Austria – Aircraft on Stamps – Part II

Hello,    welcome back to my blog.  Part II tonight and this stamp issued in 1961 to commemorate the first Austrian airmail flight.

You don’t need me to tell you it is a Hansa Brandenburg CI, 😊  a 2-seater armed single-engine reconnaissance biplane designed by Ernst Heinkel the famous German aircraft designer, who  built the Heinkel He 178 the world’s first turbojet powered aircraft and the first rocket powered aircraft the Heinkel He 176.

Anyway, I digress, eaily done!!  The CI served in the Austro – Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops in visual- and photographic reconnaissance, artillery observation and light bombing duties from early spring 1916 to the end of WW I.

It was used to fly the first airmail service when Austria established it’s first regular airmail route during WW1 on March 31, 1918  flying between Vienna and  Kiev.   One final piece of trivia,  especially for my US readers, this predates the first US airmail service by aircraft ( excludes balloon flight) by 2 months I think 😊. I just love what we can learn from stamps.

Have a philatelic weekend, see you soon,  and if you want to write I am at cddstamps@gmail.com   

Michael  cddstamps.com …. or visit my online store https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps