The 2018 issue of two postage stamps marks the 14th and 15th times that Curtiss aircraft have appeared on U.S. stamps.
*The first appearance was exactly a hundred years before, when the first Airmail stamp portrayed a Curtiss Jenny, the type on which the first scheduled air mail was flown. (Early Curtiss Jennys were made in Hammondsport, but later models… such as those used for the mail… were made in Buffalo and elsewhere.)
*A few sheets of this 24-cent stamp erroneously depicted the Jenny upside down. The extremely rare “inverted Jenny” stamps command high prices from collectors!
*Stamps 2 and 3 came the same year and used the same design, with differences in color shade. These were 16-cent stamps and 6-cent stamps, issued as the cost of Airmail plummeted.
*The fourth stamp didn’t come until 1961, and marked the golden anniversary of naval aviation. It shows the Curtiss float plane that became US Navy aircraft A-1.
*Seven years later came the golden anniversary of Airmail, leading to a 10-cent air mail stamp that copied the same Jenny from the original 1918 issues.
*Then things were quiet until 1980, when a 35-cent Airmail stamp honored Glenn Curtiss, and a 28-cent Airmail stamp honored Blanche Stuart Scott, America’s first woman pilot. Each stamp shows an early Curtiss “pusher” of the type with the full front elevator gear… the type with which they each flew to glory. The Curtiss stamp had its first day of issue in Hammondsport post office, and as far as I can tell these two are the only U.S. Stamps showing Steuben residents.
*In 1985 came a 39-cent Airmail stamp honoring aviation pioneers Lawrence and Elmer Sperry. The stamp shows the Curtiss Model F flying boat on which Lawrence did many of his experiments and demonstrations to create the autopilot.
*A 1988 Airmail stamp honors pioneer aviation experimenter Samuel P. Langley. Langley had nothing to do with Steuben County, but the stamp shows his 1903 “aerodrome.” Curtiss rebuilt it long after Langley’s death; he and some colleagues flew it repeatedly from Keuka Lake in 1914… the only times the aircraft ever flew.
*A 1989 first class stamp (25 cents) honors the 20th Universal Postal Congress, and shows a Jenny with the original Airmail service.
*In 1997 a flying Jenny appeared on a 32-cent first class stamp, as part of a set on vintage aircraft.
*A two-dollar stamp in 2013 deliberately copied the erroneous “inverted Jenny.” After it was on the market the Postal Service announced that, for the enjoyment of collectors, they had slipped in a few sheets that deliberately inverted the inversion, making the Jenny fly correctly… in a set that deliberately shows it incorrectly! Anyway, that counts as two stamps, getting us up to numbers 12 and 13. This set honored not Airmail or airplanes, but stamp collecting! Since the original inverted Jenny is probably the most prized U.S. stamp, that makes sense.
*The 2018 issues show a Jenny head-on, in a sort of art-deco styling. They’re said to be the model JN-4H on which the first Airmail was flown, but the radiator shape suggests that the airplane is a Model D, rather than a Model H. These stamps say Airmail, but the U.S. doesn’t have designated Airmail stamps any more. The blue stamp honors Airmail pilots, while the red (but otherwise identical) stamp commemorates the centennial of those first schedued flights.
*Other than the Langley aircraft and the late-model Jennys, Curtiss made all the airplanes on these stamps in Hammondsport.
*There are DOZENS of foreign stamps with Curtiss airplanes, especially when you throw in the World War II models such as the P-40. If I ever get a reasonably comprehensive list together, I’ll share that.
*But we should mention two foreign stamps that picture Glenn Curtiss himself. A 1993 Micronesian issue has a very nice picture of “Glenn H. Curtiss Pioneer of Flight,” along with a Curtiss Jenny. And a 4-lire San Marino stamp “Glenn Curtiss 1908” shows Glenn (in tiny silhouette) in his “June Bug.” The stamp doesn’t show anything of the setting, but we know that Glenn is soaring over Pleasant Valley on the Fourth of July… a Steuben person, a Steuben-made aircraft, and even a Steuben event. Well done, Republic of San Marino!