Wikipedia talk:Translation/Airmail
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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.
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[edit] Historical development
[edit] Origins of airmail
The origins of airmail reach back to long before the invention of the first flying machines. In ancient times messages were delivered by airmail; through various breeding methods it became possible to use homing pigeons to carry communications.
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 lore 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 in order 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. In the 12th and 13th century it was brought to Europe by crusaders.[1] 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.[1] But it was knocked off after the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258. In the Middle Ages, Egyptian sultans established their own Federal Pigeon Post.
[edit] First flying machines
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 up 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 the trapped were lifted up with small balloons. Indeed, these messages were caught by the enemy. In the following decades there was further use of balloons for the purpose of message delivery during a war.
The most famous example for philatelists is the Paris balloon post. The connection between Paris and the unoccupied France during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 and 1871 could only be held up by clever interplay of the balloon post and homing pigeons. Besides 2,500,000 letters and postcards 363 homing pigeons were delivered with the balloons, in order to enable the return of replies and other messages. In Metz there were similar experiments for delivering messages to confederates by balloons during the Franco-Prussian War; but these did not become as famous as the Paris balloon post (see also Metz balloon post).
John Wise piloted the first official balloon post flight that took place on July 17, 1859 from St. Louis, USA to Henderson, New York, a distance of 1,290 km. Wise carried 123 letters and 23 circulars onboard but only one of these historic postal covers was discovered in 1959.[2] In Germany the first official balloon post flight took place in June 1897 during the Leipzig business fair. The pilot Louis Godard turned the routed postcards over to the Reichspost for the purpose of reforwarding. The postcards got private confirmation cancels.
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 pointed out the possible importance of airmail for everyday post delivery in 1874. This speech was released as a book under the title "Weltpost und Luftschiffahrt" (World Post and Airship Travel).
[edit] Invention of the airplane
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 took place on December 17, 1903 (Wright Brothers). Five years later the first delivery of postal consignments with airplanes 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 carried covers were provided with a similar special cancellation. Though, 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 course of an art and business fair 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" 13 minutes for the distance. The carried covers were provided with the confirmation postmark "First Aerial Post, U.P. Exhibition Allahabad 1911“.
One year later, on May 19, 1912 the first official postal flight of the German Reichspost between Mannheim and Heidelberg took place. Previously, there were several private postal deliveries with airplanes in Germany without the post office's approval. The first event of this kind was carried out on November 13, 1911 in Berlin. At the event Flug um Berlin (Flight around Berlin) postcards for collectors were carried. The second event of this kind was a 8 km flight between the villages Bork and Brück. At this aviation event airmail stamps were issued for the first time. They served solely for financing the event and had no postal value. On March 9, 1913 Swiss flight pioneer Oskar Bider transported the first Swiss airmail on the route Basel - Liestal.
In the following years until the breakout of World War I the Reichspost cooperated extensively with organisers of postal flights. Notable in this context is the airmail at Rhine and Main. In other countries it was worked on the establishment of 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 the first regular airmail route between Vienna, Kraków and Lviv was established on March 31, 1918. They therefore issued their own airmail stamps. This regular post delivery with airplanes is considered by philatelists as the actual start of airmail history.
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 civil airmail in Germany started on February 5, 1919. Since that date airplanes have taken off twice a day from Berlin-Johannisthal in order to transport postal consignments–initially newspapers–from the capital to the convention place of the constituent Weimar National Assembly in Weimar. For the time being this airmail connection could only be called on by delegates of the National Assembly, who had moved to Thuringia's then capital due to the revolutionary situation in Berlin. A few months later this route was made publicly available.
The following years saw fast development of airmail connections 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 were performed. The approached target was the Swedish seaport Malmö.
Since 1921 the German Reichspost introduced special airmail confirmation postmarks and airmail adhesive sheets. In 1922 there were already 13 airmail routes. In May 1923 Germany's first airmail letterboxes were mounted in Berlin. These special blue-varnished letterboxes served only for inserting 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.
On January 6, 1921 the Deutsche Luft Hansa (since 1934 Deutsche Lufthansa) was founded. Until then the Aero Hansa AG, the Deutsche Aero Llyod AG, and the Junkers Luftverkehr AG were responsible for airmail delivery. Because the Reich, states, and the municipalities threatened to cancel the subsidies for the companies, which were in cut-throat competition, they merged into the new airline company under pressure from banks and the government. The Luft Hansa had to commit to save enough space for the transport of postal consignments on every flight. The constant extension of the worldwide aviation network and permanent enhancements of airplanes lead to brisk development of the airmail. Before the beginning of World War II the majority of foreign consignments were already carried by plane.
