STAMP ISSUES RELATED TO ICAO (from 1996 to 2013)

 

Romania : Means of transport - Surcharges

 

Issue date: 19/05/2000

 

 

Airbus A310 of Transylvania. Surcharge of 1700L on 635L.

 

Airbus A310 of Transylvania. Surcharge of 2000L on 635L.

 

Airbus A310 of Transylvania. Surcharge of 3900L on 635L.

 

Airbus A310 of Transylvania. Surcharge of 9050L on 635L.

Pairs and blocks with a variety of marginal inscriptions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many red carmine ink spots can be noticed on some of the overprinted stamps (samples here-after).

 

Full sheets of 50 stamps.

 

 

 

 

First Day Cover.

 

First Day Cover commemorating the National Philatelic Exhibition Aeromfila held in Bacău, Romania, from 20 to 26 July 2000. It paid tribute to the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Romanian Aerophilatelic Commission.

The cancel shows a Yak-52. It is interesting to highlight that the Airbus A-310 shown on the cachet is covered with reproductions of Romanian stamps related to aviation, including one of this issue (see the tail of the aircraft).

The Yakovlev Yak-52 is a Soviet primary trainer aircraft which first flew in 1976. It is still being produced in Romania by Aerostar, which gained manufacturing rights under agreement within the now defunct COMECON socialist trade organization. The Yak-52 was designed originally as an aerobatic trainer for students in the Soviet DOSAAF training organization, which trained both civilian sport pilots and military pilots.

 

Background: Airmail stamps. One of the Romanian stamps issued on 12/08/1994 (see at Romania - 50th Anniversary of ICAO) was surcharged (due to inflation) by an airship in red carmine with four different values (new post tariffs in force). This set has Fr watermarks (Multiple letters Fr, Watermark No. 398 according to Scott Catalogue).

The "Fr" watermark normally appears only on Fiscal/Revenue stamps. In the years 1994-1995, when lacking printing paper, the stamp factory also used such kind of paper for regular issues, especially in reprinting some sold-out definitives values, such this set related to ICAO 50th anniversary (1994) surcharged in 2000. The letter "F" comes from "Fiscală" (Revenue) and "r" from "Romania agenție fiscală".

 

It is interesting to note that the overprint in carmine obliterating the prior value of 635 Leu has the form of a Zeppelin airship, in reference to the 100th anniversary of the maiden flight of the first Zeppelin airship LZ.1 on 2 July 1900 at Friedrichshafen.

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin began construction of his first airship, LZ-1 (for Luftschiff Zeppelin 1), in June 1898 in a floating wooden hangar on the Bodensee at Manzell (Friedrichshafen) in Southern Germany.  The movable, floating shed allowed the ship to be positioned into the wind to enter or leave its hangar. The airship was inflated with hydrogen gas in June 1900 and made its maiden flight on 2 July 1900 powered by two Daimler gasoline engines.  The first flight lasted about 18 minutes and covered about 3½ miles over Lake Constance, but was damaged on landing. After repairs and some modifications, two further flights were made by LZ-1 in October 1900. However, the airship was not considered successful enough to justify investment by the government The flights revealed serious structural deficiencies in the framework; the LZ-1 was overweight, and a severe lack of engine power and speed made it difficult to control in even slight winds; the engines themselves were unreliable.

Since the experiments had exhausted Count Zeppelin’s funds, he was forced to suspend his work. However, with the support of the King of Württemberg, of Prussia and Daimler (and Carl Berg), Count Zeppelin was able to carry on the construction of other airships from 1905.