Flight to Somalia

Under the direction of the Italian government, the Aeroporto di Mogadiscio-Petrella was built in 1928, about five kilometers outside of Mogadishu. It was named for a pilot, Enrico Petrella that had died in a plane crash before the airport was established, when it was only a single runway strip.

Initially, the airport offered flights to neighboring cities in Somalia and eventually to Ethiopia and Eritrea. They primarily had Caproni Civilian Aircraft 133 airplanes which held about one and half dozen passengers and two pilots. They took many hours to reach other parts of the Horn of Africa. It had a cruising speed of 120 miles per hour, with a maximum range of 850 miles. It’s 3422 miles to from Mogadishu to Rome.

These stamps seem to boast about flying from Rome to Mogadishu, as if that were a non-stop flight. The reality is that they made several stops from Rome: Syracuse, Sicily; Bengasi, Libia; Cairo, Egypt; Sudan; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Asmara, Eritrea; Mogadishu, Somalia. Allowing for refueling, rest and taking on provisions, the flight took three and a half days. But Italy was proud that they had a way to fly from Rome to Mogadishu and back, connecting the colonies together. They issued these stamps and sets in each of the colonies to proclaim the route, the Imperial Line. I’m not sure why they didn’t relabel them for each colony, rather than just name the furthest point.

Note

As you can see, I have all of these stamps except one. In these series of Rome to Mogadishu flight for other colonies, the last stamp is a special stammp for use by government agencies. As such, there were usually only 500 to 1000 printed. As a result, they’re very expensive now and difficult to find. But for this one, Colnect’s site is saying there were 10,000 printed. I think that’s a mistake. If it’s not, I should be able to buy this stamp for a low price.

Contains 11 spots: own 10 – 10 unused, 0 used.
Album or Web Page Last changed Feb 13, 2025

Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot

own

catalog

subject

description

comment

Rome - Mogadishu Flight

1.1	✓	A30	Roma to Mogadiscio Flight	25+10c (nov 1934) air mail, green grey
1.2	✓	A31	Roma to Mogadiscio Flight	50+10c (nov 1934) air mail, light brown
2.1	✓	A32	Roma to Mogadiscio Flight	75+15c (nov 1934) air mail, carmine rose
2.2	✓	A33	Roma to Mogadiscio Flight	80+15c (nov 1934) air mail, black brown
2.3	✓	A34	Roma to Mogadiscio Flight	1+0.20₤ (nov 1934) air mail, red brown
3.1	✓	A35	Roma to Mogadiscio Flight	2+0.20₤ (nov 1934) air mail, blue
3.2	✓	A36	Roma to Mogadiscio Flight	3+0.25₤ (nov 1934) air mail, violet
3.3	✓	A37	Roma to Mogadiscio Flight	5+0.25₤ (nov 1934) air mail, orange
4.1	✓	A38	Roma to Mogadiscio Flight	10+0.30₤ (nov 1934) air mail, lilac
4.2	✓	A39	Roma to Mogadiscio Flight	25+2₤ (nov 1934) air mail, green

Official Mail (Servizio di Stato)

5.1

SA1

Roma to Mogadiscio Flight

25+2₤ (nov 1934)
air mail, brown carmine

Footnotes

Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.