COVER N. 305 - BRITISH OVERSEAS TERRITORIES - GIBRALTAR

Postmark: Royal Gibraltar Post Office Main office 17.08.23

Posted on the 17th August; Received on the 29th August 2023

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Thanks to Alex, I can add another Cover to the folder of "the Rock".

Another aircraft carrier... after the Bearn... although almost a century separates them both. 

This time it is HMS Queen Elizabeth, the first of the two state of the art aircraft carriers currently operated by the Royal Navy, of which it is the Fleet flagship.

HMS Queen Elizabeth was commissioned on 2017, two years before its sister sheep, HMS Prince of Wales, the second carrier of the Queen Elizabeth class.

The vessel has a total crew of 679 (excluding personnel allocated to the operation of the aircraft of its air wing) and can also transport up to 900 troops.

HMS Queen Elizabeth air wing operates a mix of 40 fixed and rotary wing aircraft, including F-35B Lightning STOVL multirole fighter aircraft and Chinook, Apache, Merlin and Wildcat helicopters.

On the occasion of  the first visit of HMS Queen Elizabeth to Gibraltar, which took place on the 9th February 2018, the postal administration of the territory issued, on 10MAY2028, the 3 Pound stamp on the cover, illustrated with an image of the aircraft carrier as it sails past the promontory that guards the entrance to the Mediterranean sea.