Kiribati

Aviation stamps of Kiribati.
Kiribati is an adaption of Gilbert Islands which were discovered by an English Captain Thomas Gilbert in 1788 while cossing the archipelago from Australia to China. The islands together with Elice islands became a part of the British Colonies in 1919. Stamps were issued in the name of Gilbert & Elice Islands till the islands were separated in 1975. Elice Islands became independent in 1978 and took on the name Tuvalu. Gilbers Is became independent on 12th July, 1979 and took on the name of Kiribati. Actually the islands in the Gilbertese language is Tungaru. Read more about Kiribati

Kiribati Stamps showing Bonriki airport.

Stamps issued to commemorate Inauguration of Air Tungaru:

Alderney

Another tiny stamp issuing entity is Alderney situated at the northern end of the Channel islands and is a part of the Balliwick of Guernsey. It is 3 square miles and has an airport with two airlines, Blue Islands & Aurigny Air services having regular flights to Southampton, Jersey & Guernsey. Aurigny Air services completed 40 years service in 2008. The event was commemorated with 6 stamps:


Where is Alderney located?


You can read more about this island here

Aircraft stamps of Faroe Islands

Have you heard of Faroe islands. These are a group of 22 islands (17 inhabitated) located between the North Atlantic Ocean and the Norwegian Sea about halfway between Scotland and Iceland.


The name of the islands mean fur and no wonder the coat of arms has a ram! Ever since the islands were discovered either by the Irish or the Vikings, there have been many sheep supplying large quantities of wool.








The islands have been an autonomous part of Denmark since 1948. Read more about the Faroe islands



Foroyar (the Islands in Faroese) issued a booklet pane of 5 stamps on 28th October, 1985 to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of passenger aviation in the Faroes. The stamps depict from the top:

Douglas DC-3
Fokker Friendship
Boeing 737
Interisland LM-IKB
Helicopter Snipan

Aircraft stamps of San Marino

Another tiny stamp issuing country: The Republic of San Marino. which was founded on 3rd September, 301. Thus making it the oldest sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world. San Marino has the smallest population in the council of Europe.

An interesting issue of this tiny republic was of pioneer airplanes 1904-1910 issued on 4th April 1962

Aircraft Stamps from Anguilla

Another post of aircraft on stamps from tiny stamp issuing countries (2006 pop: less than 13,500). Do you know where Anguilla is?

Located in the Northern part of the Leeward islands, Anguilla is an overseas British Territory in the Caribbean. You can read more about it here

Here are two sets issued by Anguilla.

RAF 80th anniversary was commemorated with these stamps

Set of stamps depicting Early Airlines issued in 2006:

BIOT

British Indian Ocean Territory is a British dependency, with an important U.S. military base. It is formed by the Chagos Islands (Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos, etc...) in the middle of the Indian Ocean.. The territory was established on 8 November 1965 by the amalgamation of the Aldabra, Farquhar and Desroches islands (formerly part of the Seychelles) and the Chagos Archipelago (formerly from Mauritius). On 29 June 1976 the former Seychelles islands were retroceded to the Seychelles and were called there 'ZIL ELOIGNE SESEL'

There are no native inhabitants, only military personnel live on the islands. Read more about BIOT here.

A souvenir sheet issued to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the RAF.

FDC of stamps issued to commemorate the 90th anniversary of RAF

Souvenir sheet showing King George V, as Marshal of the RAF

First Flight Covers

Not posted on my blog for some time for various reasons partly as we have been away from the city for some time. Been spurred to so after an email from another serious collector The question he poses is what is a FFC? Too many fakes passing for the real stuff these days.

To me a cover should have been flown on the first flight for which there must be some evidence on the cover itself. A backstamp is very crucial evidence -but unfortunately not all postal administrations backstamp covers. Few covers flow to London for example bear a backstamp. However, sometimes airlines provide a receipt stamp eg. BOAC FFCs. In the pioneering era covers were often flown by airmen to survey a route and these covers were posted immediately on arrival. the covers usually bore the notation of the pilot.

Pilot/crew signatures attesting that the cover was actually flown on the flight too can be accepted. I am bit of a purist so I feel that there must be some postal intervention.

Cover flown from Karachi to Calcutta, posted on arrival at Calcutta.


Moving on to some aircraft stamps.

A souvenir sheet of 10 stamps issued by British Indian Ocean Territory(BIOT) on 18th July 2003 to commemorate the centenary of first powered flight



Well, where is BIOT?

Check my blog tomorrow!!!!!!