COVER N. 304 - FRANCE

Postmark: 39002A-03 La Poste France 25.08.23

Posted on the 25th August; Received on the 29th August 2023

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A cover with a single mechanically obliterated stamp, but quite an expensive one and one that I really love to have on my cover collection. Thank you so much, Jean. Truly appreciated.

Émile Dewoitine began his aeronautical engineering career working at Latecoère, in Toulouse, during the frst World War.

In 1920 he would establish his own aircraft manufacturing company, Constructions Aeronautiques Émile Dewoitine, also established in Toulouse, which would go on to produce several aircraft types, based on his first design, The Dewoitine D1, which had a metal skinned fuselage and a fabric covered  parasol wing and which was driven by a Hispano-Suiza 8Fb V-8 inline liquid-cooled engine, producing 224 kW (300 hp).

Although the products of the company were not  very successful at home, they were licensed and built in large numbers in Italy, by the Ansaldo Company and also sold to Yugoslavia and Japan.

In France, 30 Dewoitine D1s  were acquired in 1923 by the French Navy, out of an order of 44, and  15 of then would see service in Escadrille 7C1 which operated them on the country's first ever aircraft carrier, the Bearn, from 1927 to 1932.

Constructions Aeronautiques Émile Dewoitine closed in 1927, but was later re-established as Société Aéronautique Française (Avions Dewoitine), and would go on to produce many successful designs, used both in civil and military aviation, the most famous of them being the Dewoitine 500 series fighters which equipped the French Air Force at the beginning of the second world war.

On 07NOV2022, la Poste issued the very nice 5,26 € (Domestic up to 250 g)  stamp which can be seen on the cover I received from Jean, illustrated with the image of a Dewoitine D1 of Escadrille 7C1 flying in the vicinity of the Bearn Aircraft carrier.