France to United States
August 29, 1909
Today in Postal History
This picture postcard was sent from Betheny Aviation in the
Marne.
August 29 was the last day of an early airshow held
at a race track on Betheny Plain outside of Reims.
This was the first French show of a number of such shows of pioneer
aviation.
The sender was probably one of the several hundred thousand visitors.
The illustration is of a Blériot
monoplane - certainly the Monoplane XI in
which Blériot
had crossed the English Channel hardly a month before on July 25,
1909.
The card is franked with a 1906 10 c. red Sower Type II
(Scott 162).
There are two of the hexagonal Betheny Aviation | Marne datestamps.
The sender's note is particularly interesting:
| Here's the way a monoplane looks when you are under it. One passed just a few feet over my head the other day! |
This had to be another thrill from those magnificent men and
their flying machines.
The destination of the cover was Kansas City, Missouri, in
mid-America.
I'm not sure but the addressee appears to be Hereford Ball.
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