Tag: Afghanistan stamp

A sign that an aircraft model is not replaceable is a long production run. Turboprop versions of the An-2 are still in limited production in Ukraine and China having first entered production in 1947. The continued existence of the two factories allows many more older airframes to be refurbished and modernized. What has proved more challenging is designing a replacement. 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.

This stamp from Afghanistan points to the usefulness of bush aircraft in so many places around the world. Due to where industrial capabilities lie, most bush airplane designs came from Russia and Canada. Most operators though have small fleets and so there is not a clear economic case for a replacement model. Luckily there still is the ability to refurbish, but it will be interesting to watch how long the old airframes can go on.

Todays stamp is issue A441, a one Rupee stamp issued by the Soviet puppet government of Afghanistan on June 29th, 1984. It was a seven stamp issue in various denominations celebrating 40 years of aviation in the country. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused or cancelled to order.

In the early days after World War II, the Soviet Union drew up plans for a a 12 seat utility airplane to be built by Antonov in the Ukraine. It would use a license made Wright Cyclone piston engine. The plane was a biplane to give strong lift and allow for takeoff and landing runs under 700 feet. The An-2, Russian nickname Annie, NATO code name Colt had a very low 30 mph stall speed. It thus in a 35 mile an hour headwind, not uncommon at altitude,  the plane could fly backwards relative to the ground. The plane was useful for supplying distant outposts, crop spraying and skydiving.

In 1960 production of the AN-2 moved to Poland and got going in China. Over 18,000 airplanes have been built. Poland stopped making the An-2 in 1991 and for a while some production moved to Russia. During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese AN 2s attacked an American spy base in Laos and were chased off by Huey helicopters where the fighting was guys shooting out of open doors with automatic rifles. In the Yugoslav Civil War of the early 1990s, Croatian crop duster AN-2s were dropping improvised barrel bombs out of the open door at Serbian/Yugoslav targets. In todays war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Azeri unmanned An-2s are being used as drones for surveillance and bombing. Armenia claims to have so far shot down seven of them.

There was a fairly notorious 1976 crash of a An-2 in Novosibisk, Siberia. A recently divorced pilot attempted murder suicide by trying to crash the plane into the apartment of his exes in-laws where his ex wife and toddler son were staying. He instead hit the buildings stairwell and the plane’s 200 gallons of fuel started a large fire. Despite quick work by the fire department, four small children died from burns. None of the pilot’s targets were hurt.

Antonov no longer provides type certification for the An-2, so the for the many examples in the west, it is illegal to use the An-2 for business purposes. I mentioned above there are modernized versions with turboprop engines, cabin air conditioning, and GPS based navigation. There is of course the issue of how many improvements you can make before the plane is no longer simple enough to operate in the bush.

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till Monday when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

1960s Southwest Asian stamps paint a somewhat bizarre picture of life in those countries. Usually under UN auspices, rapid progress and westernization is shown. The children are all involved in scouting, the women are uncovered and being educated. What happens though when the disconected elite start to buy in. The long serving Shah of Afghanistan’s motto was leaner on Allah. The stamps indicate that he was really leaning on a much shakier UN. 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.

The image on this stamp beggars belief. Is the average citizen supposed to believe that such a doctor nurse team with microscopes was at his service should he fall ill? When the Shah was deposed 9 years later, he was under doctor’s care in Italy. When the Shah can’t find a decent doctor locally, it requires a degree of being out of touch to put out a stamp like this. They probably hoped the average citizen wasn’t mailing letters so would never come across such brown nose the UN stamps.

Todays stamp is issue A213, a 3 Afghan Rupee stamp issued by Afghanistan on March 8th, 1964. Though this farmed out issue was almost 6 months late, it celebrated United Nations Day 1963 with an 8 stamp and two souvenir sheet issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.20 whether unused or cancelled to order.

Mohammed Zahir became Shah at age 19 in 1933. His first few decades saw several of his uncles serve as Regent and Prime Minister. In the 1950s he started to take charge more personally and stopped leaning on his uncles. His official motto was “Leaner on Allah”. This seems a good motto for the King/Shah of a backward country implying both being chosen by God and also if things aren’t going well, blame not the King but God as it must be his will. Instead the Shah started relying on foreign aid much coming by way of the UN. One can imagine the tiny cadre of western educated Afghans dealing with the UN types. Can you imagine them to be Monarchists? I can’t.

The Shah listened to the offered advice. In 1964 there was a new constitution  with a bicameral legislature that was one third elected by the people. This resulted in a flood of new political parties of different stripes making demands.

In 1973, while in Rome for eye surgery there was a sudden end to the Monarchy. Not too surprising, the Shah only looks decent when compared to the very low bar of who came later. He was replaced though not by the modern lefties or the traditional religion folks but by his brother in law, a former Prime Minister. He was back as President, Prime Minster, and one political party General Secretary of the “Republic”. Sometimes you have to break the Monarchy to save it. Shah Mohammed Zahir was allowed to return to his Palace after the Taliban fell under the honorary title of “Father of the Country”, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/03/afghanistan-1963-as-a-start-to-development-lets-begin-to-feed-ourselves-if-only-someone-could-build-us-an-irrigation-system/   . Finally he could stand straight.

The United Nations Day holiday celebrated on the stamp is October 24th, marking the day in 1944 that 50 nations met in San Francisco to sign the UN charter. In 1972, the holiday was repackaged as World Development Information Day to educate world opinion of all the UN was doing to address development disparities. Some times you have to break an institution to save it. I wonder if UN General Secretary Guterres has a brother in law?

