COVER N.16 - France

Postmark: Bureau Philatelique Lyon Vaise - 21JUN2021
Posted on the  4th june; received on the 23rd June.
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I love all things that fly (well I’m not particularly fond of cockroaches, I admit, but there are always exceptions to the rule).  I cannot hear a sound coming from above without immediately turning my head towards to sky, trying to see where it comes from, and this not only applies to heavier than air machines but also to flying creatures like birds, or less conspicuous air dwellers like butterflies and damselflies or dragonflies (although the engines on these are much quieter…)

So I confess to have been thrilled to the marrow to receive this wonderful cover with 3 aviation related stamps. Thank you so much Éric.

Stamps, left to right:

The first woman ever to hold a Pilot’s licence, issued by the Aero-Club de France and  acknowledged by the FAI Féderation Aéronautique International. Her name was Élise Leontine Deroche, but she would be better known by her artistic name Raymonde de Laroche and her licence was n.36, issued on the 8^th March 1910. A  friend of Aircraft designers and constructors Charles and Gabriel  Voisin,  she learned to fly in one of their planes. Throughout her short aviation career, epitomising the dangerous nature of the days of Those magnificent men (or women in this case), in their flying machines, she participated in several meetings and races and held some records for women, namely altitude (4800m) and distance (323 km).Sadly, Baroness Laroche, as she also became known, would die in her first day of work as test pilot, on the 18^th july 1919, when the plane she was co-piloting  crashed on lading.

The 0,58€ stamp with her picture and the image of what appears to be a Caudron G.3 aircraft is part of a 6 identically priced stamp set, issued on 18OCT2010, honouring les Pionniers de l´Aviation (Aviation Pioneers) . The set was also issued as a miniature sheet.

Pierre-Georges Latécoère, born in 1883,  would be famous for designing and building planes in the aftermath of the first world war and starting the aeronautical industry of Toulouse which fostered the pan-european giant Airbus. But his most notable achievement would be his Lignes Aériènnes Latécoére, later to be known as Aéropostale, for ever associated with perennial names  in the history of aviation like Mermoz , Guillaumet or Saint-Exupéry.

The 1,05 stamp is a single issue commemorative stamp issued on 16AUG2013. Behind the portrait of Latécoère, there is an image of Latècoére 28-3, F-AJNQ, with which Jean Mermoz, Jean Dabry and Leopold Gimié connected non-stop Saint-Louis du Sénegal  to Natal, Brazil, on the 12^th and 13^th May 1930, in what was the first ever nonstop air crossing of the South Atlantic (the first non continuous crossing  being that of Portuguese aviators Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral, in 1922).

James Gordon Bennet  Jr. , the owner of the New York Herald, which he inherited from his father, the founder, was every bit of a playboy, living the highlife of Paris and London in the transition of the 19^th to the 20^th centuries. A passionate sports lover, he promoted several “firsts” in sport, such as the first polo and tennis matches in the US, and created three trophies that bore his name, one for airplane racing, one for ballooning and another for car racing.

The first edition of the Gordon Bennet Aviation Trophy took place in Reims in 1909, having been won by pilot and aircraft designer Glen Curtiss, in a Curtiss no.2 .

This is the aircraft that is depicted on the 0,56€ stamp emitted by la Poste to commemorate the centenary of the Gordon Bennet Aviation Trophy on 27JUN2009