Handley Page Dart Herald

Hello,   here I am back with one more aircraft on stamps series.  This will be a short series unless readers can help me out. I have 6 stamps to show in this series of the Handley Page Dart Herald, the aircraft I have chosen to show on stamps.

I had so many aircraft  in my head as I thought of one more series.    Some aircraft I remember seeing at Temora,  the Fokker Friendship is another I thought might make an interesting series but in the end I decided to go with one last British aircraft.    Maybe just nostalgia for the British aircraft industry.

Handley page was a rather remarkable company.  It was founded by Sir Fredrick Handley Page in 1909. He was a pioneer in the aircraft industry and became known as the father of the heavy bomber. The company was perhaps best known for the Halifax bomber and the Handley Page H.P 42,  the  4 engine Hannibal biplane, which was a flagship of the Imperial Airways fleet between the two World Wars. 

He was also known for his invention, with Gustav Lachmann, of the  leading edge slot which improved the stall characteristics of aircraft wings.

Anyway  lots to write about but let’s see a first stamp.

This one is from Jersey from the 1987  50^th Anniversary of Jersey  Airport issue. I started with this as it is the least impressive of the stamps I could find given that the Dart Herald is rather overshadowed by the BAC 111 – which for those of you with brilliant memories will know is a stamp that was shown on the BAC 111 series some months back.

Enough for now. More in the coming days.  I hope you enjoy this series and as always I welcome feedback and especially details of stamps which show the Handley Page Dart Herald.

All the best, see you soon     Michael  cddstamps.com

Vanguard – final piece

Hello, now I know you must be saying what will he show as there are no more Vanguards on stamps to show .  Well it is just an image of a TCA Vanguard.

I thought there might be a Canada issue showing a Vanguard because TCA Trans Canada Airlines which became Air Canada operated, I believe, up to 23 Vanguards between 1960 and 1972.  But no, I could not find any, so just this image.  Trivia:  TCA operated the plane over much longer distances than BEA –     Toronto Nassau for example, which is 1500 km  compared to say London Edinburgh which is just over 600 km and had enhanced engines on the planes allowing the aircraft to operate at higher cruising speeds giving better operational performance over longer sectors. We did have an Air Canada plane you will recall on the Grenada ICAO issue so some Canadian linkage there.

Now look at this image – does that look like it was the artwork for the Malta stamp?  Or even the Marshall Islands stamp? Looks like it to me.

So that is it.  What next? I welcome ideas for another aircraft on stamps series.     You can write to me at cddstamps@gmail.com

 I hope you enjoyed this series,   and if you collect stamps I would be pleased if you visited our store  we are cddstamps on the Hipstamp marketplace.

 Thank you   Michael

Vanguard on Stamps

This is my final Vanguard on stamps piece but penultimate piece in this series. You will see why if you keep visiting. 

As you can see this lovely stamp is from Malta. It was issued in 1984 and is one of a set of 7 from the Air set.  The stamp is SG 731 and shows – although difficult to read –  G-APED, the plane was named  Defiance.

Now why is a Vanguard on a stamp from Malta. This one has me beat so I welcome readers thoughts.  As far as I know from my readings Air Malta started flying with two Boeing 720Bs in 1974 and by 1979 it owned five aircraft, the two original 720Bs and three more 720Bs which they had bought.  

Does anyone know if they operated Vanguards?  BEA operated Vanguards to Malta but that is the only connection I can think of..

Thank you for visiting my blog and for reading this series. If you would like to read more on the Aircraft this is a useful piece https://www.key.aero/article/was-vickers-vanguard-terribly-timed

See you tomorrow I hope for one last Vanguard image. Michael cddstamps

Vickers Vanguard

Hello again and welcome back.   Yes I have been otherwise occupied  – a rather  serious earthquake –  which had us sleep at my sister-in-laws house for a few days while the aftershocks  settled, in fact 1000 aftershocks were counted I am told.  Anyway it was a 7 on the Richter scale here with rather too much building shaking for my liking.   I don’t mind air turbulence but building shaking that is not for me.

