The first two entries concern Emilio Carranza and Sigismund Levanevsky.
Carranza was a famous Mexican aviator who crashed and died in 1928 while attempting a nonstop flight from New York City to Mexico City. He was memorialized on Mexican airmail stamps, Scott C5-10 and C40-44.
Levanevsky was a Russian. He was killed, along with 5 crewmembers, in the Arctic in 1937. They were attempting to fly from Moscow to Fairbanks, Alaska. Levanevsky was featured on two Soviet stamps, Scott C61 and C68.
They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin 31 Mar 2015 03:43:36pm
re: New blog on my airmail stamps Web site
Very slick, Ed!
Login to Like this post
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund Burke"
I just put up a new page on my blog. This time it is the Lithuanian-Americans and their attempts to fly from New York to Kaunas. They were a big deal in their day.
In researching these stories, I find the same things over and over. The aircraft were flimsy -- not much more than an engine and a huge gas tank. Avionics were primitive so it was easy to get lost. And they were forced to fly low because of icing.
These people were really brave.
Dave - You're going to force me to replace my hats with larger sizes!