The Postal History of ICAO

Russia : First International Air Post Congress

Issue date: 01/09/1927
	Biplane Tupolev ANT‑3 over a Mercator projection map of the world; translated text: 1st INTERNATIONAL / AERO-POSTAL CONFERENCE. Five-pointed white star on the tail of the aircraft.
	Biplane Tupolev ANT-3 over a Mercator projection map of the world; translated text: 1st INTERNATIONAL / AERO-POSTAL CONFERENCE. Five-pointed white star on the tail of the aircraft.
	Variety of the 10-kopeck stamp: missing brown color in the background and broken "7" (i.e. white spot in "1927"); without gum. Position 66 in the full sheet. See here-below in the background section: Note related to Stamp arrangement and location on a sheet.
	Variety of the 10-kopeck stamp: diagonal line through the Scandinavian countries and the European part of USSR.
		Variety of the 10-kopeck stamp: left stamp with broken "7" (i.e. white spot in "1927"; position 26 in the full sheet, plate flaw) and right stamp with a white spot on "П" in "ПОЧТОВАЯ" (position 27 in the full sheet, plate flaw). Pair and very rare as such.
	Variety of the 10-kopeck stamp with two plate flaws: white spot on upper-left side of A of "ABИO" and white spot on the digit "7" in the year 1927.
Other varieties of the 10-kopeck stamp.

Many blue ink spots and broken wing.	Blue line below the right wing.
	Variety of the 15-kopeck stamp, with broken "A" in "ABИO" (i.e. red spot on "A").
Other varieties of the 15-kopeck stamp.

			Cancelled to Order (CTO).
Background: First International Air Post Congress at The Hague, Netherlands, initiated by USSR, held from 1 to 10 September 1927. This Conference resulted in an agreement that established the airline companies as officially recognized carriers of mail; the basic rate to be applied in the settlement of the accounts for air transportation between administrations had been fixed at 6.5 centimes of gold franc for every indivisible fraction of 100 grams net weight and 100 kilometers. As a rule, this basic rate was limited to some European routes. The airline companies had requested 6 to 7.5 gold francs per ton-kilometer on European daytime flights and a considerable higher charge for European night flights and intercontinental links. The Conference also initiated some significant rules and regulations concerning the acceptance and rapid delivery of airmail by the signatory powers, the expeditious handling of airmail by countries without air services, and the basis of accounting procedures for international airmail. Another provision agreed upon was that the par avion labels should have a blue colour and, when the mail did not actually travel by air, such labels or annotations should be crossed out. The The Hague Conference of 1927 laid down the first airmail provisions, an event of historic importance in view of the fantastic development of that means of transportation in the international post. The Conference unquestionably marked the beginning of a new era for the airmail. The UPU London Congress adopted in 1929 with minor changes the Air Mail Regulations that were established by this Conference. Numerous varieties are found for this set, due to the many white, blue or red ink spots, broken frames, etc. created on the stamps at the time of printing. Only the major ones clearly noted in the postage stamp catalogues are described here-above. It can be noted that the centering of the stamps is fair, i.e. the stamp design is not located perfectly in the center of the paper with all four margins being precisely the same. During the conference, a special postmark was used to commemorate this occasion in the Netherlands. Text on the postmark reads as follows: CONFÉRENCE / POSTALE LA HAYE / 9-IX-1927-19-H, along the three equilateral sides of the triangle. In the middle, are the world globe and the letters U P U. More background information on this issue and the related covers can be found by clicking on: 1927: Airline Companies Officially Recognized as Airmail Carriers. Stamp arrangement and location on a sheet. The stamps are arranged on the sheet in a table with rows and columns. Due to this arrangement, the location of each stamp can be precisely determined. The philatelist counts the single stamps horizontally from left to right, but the post counts them vertically from top to bottom. Accordingly, the third stamp in the sixth row of a sheet of 10 x 10 would be the 53^rd stamp of the sheet for the collector, but the 26^th stamp for the post.