So one more Vanguard today and many thanks to my plane spotter in Australia.  This is from the 1985 Grenada issue to commemorate the 40^th anniversary of ICAO (the International Civil  Aviation Organisation) 

The stamp shows a Vicker 952  of Air Canada  this was a converted Vanguard.     You  may remember the stamp design from a stamp I showed in my series on the Constellation –  I used the Connie stamp  from this issue.

I will have a bit more on TCA and Air Canada in a few more days. Hope you  come back to read more, and as I have said before, if you know of any stamps showing the Vanguard I would be very pleased to hear from you. I am at cddstamps@gmail.com     Thanks for now   ……..Michael

Vickers Vanguard on stamps… cont’d Part III

Hello, and welcome back to my Vanguard on stamps series.   This time I will show one from the Marshall Islands (SG 1543). I am not keen on these novelty issues released for the thematic market and which are of no postal relevance but let’s make an exception here.  This is from a sheet of 10 from the 2001 Classic Aircraft issue.

All things considered not a bad design for a change from the Marshall Islands

You may recall I mentioned that some of the BEA fleet at the end of their time operating commercial passenger flights were converted to freighters. This is in fact one of them, the Merchantman, as the type was rebranded.

Air Bridge history? Well this will challenge memories as some may recall it was the name of a freighter service company in the UK back in the 1970s. It operated out of East Midlands Airport as Air Bridge Carriers but was renamed Hunting Cargo Airlines in 1992. How did it make the Classic Aircraft  series  with the Marshall Islands? My guess is because the last flight of a Vanguard, albeit in a Merchantman configuration, as far as I know – and am happy to be corrected – was in 1996 by G-APEP which was operated by Hunting Cargo Airlines. 

Two more pieces to come and I hope you join me.  And as I said before, if you know of any stamps showing the Vanguard I would be very pleased to hear from you. I am at cddstamps@gmail.com     Thanks for now   ……..Michael

Vanguard on Stamps

Welcome back.   Continuing with some more  stories about the Vanguard and showing this second stamp from Gibraltar. This one (SG 1177) is from the 2006 issue which commemorated the 75^th Anniversary of Gibraltar Airmail Services.

I mentioned a few firsts for the Vanguard in my previous writing. Here is another you may not be aware of – it was the first BEA aircraft to use the new Manchester terminal when it opened  in 1962, although I have to admit I was too young to be there for the event!    

And this final piece of trivia because the aircraft is shown on a stamp from Gibraltar. In 1962 Watney’s Draught Red Barrel Beer (anyone remember that?) was introduced to Gibraltar.  It proved so popular that supplies ran out and BEA was contracted to fly over from London twenty 10 gallon kegs. And you guessed it, the beer was flown over on one of the Vanguard services.  The first airlift of beer into Gibraltar I believe.  

Sadly there was a fatal accident in 1965 on approach to Heathrow in bad weather and again some engine issues in the mid to late 1960s.  By 1969 BEA were operating 13 Vanguards and by 1973 only 4 were in service. The final commercial service was London to Jersey in June 1974.  Some Vanguards were converted to Merchantmen freighters and while it is impossible to tell from the stamps the small image below the 747 image on the Gabon Stamps are in fact Merchantmen which were operated by Air Gabon.  So I will finish this two part introduction with these two stamps from Gabon. Issued in 1997 (SG 1276 and 1277).  Sorry for poor images   Very difficult to find these stamps.

I have more stamps to show so I hope you come back to see them.  If you know of any stamps showing the Vanguard I would be very pleased to hear from you. I am at cddstamps@gmail.com     Thank you ………… for now   …….Michael

Vickers Vanguard on stamps

Hello, I am back.  Well actually I only had one 2 week trip to Sydney once the travel entry restrictions eased so I did not really go away, other than to stop writing because of so many other projects that just bubbled to the surface and needed attention.  Some are still with me but for now here we are with the next aircraft in the series of aircraft on stamps.