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast  the Doctor and Nurse on todays stamp. Wonder who they were serving, aid workers and foreign embassy personnel until their immigration applications go through  to serve the British NHS. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

A country has to sometimes start at the beginning. Even an ancient country. Sometimes though, everything has to be done for them. 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.

This stamp has a 60s United Nations look to it. It was the prime era for Western and sometimes Eastern experts to come in and explain to locals how they could get things going. The arrogance and naivete seem almost charming in retrospect.

The stamp today is issue A205 a 300 Pouls stamp issued by the Kingdom of Afghanistan on March 22nd, 1963. The stamp promoted the growth of grain farming and other stamps in the issue promoted corn and rice as part of a plan toward food self sufficiency. Seems like an awfully dry place to try to grow rice. I am not sure why the currency on the stamp is not listed as 3 Afghan Rupees but in any case it is a big bump over the other values in the set of 2 Pouls and 3 Pouls. Perhaps it reflects the relative value of wheat in the food plan. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 75 cents whether mint or canceled to order.

Zahir Shah became King of Afghanistan in 1933 at the age of 19 upon the assassination of his father. For many years he was under a regency of his uncles. The country is a very poor and a very violent place. With almost constant attempted coups, and assassination attempts, the Royal house was constantly trying to look for way to bolster military capabilities. Zahir Shah’s title included the phrase “Leaner on Allah” but in reality he was more practical. Zahir Shah therefore came hat (crown?) in hand to both East and West seeking arms. The Soviet Union had been most generous in this regard but the tanks and supersonic fighter planes supplied were really beyond the capabilities of the backward country to operate.

As the King matured he sought ever more to take the reigns of power. The rights of women were increased and the veil was made optional. The post war UN-US  aid program was put together to bring the country up. Completely paid for by outside. The crown jewel of the aid plan was a system of dams modeled on the Tennessee Valley Authority that would allow for irrigation and electricity for farming of mainly wheat. The Helmand Valley Authority constructed 8 dams, many by Morrison Knudson, the makers of the Hoover Dam. Only 12 percent of Afghanistan was arable and only 6 percent was cultivated. Food production indeed went up but dried up again with war and the cessation of USA aid in 1979.

There was also natural gas resources first tapped in 1967. This gas was useful to Afghanistan in that it could be sent straight to the Soviet Union as a token partial payment for the large quantity of munitions that the country as a way of using.

The King was deposed in 1973 while on one of his frequent foreign trips and after he left the country became ever more dependent on the Soviet Union. He lead a life of leisure in Italy. After the new government in 2002. Zahir Shah returned with the new ceremonial title of “Father of the Country”. He even theoretically took possession of his old palace that had been built by the Germans in the 30s, though now it was a bombed out shell. That seemed to happen a lot, even in his time, so it was probably just as he remembered it. Naturally he spent most of his last years abroad. The Palace is now being renovated at a cost of $20 million paid for by the USA, hopefully in time for some fake 100th anniversary in 2019. When will we learn?

Well my drink is empty and I am wondering if there will ever be an accounting of how much foreign treasure has been squandered in Afghanistan. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

The stamp celebrates the 40th anniversary of aviation in 1984, except that the Afghan Air Force came in 1924 and the first airline came in 1955. Oh and the catalog list the airplane on the stamp as a Tupelov Tu-134 when it is a Yakrovlev Yak 42. I usually specialize in making errors but today I catch a few. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage the stewardess just brought and slip your seat back as we delve into Afghan aviation. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The stamp is quite nice. An airplane is always good fodder for a stamp. An airplane in flight always expresses freedom and the small Yak 42 airliner/corporate jet remove any modern sense of congestion in modern travel. Being from a time when Afghanistan was under actual Soviet military occupation. This may also be the peak of mid east socialism on a stamp. Every stamp in the issue features a Soviet made plane.

The stamp today is issue A441, a 13 Afghan rupee stamp issued on June 29th, 1984. The stamp shows a Yak 42 airliner. It was part of a seven stamp issue in various denominations celebrating what the stamp feels was the fortieth anniversary of aviation in Afghanistan. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents with its non postal cancellation.

The Afghan air force was formed in 1924 with aircraft given to the King by the British and the Soviets. Even in the early days, most of the flying was done by Soviet pilots. This continued through the Soviet occupation though 1990 with many Cuban and Czech pilots. The air force broke apart at the end of the Soviet backed government  and putting it back together is still an ongoing process today. The air force had jet fighters and bombers in 1960 and today as resorted to dual use turboprop Brazilian trainers.

The first airline, Ariana was founded in 1955 with Douglas DC-3s. For a while Pan Am was a minority shareholder and the fleet was a single long haul DC 10 and a few 727s. This was the fleet in 1984, but was not reflected at all on the stamp issue. This was because the Soviets were getting ready to supply mainly second hand examples of the aircraft types on the stamps. I am sure the Soviets were picking up the bill for this so it is understandable that is what they wanted to see on the stamps. The Soviet airliners did not last long in Afghan service, by the Taliban era the airline was back to just the now aging 727s on their mid east routes. One of these 727s still serves as the Afghan governmental VIP aircraft. Ariana was one of the third world airlines banned from European airports by the EU in 2006 on safety grounds. 727s would also run afoul modern Euro noise measures.

The catalog does have this aircraft mislabeled as a Tu 134. The Tu 134 is a twin jet and the aircraft on the stamp is a trijet. This model must be the also Soviet Yak 42. It was the only plane in the small size to have three engines. The Tu134 is also a bigger airplane. Both models were in use in Afghanistan for a short period in the late eighties.

Well my drink is empty so while I ring for the stewardess I will open up the discussion in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.