JS(CC)6c RAF commmemorative cover produced to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the first ARIES Polar Flight made in 1945 in a specially converted Avro Lancaster. The artwork of the cover by Tony Theobald shows the original route of the first ARIES Polar Flight from RAF Shawbury to Iceland then on to the North Pole and return. The badge of RAF Shawbury is shown to the right and around the map the various aircraft that have flown the route over the years are shown; the specially modified ARIES Avro Lancaster, ARIES II & III were both Avro Lincolns, ARIES IV & V EE Canberra B2 & PR7, later flights were made by G D Aerosystems using HP Hastings, Bristol Britannia, DeHavilland Comet, Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Vickers VC 10 aircraft.

This was the first British flight over the North Pole - RAF Shawbury was the home of navigation excellence being the home of the Empire Air Navigation School with aircraft being modified by RAE Farnborough. The first ARIES flight covered 24,000 miles in 110 flying hours and was first airborne comprehensive scientific investigations. The success of the flight resulted in the award of three Air Force Crosses to the pilot and navigators.

This variant is signed by Air Vice-Marshal D C McKinley CB CBE DFC AFC*, the pilot and captain of the first ARIES flight which was made by a specially modified Lancaster shown on the cover. (The covers were signed in 1995, and I have included McKinley's obituary from May 2002 below). The cover is also signed by Group Captain D W Broughton MBE RAF, Director of the Royal Institute of Navigation. Cover bears 41p Marconi Wireless stamp cancelled with BFPS 2483 20 November 1995 the 75th Anniversary of the first RAF Navigation Course.

Official special numbered and certified on reverse by Squadron Leader D Hill RAF, a former RAF Navigator himself.

AIR VICE-MARSHAL DAVID McKINLEY, who died aged 88, flew President Roosevelt's personal envoy, Harry Hopkins, for a critical meeting with Stalin in Moscow shortly after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. Later in the war, he made the RAF's first circumnavigation of the globe, and then captained Aries One on its first exploratory trip to the North Pole.

When, in June 1941, Roosevelt required a first hand report of the fighting in the Soviet Union and a personal assessment of Stalin, McKinley, one of RAF Coastal Command's more experienced flying boat captains, was selected to deliver Hopkins. Winston Churchill personally made the necessary arrangements on Roosevelt's behalf. Walking with Hopkins on the lawn at Chequers, the Prime Minister's official country home, Churchill briefed him: "Tell him [Stalin] Britain has but one ambition today, but one desire - to crush Hitler. Tell him that he can depend on us. Goodbye - God bless you, Harry." It then fell to 28-year-old Flight Lieutenant McKinley to get Hopkins to Moscow.

Although McKinley had flown long-range patrols over the North Atlantic, he had not yet experienced the perilous flight round the North Cape of Norway to the Arctic port of Archangel. Plotting his course from Invergordon in Scotland, McKinley reckoned that, fully loaded, his Catalina flying boat could manage only 135 mph, and resolved to dive to sea level if attacked by fighters. Fortunately, his worst fears were not realised. Keeping well away from the Norwegian coast, he avoided interception and, after more than 20 hours, landed Hopkins on the White Sea. Since the Soviets were unable to fly Hopkins straight on to Moscow, the pair dined magnificently aboard an admiral's personal yacht. When Hopkins returned from meetings in Moscow and also some hair-raising flights with Russian pilots, he was mightily relieved to rejoin McKinley and his Catalina at Archangel.

Late on the afternoon of August 1, McKinley took off in a gathering storm with Hopkins, two other passengers and a large quantity of much-needed platinum aboard. He knew that the danger was immense. Forty-eight hours earlier, two British aircraft carriers had launched air strikes in the area, losing one third of the attacking Fleet Air Arm aircraft. McKinley had to look out not only for Germans, but also rogue Russian attacks; and, despite issuing correct recognition signals, he was fired on along the Murman coast by destroyers he was certain were Russian. But after 24 hours, he put down in choppy seas at Scapa Flow, and made a hazardous transfer of Hopkins and his baggage to a launch.