I always wanted to do this one even though there are not that many countries that I can find – and neither can my number one researcher in Australia – many thanks for your help – you know who you are.

I will start with one stamp from Gibraltar and then show another in the next piece with more stories about the Vanguard. 

The Gibraltar 1982 issue is surely the most obvious place to start. As we have seen from previous aircraft on stamps writings this 1982 issue had 15 stamps in the issue and yes one was of a Vanguard.   SG 465 shows one of the BEA Vanguard fleet. A rather pleasing image with the aircraft in front of the “Rock”, and while this may seem just an artist impression a  similar view is actually possible.

Here is the best I can show you.

I really liked this aircraft. It was a workhorse as I think of it although, as some may know, it had a few issues, like with the Tyne engines. 

Just some  flying trivia. The  history of the aircraft goes back to 1953 when BEA  outlined requirements for a replacement aircraft for the Viscount. In 1956 they signed an agreement with Vickers Armstrong for 20 Vanguards with an entry into service date of 1960.  The prototype Vanguard (G -AOYW) made its maiden flight on 20^th January 1959 and proving flights started in 1960. However, as I mentioned there were problems with the new Rolls Royce Tyne engines and it was not until December 1960 that the aircraft got is Airworthiness Certificate.

BEA took delivery of the first aircraft G-APEE in December and then G-APEF which operated the first commercial passenger service on the London to Paris route in December 1960. There were ad hoc flights during 1960 and regular scheduled services started in 1961 on various European routes including Paris,  Zurich and Geneva. In fact my first experience on a Vanguard was on a flight back from Zurich only 7 years later.  Nostalgia.  Which reminds me to add that the aircraft was regularly used on domestic services including Glasgow and Edinburgh and I have  good memories of  those  flights from my times based in Scotland.

In the next piece I will continue with a few more anecdotes. See you soon   Michael cddstamps@gmail.com

I am  very proud to post this.  Thank you to all our customers around the world.  Why not become one of them. I think you will be very pleased.

Thank you. we look forward to seeing you in the store.

Michael https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps

cddstamps Easter Egg Hunt – win $100 of stamps from our store

Easter Egg Hunt in cddstamps store – win $100 of stamps from our store – join the fun

Do you want to win $100 of stamps?  Just buy $10 of stamps from our store over the Easter weekend,  starting now until close of business  Easter Monday 18^th April –  yes we have a long “Holy Week” here –  and you are qualified to enter the Easter Egg Hunt.  

Hopefully you will enjoy looking through our store as well.  Find the Easter egg, send a message  to  us with your order, however you wish  or using the  Hipstamp  Question  button and tell us the Listing ID of the stamp with the Easter Egg.  There is only one correct answer. Think carefully. 🙂

On Tuesday 19^th we will draw one winner from all entries. Sorry, but anyone posting the answer on the Hipstamp Message Forum or here will be disqualified so please don’t ruin  the fun of the search for us or others.

The winner can then buy $100 of stamps and get an immediate refund of $100.  Buy $80 and get an $80 and keep the extra $20 for a future purchase.

Have a peaceful, happy,  perhaps even chocolate filled and philatelic, Easter.

Michael cddstamps@cddstamps.com

Hello, While I am pulling together material for the next aircraft on stamps series here is one more flight cover form the Manila – San Francisco flight I mentioned in the previous post. Which reminds me, no one noticed my accidental typo. or did you and you were too shy to tell me 🙂 well all corrected now 🙂

I have a few more I might show over the coming days. But this one is rather special to me. I mentioned the pilot was Edwin Musick; well this cover was signed by him.

Enjoy your aerophilately Michael cddstamps and you can contact me at cddstamps@gmail.com