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Vimy History Articles Air Mail and Early Aviation History Excerpt from Profile Publications #5: The Vickers F.B.27 Vimy Photo of Vimy Landing in 1919 Ad Featuring Alcock & Brown's Vimy London to Cape Town 1920 Photos of the Vimy's Propellers Vimy Propellers Repaired at Ipswich Related Links (Off-Site) Flights of Inspiration: Long Flight

Air Mail and Early Aviation History Early Days of Public Mail During the 1400s King Edward IV set up a system of post houses for the carriage of official mail. Under Henry VIII, Sir Brian Tuke was made the first Master of the Posts and under his direction the service became more efficient and more available to the ordinary citizen. In 1683, Charles II started the London Penny Post. Letters could be mailed anywhere within London for a penny. Outside the city, difficult conditions, such as bad roads, slow horses and indifferent messengers, delayed mail delivery. In 1836 Sir Rowland Hill suggested a cheap, uniform rate for letters, the present-day envelope, and adhesive postage stamps. Until then, postmasters had written Paid on the outside of letters before they were sent. Many of Hill's suggestions were adopted and the first postage stamps in the world were issued in Britain on 6 May 1840. Pioneers of Air Mail The modern miracle of airmail transport — receiving a letter from Australia in three days instead of six weeks by sea, for example — has become so commonplace that the adventurous trail blazing and pioneer flights which brought it about can be overlooked. Mail was carried by air long before the aeroplane was a reality, during the Franco-Prussian War, for instance. In 1870, the city of Paris had been completely encircled and the city was totally cut-off. Unperturbed, the inhabitants called upon the skills pioneered by the Montgolfier brothers almost 100 years earlier, and launched balloons to convey passengers and mail out of the besieged city. For four months nearly 70 balloons sailed aloft from the French capital bearing letters which had been collected at various bureaux in Paris. Often inscribed Par Ballon Monte, an incredible 2.5 million letters floated out of the city at the whim of the wind during the siege. By the turn of the century, experiments were taking place with navigable balloons. Ferdinand von Zeppelin and Alberto Santos-Dumont developed the forerunners of the mail-carrying airships and Zeppelins. In 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright's remarkable flight at Kitty Hawk promoted the aeroplane as the most likely carrier of the mail. The first organised air mail operations began almost 90 years ago. The Hon. C S Rolls, who made the first double crossing of the English Channel in 1910, is reputed to have carried the first official letter in a heavier-than-air machine. Souvenir labels and postcards were issued for various aviation meetings taking place in France and elsewhere at that time. In 1911 the world's first official air mail flight took place in Allahabad, India. Later that year the First UK Aerial Post was operated between Hendon and Windsor. In 1912 the Daily Mailsponsored Circuit of Britain and Waterplane competitions with souvenir flown cards. About the same time Germany organised the Rhine and Main charity flights by the Zeppelin Schwaben and the Euler Gelber Hund biplane. A French pilot, Maurice Guillaux, carried the first Australian air mail between Melbourne and Sydney in a Bleriot machine in 1914. The United States was involved too when it came to large-scale air mail transport. The celebrated Curtiss Jenny stamps of 1918 were the world's first definitive air stamps to depict an aeroplane. The 24-cent stamp was issued for the inaugural air mail flights between Washington, Philadelphia and New York. Meanwhile, back in Europe, the RAF was flying mail to Cologne for the Rhine Army, but the real air mail challenge came in 1919 with the prospect of regular long distance flights. Competition Spurs Long Distance Flights In 1919, The Daily Mailoffered a prize of £10,000 (about £300,000 in today's terms) for the first successful non-stop flight across the Atlantic. This was followed by a further £10,000 offer made by the Australian Prime Minister, Billy Hughes, for the first flight to Australia. Not to be outdone, the South African Government offered a similar prize for the first flight to the Cape. Inducements like these were tailor-made to show the passenger and mail carrying potential of one of Britain's biggest aircraft, the Vickers Vimy bomber, which was developed just too late for the Great War. In the spring of 1919 various competitors arrived at St. John's, Newfoundland, to prepare their respective flights eastwards across the Atlantic Ocean to Ireland. Harry Hawker, a Sopwith test pilot, and his navigator, Mackenzie-Grieve were the first away, on 18 April 1919. They were forced down halfway across — luckily, they were picked up by a Danish steamer. Newfoundland 3-cent Caribou stamps overprinted First Trans-Atlantic Post April 1919 were issued for the flight. The precious mail was salvaged some days later, giving new meaning to the term 'watermark'. At last in June 1919 Alcock and Brown's Vimy carried about 200 letters across the Atlantic. Then, in November 1919, Ross and Keith Smith achieved the longest ever flight from England to Australia. Their Vimy G-EAOU (euphemistically nicknamed God 'Elp All Of Us) carried about 130 letters, to which semi-official stamps were affixed after arrival. Each team flying Rolls-Royce powered Vimys won the £10,000 prize and the pilots were knighted for their pioneering efforts by His Majesty, King George V. In 1919 various firms started regular scheduled air mail flights. The Instone company and Imperial Airways, (a forerunner of British Airways) used a commercial development of the Vickers Vimy, G-EASI, called The City of London, to fly mail regularly between London and Paris. Footnote: In 1969 the British Post Office issued a 5-penny (pre-decimalisation) stamp to mark the 50th anniversary of the first non-stop transatlantic flight in a Vickers Vimy. In the same year, a 1/9 (one shilling and ninepence) stamp was issued to commemorate the first flight from England to Australia. One and ninepence represented the current rate for a half-ounce air mail letter between the two countries.

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