New Air

Because of advancements in aviation, newer, larger, and better airplanes were used by the post office – no longer did they use small Curtiss Jenny planes (see The Air Mail Act of 1930). Air mail service covered all of the United State and was popular – especially when corresponding with soldiers who were stationed overseas. These were the stamps they used at that time.

DC-4 Skymaster

The Douglas DC-4 was propeller, four-engine airplane. It was used and developed extensively during World War II. By 1947, the year the stamps on the top row were issued, it was the primary aircraft used for transporting air mail.

Note

They didn’t sell these stamps at the post office during my lifetime. When I was a kid, though, I remember seeing many old envelopes in people’s homes that had the stamps on the top row. They were envelopes containing letters to and from soldiers in Europe and elsewhere during the U.S. occupation of Germany and other countries after World War II. The letters were special and somewhat sacred to those who kept them: the sight of them brought back memorites for them, and mystery for me. Having air mail stamps on them from that time made them special and more easily identifiable.

Contains 7 spots: own 7 – 7 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Apr 11, 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
1.1	✓	C33	DC-4 Skymaster	5c (mar 1947) air mail, carmine
1.2	✓	C32	DC-4 Skymaster	5c (sep 1946) air mail, carmine
1.3	✓	C39	DC-4 Skymaster	6c (jan 1949) air mail, carmine
2.1	✓	C34	Maritin 2-0-2 & Pan Am Union	10c (aug 1947) air mail, black
2.2	✓	C35	Lockheed Constellation & NY	15c (aug 1947) air mail, bright blue green
3.1	✓	C36	Boeing B377 & SF	25c (jul 1947) air mail, blue
4.1	✓	C38	Five Boroughs of N.Y.	5c (jul 1948) air mail, 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.