RAF Hendon cover, flown and signed by Eric Brown.

Gustav Hamel’s 15-minute flight from Hendon Aerodrome to Windsor Castle on 9 September 1911 was part of the celebrations of the coronation of King George V. It was the first of 16 aerial post flights carrying commemorative postage to mark the coronation. The flights took place until 26 September 1911 and are recognised as the worlds first scheduled airmail service.

The stamps on the cover are:-

1st Hamel receives first mail bag

68p Hamel ready to leave Hendon

£1 Greswell’s  Bleriot at Windsor

£1.10 Airmail delivered at Windsor

Postmarked:- Aerial Post Centenary, Hendon, Middx, 9.9.2011.

Pictorial plane in centre.

£1 Aerial Post Centenary stamp.

Stamped:- Carried aboard The Centenary Flight, Hendon to Windsor 9 Sept 2011.

This cover was carried aboard the Centenary Flight, Hendon to Windsor 9 Sept 2011.

Image on the front cover of The Grahame-White Watchtower, RAF Hendon.

The cover has the genuine hand signed signature of Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown.

A small label on the reverse certifies:- Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown CBE, DSD, AFC is a former Royal Navy Officer & test pilot. He has flown more types of aircraft than anyone else in history. He will sign no more than 155 Aerial Post covers with our official Hendon FDI postmark.

This cover is number 80 of 155.

Captain Eric Melrose ‘Winkle’ Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC, HonFRAeS (1919-2016) was a British royal navy officer and test pilot, who flew 487 types of aircraft, more than anyone else in history.

He was in service from 1939, until 1970 and rose to the rank of Captain. He was involved in the Second World War in the Channel Front  and the Battle of the Atlantic.

On 3 December 1945, he became the first pilot to land on and take off from an aircraft carrier in a jet aircraft, when he flew a de Havilland Sea Vampire to HMS Ocean.

He holds the world record for the most aircraft carrier deck take-offs and landings performed (2,407 and 2,271 respectively), and achieved several ‘firsts’ in naval aviation, including the first landings on an aircraft carrier of a twin-engined aircraft, an aircraft with a tricycle undercarriage, a jet aircraft, and a rotary-wing aircraft.

He flew almost every category of Royal Navy and Royal Air Force aircraft: glider, fighter, airliner, amphibian, flying boat and helicopter. During the Second World War, he flew many types of captured German, Italian and Japanese aircraft, including new jet and rocket aircraft. He was a pioneer of jet technology into the postwar era. 

Information sheet about him enclosed.

Information on the reverse of the cover entitled’ Centenary of the First Aerial Post, The Grahame-White Watch Office’.

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