One of the most famous flight pioneers of that time was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
[edit] World War II and the temporary end of German airmail
During World War II military airmail proved to have great potential for communications between the front and the homeland. The airmail network was drastically expanded in all participating countries, and the 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 starting point for the German military airmail was established. The approached targets depended on the particular frontline. Mostly Junkers Ju 52 were used as transport planes. In May 1944 the starting point was moved to Łódź. A few months later, on July 6, 1944, the German airmail service stopped working.
On April 18, 1942 the German Reich issued its own Zulassungsmarken (literally: admission stamps) for military airmail letters. Each German soldier obtained four of these stamps per month, which, after a rise in postage in May 1943 increase to eight stamps. With those he could stamp a total of four letters or postcards to his homeland. The stamps were given to soldiers at the eastern front, at the Balkans, and in Scandinavia, where they were connected to the airmail network. In June 1943 allied Italy issued its own airmail express stamps.
The Allies had a similar strongly developed airmail network like the German Reich. In fact, this could only be called on by British and US soldiers. The allied Airgraph-Service existed during the war years 1941 until 1945. On April 21, 1941 the first military mail route from Cairo to London was opened by the Airgraph Service. The soldiers had to write the messages on special forms, which subsequently were micro-photographically recorded on slim film. After the arrival of the films in the homeland, the single messages were blown up again and delivered to the recipients. It was from the idea of light-weight message delivery by airplane that the aerogram came.
After the defeat and the capitulation of the German Reich on May 8, 1945 the airmail traffic in the occupied German-speaking areas of Austria and Germany was taken over by foreign companies. In Austria there a regular airmail service had begun again just two years after the war; in Germany, inhabitants of the Federal Republic could not post airmail consignments until October 20, 1948. In 1954 the Deutsche Lufthansa, which had stopped its air services after the end of the war, was founded again in the Federal Republic. In April 1, 1955 regular German airmail flights started again. A short time afterwards, on May 17, 1955, international targets were postally re-connected by the Lufthansa. In the DDR there was an airline named Lufthansa too, which was responsible for airmail.
[edit] Airlift to Berlin
A special capital in airmail history is the airlift to Berlin. Here, for the first time the airmail could not be supported or replaced by another kind of postal delivery. The airlift to Berlin was established by the Allies with airplanes, in order to supply the largest German city with vital goods. This could only happen by air, because the Soviet occupying power erected a total blockade of Western Berlin on June 24, 1948.
Although the airlift was initially intended to be only for the transport of vital goods, soon post was delivered in both directions. Therefore no additional fees were charged by the Allies. West-Berlin's post used two postmarks, which were made only for this purpose, for these special consignments. The machine postmark bore the inscription Luftbrücke Berlin (Airlift Berlin) resp. Kauft vom Blockierten Berlin (Buy from Blocked Berlin). Besides these two official postmarks several private confirmation cancellations were also used.
After nearly one year of existence of the Berlin Airlift the Soviet Union finally realised that it guaranteed the supply of Berlin and could be continued without limit. Therefore they decided to cancel the blockade of West-Berlin on May 12, 1949 at 00:01.
[edit] Modern airmail and philately's influence
When the airmail flights started the public were prepared to accept high airmail postage fees, to receive letters more quickly. A good example is an airmail letter of ensign Edwin Müller, who later became one of Austria's most famous philatelists. On the reverse of this airmail cover from 1918 he wrote:
| “ | I would like to have an airmail letter Budapest-Vienna – that would be all, what is lacking for my beatitude. | ” |
Over the years the airplane lost its special status and finally became a natural part of the landscape. Amongst others this lead to taking the airmail for granted. In most European countries additional airmail postage is no longer required. In the USA there are still such fees. This is a result of the strong competition between private express mail services like FedEx and UPS and the federal post "United States Postal Service". Because of that these companies have to bear in mind to provide their services cheaper than the competitor. This leads to the fact, that the lower costs of a postal delivery by ground or by sea are passed on the customers. The apparent higher prices for an airmail delivery result from that fact.
In most European countries there is no such competition between federal and private companies, which can be traced back to existing or recently closed down postal monopolies. Private carrier services in Middle Europe mostly focussed on a faster, but more expensive postal delivery.
