Collector’s Corner: Airplanes and mail have had a long relationship

By Medicine Hat News on April 21, 2018.

Philately is a hobby with broad diversity available in the number of specialty areas for the stamp collector. Airplanes and air mail have always been major topics of interest.

As Canada began expanding the availability of postal service by air in the early years of the twentieth century, contracts were issued to various airlines to provide this new mail service. The stamp collector’s focus was drawn to this new realm of the hobby.

To commemorate these new routes a series of First Flight Covers were instituted. A special cachet was developed for each leg of the new mail routes and stamped on the front of each envelope to denote a particular leg of the service and the collection of Canadian First Flight Covers took off.

On Dec. 10, 1928 experimental flights commenced in the Prairie Provinces in order to test the feasibility of regular mail service. March 3, 1930 was the date for the inauguration of regular Prairie service, which provided for the need of speedy communication by air. Western Canada Airways was authorized to fly a route some 1,270 miles long, connecting Winnipeg with Calgary via Regina, Moose Jaw and Medicine Hat, and with Edmonton via Regina, Saskatoon and North Battleford. On Jan. 15, 1931 Lethbridge was added to the route.

The cover illustrated is for the first flight from Medicine Hat to Lethbridge on Jan. 15, 1931. The postage stamp in the upper right corner is the 5c Airmail rate first issued on Sept. 21, 1928.

The cachet on the left side commemorates the First Flight from Medicine Hat to Lethbridge. Also visible on the cover is the signature of the postmaster in Medicine Hat.

There are several hundred different first flight covers which stretch from coast to coast in Canada depicting the history of our air mail service.