day of the stamp - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2004 - 265 Euro Cent

Since the invention of the aircraft, this modern and fast means of transport has become more and more important, especially for mail transport. During the First World War, the military began to deploy airplanes for field post transport for the first time. By air, it was above all the Ukraine, which was then occupied by German and Austro-Hungarian troops, that was able to reach the point of view of telecommunications by means of an airline. The route Vienna - Krakow - Lvov - Kiev had a total length of about 1.2000 km in one direction and after a test flight, the line was initially used only for the most important military, diplomatic and service post. In use were aircraft of the type Hansa Brandenburg C 1, Oeffag C II and Albatros. After these flights had been successful, the postal administration was able to use this route for private letter and telegram transport from 31.3.1918, but only to Lviv in the beginning. From the beginning of July of the same year, it was possible to transport private mail all the way to Kiev. It had to be flown in stages, the total flight time was about 11 hours. The "airmail" was created, the first airmail stamps were issued and a new collection area for philatelists was born. The brand image shows the loading of the aircraft type Oeffag C II with mailbags. This aircraft was built in Austria, in the Austrian aircraft factory A.G. (Oeffag) in Wiener Neustadt, which was created in 1915. The biplane Oeffag C II was with 12.93 m wing span above and 12.04 m below a total of 8.64 m long and designed for 2 man crew.