The airmail in Germany, but first of all from Germany to foreign countries outside of Europe, is permanently increasing. This shows the importance of airmail for the fast postal connection of far-off places. It has an especially high importance in regions of the world, which are difficult to access – except by plane. A representing country may be Australia, especially the areas in the centre of the continent aloof the large metropolitan areas at the coasts.
For the most time airmail is used together with other methods of transport like railway or shipmail, in order to guarantee the fastest and also cheapest delivery of postal consignments. The importance of airmail is unlike higher in countries without railway and shipmail than in Middle Europe, because there are no real alternatives to airmail. This mainly concerns parcels, because nowadays mere message delivery does not rely on the post anymore.
Today, airmail is delivered nearly exclusively by plane. Other kinds of airmail delivery mostly have philatelic backgrounds and no postal importance. Of these kinds first of all rocket mail has to be mentioned. Although there definitely were serious experiments of some postal administrations concerning postal delivery by rockets, it takes place mostly on private initiative and has no postal sense. The first rocket mail was performed already in 1937 by the Austrian Friedrich Schmiedl. In addition to rocket mail there are the Zeppelin mail, helicopter mail, and other similar kinds of postal delivery, which are performed specially for collectors.
In the European Union nowadays an airmail letter is only regarded as a letter, if it is delivered to the addressee within 48 hours. If the letter is transported by air or by ground plays a secondary role.
The European airmail currently is subject of the change of the European liberalisation. In the past an airmail letter was transported by the federal airline for the federal post. The federal airlines in the European region more and more are subject of the need to economise, the price offensive started by low-cost carriers. As a consequence smaller airplanes are used, which cannot transport as much freight as needed.
Due to the close-down of the monopolies of transporting letters, the former federal postal companies became part of the competition and are developping a greater interest in working economically.
The competition of the airlines and of the postal companies has lead to the fact, that letters only are limitedly transported by plane. More and more letters, which are called Luftpost, Priority, or A-Post depending on the country, are moved between European countries by ground.
[edit] Airmail consignments
[edit] Common postal consignments
Strictly speaking there is no difference between airmail consignments and common postal ones. A postal consignment also is a letter, a postcard, or a parcel like a common consignment, but parts of their delivery route were covered by air, and they got a special confirmation. In the past airmail consignments were assigned with the words "By Airmail" or with a special sticker, which bears that inscription. Usually extra postage was required. Since the establishment of the night airmail network a major part of total mail covers a part of its delivery route by airplane, but does not receive a special flight confirmation mark. Due to the ommission of the airmail postage the sender only seemingly has a influence on the kind of postal delivery yet.
Airmail covers are the core of every aerophilatelic collection. The collector looks after all kinds of specialties of these covers. Among them are the stamps as well as the postmarks used during delivery. Further the collector looks after special flights, for example an inaugural flight Special "delicacies" are postal consignments, which could be saved aout of planes that met with an accident. For the most time these are provided with their own postmarks.
[edit] Special postal consignments
In the course of time several types of postal consignments developped, which were produced especially for airmail. The first of these types were the balloon letters of the Paris balloon post. Especially during World War II the advantages of uniform postal consignments appeared. Out of these insights the aerogram developped, which nowadays is only rarely used yet. In Great Britain specially designed Christmas aerograms are annually issued.
[edit] Airmail stamps
[edit] Official airmail stamps
Official airmail stamps were issued in 1917 in Italy for the first time. They could be used only for postage of airmail consignments. With this stamps the postal administrations wanted to accomodate the especialness of this kind of postal delivery. Nowadays most countries discontinued issuing airmail stamps, they are replaced by common definitive stamps. But some countries continue issuing their own airmiail stamps in order to increase their earnings by selling them to collectors.
Airmail stamps are an inherent part of every aerophilatelic collection. For collectors the most famous stamp is also known to a lot of non-philatelists. It is the US misprint "Inverted Jenny" from 1918. This rare misprint differs from the original stamp in the fact, that the airplane, a Curtiss Jenny, in the centre of the stamp theme was printed invertedly. So far only 100 copies of this philatelic rarity are known. The Inverted Jenny is the crest of each aerophilatelic collection.
In the course of time several types of official airmail stamps emerged. For example the Middle American state Guatemala issued Airmail stamps for abroad, which could only be used for consignments to foreign countries, and analogically Airmail inland stamps. Russia issued its own Airmail officials, which were used for the postage of airmail consignments of the Russian consulate.
[edit] Flight stamps
Flight stamps were always issued by private people, in contrast to airmail stamps. They are stamp-like vignettes, which existed aslready before the first airmail stamps. They served for the financing of aviation events, in whose course the airmail delivery took place. For this purpose a flight stamp had to be bought from the organiser and stuck on the consignment. If the adressee wanted a further delivery after the landing of the plane, he had to add additional definitive stamps to the consignment.
