Aerophilately

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Aerophilately is the branch of philately that specializes in the study of airmail. Philatelists have observed the development of mail transport by air from its beginning, and all aspects of airmail service have been extensively studied and documented by specialists.

This 1932 Canadian "first official flight" cover, Great Bear Lake to Rae, includes both a special cachet and a surcharged airmail stamp.

The scope of aerophilately includes:

airmail postage stamps, both official and unofficial
other types of labels (such as airmail etiquettes)
postal documents transmitted by air
postal markings related to air transport
rates and routes, particularly first flights and other "special" flights
mail recovered from aircraft accidents and other incidents (crash covers)

While most of the study of airmail assumes transport by fixed-wing aircraft, the fields of balloon mail, dirigible mail, zeppelin mail, missile mail, and rocket mail are active subspecialties. Astrophilately, the study of mail in space, is a related area.

Aerophilatelists have formed a number of organizations around the world; many of them put out a variety of specialized publications but FISA, the International Federation of Aerophilatelic Societies is the umbrella organization for aerophilately.

[edit] Organizations

FISA
Air Mail Society of New Zealand
American Air Mail Society
British Aerophilatelic Federation
The Canadian Aerophilatelic Society
Irish Airmail Society

[edit] References

Richard McP. Cabeen, Standard Handbook of Stamp Collecting (Collectors Club, 1979), pp. 207-221
Cheryl Ganz, ed. Collecting Air Mail (American Air Mail Society)
American Air Mail Catalogue (AAMS, 6th ed. 1998)
Canadian Air Mail Catalogue (AAMS)
Thomas J. O'Sullivan, The Pioneer Airplane Mails of the United States (AAMS)
Victor C. Berecz, Jr., The Pioneer Period of Hungarian Air Mail (AAMS)
William Victor Kriebel, A History of the Development of Air Mail Service in Brazil (AAMS)
William J. Murphy, Irish Airmail 1919-1990 (Irish Airmail Society, 1996)
Ronny Vogt, Irish Crash Airmail 2nd Ed. (Irish Airmail Society, 1997)