United Republic of Cameroon République Unie du Cameroun

Airmail Pioneers

1977

perf 13, Scott #C246 May 20

In May, 1977, the Postal Administration of Cameroon produced an "Air Post" set of six stamps with the theme of an aviation retrospective. The first three of these, with face values of 50 F, 60 F and 80 F, are dedicated to the "Pioneers of the Aero-Postal", especially commemorating the aviators themselves. The final three, with values of 100 F, 300 F and 500 F, celebrate events. The stamp dedicated to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, figures, naturally, among those that pay homage to the pioneers of the Aéropostale, alongside Jean Mermoz (1901-1936), whose blue and orange stamp commemorates the first aerial link between France and South America in 1930, and Maryse Bastiés (1898-1952), whose blue and carmine stamp evokes her 1936 Dakar-Natal flight in the Simoun F-ANXH. The set is completed by three different images, dedicated respectively, to the first Marignane-Douala airmail flight by Sikorsky in 1937, the 50th anniversary of Lindbergh's solo crossing of the Atlantic, and the first supersonic transatlantic crossing by Concorde. From Gabriel Leylavergne's Philatelic homage to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

photo:John Phillips

souvenir sheet Jean Mermoz, Saint-Ex, Maryse Bastié perf 13 In September 1936, Mme Maryse Bastié (née Hiltz) (1898-1952), sharing this souvenir sheet with Mermoz and Saint-Exupéry, flew her low-wing monoplane solo from Paris to Natal, Brazil, following the usual route via Dakar. The plane was a Caudron C-635, Simoun, reg. F-ANXH.

Bulgaria '00

Saint Exupéry on Stamps

Central African Republic '94