For example such vignettes were issued in the early days of airmail in Germany and Switzerland. After the popularity of the airplane had decreased, the number of such aviation events decreased too. In 1933 Germany's last airmail stamp was issued.
Not all aerophilatelists incorporate flight stamps in their collections, because these stamps never had postal importance. But because they were mostly authorised by postal administrations, some collectors refer to them as semi-official flight stamps and make them an integral part of their collection.
[edit] Airmail etiquettes
Airmail etiquettes are not stamps, but because of their perforation, shape, and gum they have the appearance of a stamp, and have no postal value. This etiquettes are issued by the postal authority for free and have the sole purpose to mark consignments to be transported by air.[3] Airmail etiquettes are usually blue in colour and have the inscription "By airmail". Besides the country's language this inscription is mostly provided in French, more rarely in English. This is due to the fact, that French was chosen as the world's postal language by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) founded in 1874. This means that every postal consignment adressed in French theoretically could be delivered worldwide without problems.
[edit] Airmail postmarks
[edit] Official airmail postmarks
Official airmail postmarks are usual postmarks, but they were exclusively used for the cancellation of airmail consignments. The only difference compared to the local cancels is the inscription of the airmail postmarks. This usually has information on the special delivery of the cover. For example an inscription of an airmail postmark is * Wien * /30. 3. 1929 / (Flugpost).
Nowadays airmail postmarks are barely used by the post. They were disestablished due to reasons of easier handling. Nowadays a special marking is no longer necessary, because this type of delivery is nearly always used for longer distances.
[edit] Confirmation cancels
In contrast to airmail postmarks the confirmation cancels rarely are official postmarks. They mostly are produced on private initiative. The confirmation cancels should provide an additional proof, that the letter was specially delivered. Therefore the confirmation cancel is applied to the consignment, but never to the stamp. The first confirmation stamp of this type dates back to February 18, 1911 on the occasion of the first official postal delivery between two different places in India.
In the beginning of the airmail by plane confirmation cancels were used often and
Today confirmation cancels are only used for special airmail deliveries, such as helicopter flights, which take place in the course of a philatelic event.
[edit] Cancellation postmarks
A special type of airmail cancels is the cancellation postmark, which is used every time when a flight is cancelled or delayed. Nowadays a replacement flight can be found for most of the time. Nevertheless, at special flights, for example at announced inauguration flights, it has to be noted on the postal consignment with a cancellation postmark. These cancellation postmarks mostly are rubber cancels, which have to be produced on the spot.
Cancellation postmarks are no great philatelic specialty, because all postal consignments of a cancelled first flight always are affected. This means that a cover of a cancelled first flight can exist only with a cancellation postmark.
[edit] Disaster postmarks
The rarest and philatelically most popular airmail cancels are the disaster postmarks. These are used when postal consignments can be saved 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 of the mostly present worn down appearance of such postal consignments.
Due to the rarity of such covers they often reach considerable prices at stamp auctions.
[edit] References and sources
- Notes
- ^ a b Hornung (1970), p. 253
- ^ Mackay, James (1971). Airmails 1870–1970. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd., 17. ISBN 0713403802.
- ^ Riga, Bonnie & Roger (2005-06-03). Airmail etiquettes have long soared in popularity. Airmail Etiquettes. Stamp Collector. Retrieved on 2008-02-09.
- Literature
- Heinrich von Stephan: Weltpost und Luftschiffahrt. Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1874.
- Horning, Otto (1970). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Stamp Collecting. Feltham, English: The Hamlyn Publishing Group, 319. ISBN 0-6000-1797-4.
- General airmail books
- Robert Paganini: Geschichte der Luftpost. Historischer Katalog sämtlicher Luftposten. Publishing house of Edmund Stein, Potsdam 1920.
- Jochen Stenzke: Michel Zeppelin- und Flugpost-Spezial-Katalog 2002. Schwaneberger Verlag, Unterschleißheim 2002. ISBN 3-87858-536-5
- Balloon post book
- Günther Heyd: Paris par Moulins (Die Ballons von Paris) 1870/71. Publishing house of Edgar Mohrmann, Hamburg 1973.
- Wilhelm Hofinger: Die älteste Luftpost der Welt. Historische Studie nach Originaldokumenten der Pariser Ballonpost 1870/71. Johannes Scheer, Stockach 1976.
