I have done several stamps where I have pondered if the colonial felt abandoned by their home country in some far off outpost. If so, how they must have welcomed to new regular air service in the 1930s offered by Imperial Airways. In addition to home country busy bodies to tell you how to do things better, the planes also carried great quantities of mail. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Egypt in the 1930s was not actually a British colony but a protectorate. They had their own King that was from the same line left over from the Ottomans. A view of the plane flying over the temples in Giza tells the real story though of who was in charge. The plane comings and goings didn’t involve Egyptians.
Todays stamp is issue AP2, a 1 Millieme airmail stamp issued by Egypt in 1933. It was a 21 stamp issue in various denominations featuring a Handley Page HP42 aircraft in the service of Imperial Airways flying over the pyramids at Giza. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents.
Imperial Airways was set up in 1923 by the merging of four small private airlines at the suggestion of the British Air Ministry. There was a concern that private airlines could not compete with the new subsidized airlines in France and Germany. The airline was to take up overseas routes to Africa, the Middle East, India, and Australia. The aircraft would mainly carry mail but also there would be room for about 10-20 passengers. The flight segments were broken up into segments of three to four hundred miles which was still a fairly long distance as the planes only cruised at about 100 miles an hour. The planes acquired for the service were a mixture of flying boats and land planes made by Short Brothers of Northern Ireland and Handley Page of England. The flight crews were all male but the frequent stops allowed passengers the opportunity to sight see. The Africa route involved 10 days of flying with 9 overnight stops.
Imperial Airways had the idea to expand their revenue by increasing the amount of mail flown to include all first class letters. There was a corrupt scheme worked out with the British government where the subsidies required for the service were to be paid not by Britain but by the colonies and dominions being served. Imperial hoped that the subsidies would prevent local air services in the colonies from opening international routes. The scheme was somewhat of a bust as mail traffic was very seasonal and the airline had no spare planes to take care of the extra volume at Christmas time. In conjunction with Pan Am and United Airlines in the USA there was a publicity stunt where the first airmail letter would go around the world starting across the Atlantic ocean with Pan Am, turning over to Imperial through Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia with United Airlines picking it up in San Francisco and getting it back to New York City.
Imperial Airways was merged with British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in 1939 which was then itself merged into British Airways in 1974. Handley Page Aircraft went bankrupt in 1970. The HP42 aircraft on the stamp were requisitioned by the Royal Air Force at the start of World War II but none survived past 1940. In 2018, there was an air rally with 15 vintage aircraft that followed to old Imperial Airways route from Crete through Egypt south all the way to Cape Town, South Africa. It was a shame there was no HP42 to again fly over Giza to recreate the stamp.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Imperial Airways flight crews that brought air travel to some pretty desolate places. The Handley Page aircraft proved reliable if slow, it was said they had a built in headwind, the Short Brothers flying boats less so. It should be not discounted however the dangers faced as a matter of course. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.