Issue date: 05 Sep, 2009
Correos issues a stamp within the Anniversaries series commemorating the first powered flight in Spain. The stamp depicts an image of a biplane with a propeller engine crewed by an aviator.
Besides the numerous attempts man has made throughout centuries to fly, in Spain, the first flights didn’t take place until 1909 when Valencia born Juan Olivert Serra, flew a biplane designed by Gaspar Brunet which was able to cover a distance of 40 metres. This took place on the 5th September 1909 in the training camp of the 11th Artillery Regiment of Paterna, Valencia. Years before, on the 17th December 1903, the Wright brothers managed to fly with an engine craft over the beaches of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, a total distance of 36 metres in 12 seconds. Later on that same day, they managed to fly another 284 metres in 59 seconds. In Europe, Louis Blériot, in 1909 was the first to travel by stages from Etampes to Orléans, a distance of 41.2 km. Also in 1910 Frenchman Julian Mamet, was wrongly credited as the first to fly in Spain, in Barcelona. This information has been proved wrong as it has been demonstrated that the first flight was performed by the biplane Olivert-Brunet, piloted by Olivert. This aircraft was made in the workshop of Rosell i Vilata in Barcelona, under the supervision of Brunet, and was financially supported by the Olivert family. This latter received financial aid from the Town Hall of Valencia and was able to show the plane to king Alfonso XIII in the Industry Pavilion of the Regional Valencia Exhibition in 1909. There are two replicas of this mythical powered Spanish aircraft which stirred up the society of Valencia in the early XX century; one of them is in the Museo del Principe de la Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias of Valencia and the other in the Museo del Aire de Cuatro Vientos in Madrid. El 85 aniversario de este Primer Vuelo había sido conmemorado en 1994 con la emisión de un Aerograma ilustrado .
Rate A - €0.75. For a “standard” letter or postcard within Spain, up to 20 g.
Rate A2 - €0.85. For a “standard” letter or postcard within Spain, between 20 g and 50 g.
Rate B - €1.65. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to Europe (including Greenland), up to 20 g.
Rate C - €1.75. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to the rest of the world (except USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand), up to 20 g.
Rate D - €2.10. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, up to 20 g.