Airmail and The Postal Card

The Postal Card makes a fine candidate for documenting the domestic postal history of the US Airmail, from the Early Pioneer Publicity Flights to the End of the Domestic Airmail-Era in the 70's where these cards largely ceased to be a distinctive collectable variety.

Postal Cards were not specifically designed for the Airmail until the SA-1 issue of 1949. However, this did not stop correspondents from choosing the postal card for it's convenience. These 'pioneer' Airmail cards are challenging items to locate. The earliest flights were mostly promotional affairs designed to showcase this fantastic new technology and win public support for the development and use of airplanes to carry the mail. Before the era of formal commercial airmail service, regular rate pieces were sometimes accepted on a space-available basis to promote the airmail, and in many cases simply to justify the flights. These items often carry airmail auxiliary markings which indicate that they received airmail service. As the service expanded, so too did the early Air Mail rate complexity. Sometimes just figuring out if the rate is correctly paid can be a challenge, especially for the early Contract Airmail Period. The book entitled 'Via Airmail' has a nice, clearly illustrated methodology for figuring out these rates. The AAMS catalogues also help to identify the CAM routes. When the airmail rates became uniform after the government took control of the routes, cards could still only be sent at the domestic airmail letter rate until 1949.

Pioneer Airmail Postal cards also archive the Catapult and Zeppelin periods nicely.

International Airmail postal cards were not available until 1966 with the issue SA-5. The standard international postal card rate that this card paid had been in force since 1961. Pioneer overseas postal card usages have pretty much existed since Lindbergh's historic flight. As overseas airmail matured, the Atlantic and Pacific clipper trans-oceanic airmail service developed and had a brief lifetime just prior to our involvement in World War II. The rate lasted longer than this, but most true 'Clipper' flights were prior to the end of the war. After this time, the airmail rates went down, but postal cards could only be sent at letter rates. All of the added adhesives required for overseas airmail makes pioneer airmail cards very interesting postal history items to collect.

The US international airmail postal cards are VERY difficult to find commercially used! They are so woefully undercataloged that it isn't even funny. Part of this stems from the fact that these cards are an intrinsic part of modern postal history, which tends to be under-appreciated until approximately 60 or so years pass. Of couse, after this much time it's probably not 'modern' postal history anymore! Anyway, another type of 'hidden' international use for postal cards are those domestic airmail cards cancelled from air-force military APO's. These cards sometimes have come halfway around the world!

After the standard 50 cent international post card rate was adopted, the distinctive collectability of international 'airmail' postal cards really ceased to exist, since everything is now sent that way. What a great era it was!