  MNH. Price US$2.

Gabon.  1967  Famous Aircraft.  SG 88-90.   

 Cat. £25.  MNH.  Price US$12.

Samoa. 1998 80th Anniv of the Royal Air Force.  

SG 1029-1032  Cat. £5.90  MNH.  Price US$3.

Wallis & Futuna Islands. 

1976. 1st Commercial Flight of Concorde.  

SG 253.  Cat. £48. MVLH  Price US$18.

The 50th anniversary of the 1st aerial post in India was commemorated with a set 3 stamps on 18th February, 1961.  A special commemorative flight was arranged over the original route.  Special covers for this were issued and mail carried on the special flight received a circular handstamp and were backstamped at Naini.

5p stamp shows the First Aerial Post cancellation, 15p Air India Boeing 707 and Humber Sommer Biplane,

Re.1 H.Pequet flying Humber Sommer plane and "Äerial Post" cancellation.

New lots posted on ebay:  click on the link or copy & paste in a new browser window.

 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/amecvi11/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

 

There are a lot of good & interesting items.  First flight covers, FDCs, etc.  There a couple of Gandhi postmark covers, Swiss FDCs etc. 

Also listed are some early Air India covers.

I have listed 10 scarce India International Balloon Mela 1985 flown covers.  Only 100 covers of each were flown on the balloons taking part in the mela. I have never seen these listed on ebay before.  All the covers have details of the balloon, pilot, landing point.

 Here are some previews:

 

Air India First Flight covers

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Air India flew internationally on 8th June, 1948 when its Bombay - London service, via Cairo & Geneva was inaugurated.  A special 12as postage stamp showing a Lockheed Constellation was issued to be used on mails sent on the first flight.  This stamp was valid for one day only.  Mails were postmarked with a special rectangular cachet. The aircraft used was  a Lockheed Constellation L-749A named Malabar Princess, registration VT-CQP.   However, some privately printed first flight covers had the aircraft name printed as "Rajput Princess".  Air India issued special long covers which became their trademark in the next two decades.

 

 I have posted some Air India First Flight covers in the Air India First Flight cover page.  Here are some of the images:

  Cover is signed by the pilot.

  Cover is signed by the pilot.

    Cover is signed by the pilot.

  Cover is signed by the pilot.