An engineer's son, David Cecil McKinley was born on September 18 1913, at Ardmayle Cashal, County Tipperary, and educated at Bishop Foy School, Waterford. He went to Trinity College, Dublin, where he abandoned Medicine to study Engineering. Afterwards, McKinley worked briefly as a radio engineer with Ferranti. However, impatient to fly and told there were no pilot opportunities, he enlisted as a torpedo fitter in 1935. Soon afterwards, he was remustered for pilot training and granted a short service commission. Destined to become a maritime pilot, McKinley joined No 228, a Short Sunderland flying-boat general reconnaissance squadron, in late 1938; he served first at home, and then in the Mediterranean. As war came, the squadron returned to Pembroke Dock for convoy and anti-submarine patrols.

After a spell with No 210, another flying-boat squadron, McKinley joined the North Atlantic Ferry organisation and delivered numbers of American-built Catalina flying boats to the RAF. Once, following a long and wearying haul from San Diego, California, McKinley believed with relief that he was over the Clyde when heavy anti-aircraft fire awakened him to the uncomfortable fact that he was over the hotly-defended French Atlantic port of Brest. In one period, McKinley had a break from the perils and climactic conditions of the Atlantic, with a spell in the Mediterranean where he flew a reconnaissance patrol over Taranto while the Fleet Air Arm carried out its historic Swordfish torpedo attack on the Italian fleet.

McKinley was selected in 1942 for a specialist navigation course in Canada and his skill in this field was soon recognised with his appointment as chief instructor at the RAF's central navigation school. In 1944, McKinley's consummate flying and navigation skills on long hauls led to his selection to lead one of the most outstanding missions flown by the RAF up to that time. Captaining Aries One, a specially adapted Lancaster bomber, McKinley, in October and November, made the RAF's first full-length circumnavigation of the globe. During this liaison and goodwill flight to New Zealand, Australia, New Guinea and the south-west Pacific, he faultlessly maintained an intricate and exacting schedule of visits. The return flight from Australia was made in 72 hours, which was regarded as a remarkable feat at the time since it almost halved the previous record.

At a time when the end of the war against Japan seemed a long way off, McKinley's exploit served the practical purpose of preparing for the deployment of the RAF to mount strategic operations in the Far East. On May 17 1945, McKinley captained the same aircraft on the RAF's first exploratory flight to the North Pole. By the time he and his crew of 11 returned to his start point at Reykjavik, he had personally flown 28 hours out of 30 and three quarter hours, having been forced back because of severe icing. In the course of his extended polar expedition, McKinley, on May 20, flew from the Labrador coast to the Boothnia Peninsula, seeking the North Magnetic Pole. On May 26, he flew non-stop from White Horse, Yukon Territory, to his home base at Shawbury, Shropshire. This mission took the Lancaster over the North Magnetic Pole and well into Arctic regions, a distance of 4,100 miles, and provided a practical demonstration of the possibility of exploiting polar air routes.

Subsequently, McKinley was praised for attracting world admiration and gaining confidence in British aviation by his prowess and gallantry, materially contributing to the prestige of the RAF. There followed appointments at the Air Ministry, where his experience was useful in the selection and introduction of new weapons in the build-up of Britain's nuclear deterrent V-Bomber Force. McKinley also helped to draft operations orders which became of vital importance at the time of the Berlin airlift. Meanwhile, periods at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, as a station commander at the Imperial Defence College and as Air Officer Commanding, Malta, and Deputy C in C (Air), Allied Forces, Mediterranean, prepared him for command in 1962 at Christmas Island, Britain's nuclear test base in the Pacific. The following year, his final appointment was as senior air staff officer at Transport Command.

McKinley retired in 1968, and in 1984 went to live on Alderney in the Channel Islands, where he continued to enjoy his favourite pastimes of sailing, fishing, water-skiing and gardening. Elected a Freeman of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators in 1959, McKinley was appointed CBE in 1957 and CB in 1966. He was awarded the DFC and mentioned in dispatches in 1940, the AFC in 1944 and a Bar to it in 1945

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