STAMP ISSUES RELATED TO ICAO (1984-1985)

 

Guinea Bissau : 40th Anniversary of ICAO

 

Issue date: 04/04/1984

 

 

Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle.

 

Douglas DC‑6B.

 

Ilyushin IL‑76.

Cancelled to Order (CTO). Cancel date: 10 April 1984.

 

 

First Day Cover. The cachet shows a Farman III aeroplane built by Henry Farman, with race number 30 on the tail.

 

 

Background: This issue was released on 4 April 1984, thus exactly on the 37th anniversary of the entry into force of the Chicago Convention (4 April 1947).

 

The Farman III biplane.

Farman III biplane as pictured during the Reims Aviation Meeting (number 30 on the tail refers to the 30th entry).

One of the most important aeroplanes of the pioneering age, the Farman III (known as the Henry Farman 1909 biplane; built by Henry Farman, based on an aircraft made by the Voisin brothers) was the first aeroplane in the world to have fully effective ailerons, which endowed the aircraft with exceptional flight stability, and had the use of wheels instead of skids. The Farman III won the Grand Prix (Grand Prix de Champagne et de la Ville de Reims) in the maximum distance race without refueling and landing (longest non-stop flight) with Pilot Henry Farman, during the Grande Semaine d'aviation de la Champagne held from 22 to 29 August 1909, with a flight of 180 km in 3 h 4 min 56 s; the race number 30 is painted on the tail.

Three Farman III aircraft flew during the competition, which marked the beginning of a distinguished career for that aircraft. For the two years after this competition, the Farman III was the most sought-after biplane in the world. Farman was rewarded by commercial success; and many examples of the type were sold. Farman III aircraft were also built in Germany as the Albatros F-2.

Later, the Farman III set a number of height records between 1909 and 1911.

Following hard on the heels of Louis Blériot's successful crossing of the English Channel, the first ever international aviation meeting was organised near Reims in France in August 1909. It was celebrated as the first public flying event and was seen both at that time and by later historians as marking the coming of age of heavier-than-air aviation. The Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne was an 8-day aviation meeting, so-named because it was sponsored by the major French champagne houses. This international aviation meeting brought together for the first time with money almost all of the prominent aviators of the time: Louis Blériot, George Bertram Cockburn, Glenn Curtiss, Léon Delagrange, Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Henri Farman, Hubert Latham, Eugène Lefebvre, Louis Paulhan, Alberto Santos-Dumont, etc. In many ways, it was the event where it was finally proved to the public that flying was something practically possible, not just some novelty.