Mogadishu Flight

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

The one stamp I’m missing on this page is another stamp that was for official use only, like the one on the previous page. For this one, they printed on 750 – compared to 10,000 of the one with the same face value to the left of the spot I allocated for it. I haven’t checked the price on this one, but it must be a few thousand euros.

Contains 11 spots: own 10 – 10 unused, 0 used.
Album or Web Page Last changed Feb 8, 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	✓	A7	Rome - Mogadishu Flight	25+10c (nov 1934) air mail, olive green
1.2	✓	A8	Rome - Mogadishu Flight	50+10c (nov 1934) air mail, light brown
1.3	✓	A9	Rome - Mogadishu Flight	75+15c (nov 1934) air mail, pink & carmine
2.1	✓	A10	Rome - Mogadishu Flight	80+15c (nov 1934) air mail, black brown
2.2	✓	A11	Rome - Mogadishu Flight	1₤+20c (nov 1934) air mail, red brown
2.3	✓	A12	Rome - Mogadishu Flight	2₤+20c (nov 1934) air mail, blue
3.1	✓	A13	Rome - Mogadishu Flight	3₤+25c (nov 1934) air mail, violet
3.2	✓	A14	Rome - Mogadishu Flight	5₤+25c (nov 1934) air mail, orange
3.3	✓	A15	Rome - Mogadishu Flight	10₤+30c (nov 1934) air mail, lilac
4.1	✓	A16	Rome - Mogadishu Flight	25+2₤ (nov 1934) air mail, green

Official Mail (Servizio di Stato)

4.2

SA1

Rome - Mogadishu Flight

25+2₤ (nov 1934)
air mail, brownish 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.