Romfilatelia, the specialized company in editing and trading Romanian postage stamps introduces into circulation the philatelic issue AVIATION – 100 years since the first flight on the distance of over 1000 m in closed circuit. Romfilatelia, the specialized company in editing and trading Romanian postage stamps introduces into circulation the philatelic issue AVIATION – 100 years since the first flight on the distance of over 1000 m in closed circuit.
One hundred years ago, the pilot Henri Farman managed to fly on a closed circuit of over a mile.
Henri Farman (1874-1958), was a French pioneer aviator born of English parents, aircraft designer and manufacturer. He was the son of an English journalist that worked as a collaborator for an English newspaper in France.
After having studied arts at the famous École des Beaux Arts, he discovered
his passion for the numerous mechanical inventions revealed by the end of the
19th century, such as the coming of the bicycle or the automobile. He was accordingly a champion cyclist while also participating in automotive competitions representing Renault. After a long recovery period following a car accident, he gave up automotive competitions for a new technical accomplishment, the plane. He bought a biplane aircraft, with propelling airscrews manufactured by Gabriel Voisin which he called Voisin-Farman I, with which he performed the first flight in 1907. Even if he managed to fly longer than the aircraft manufacturer had foreseen, he would modify the aircraft (Voisin-Farman I bis) and, in January 1908, he managed to perform a flight of over one kilometer, a performance not accomplished to that day. The same year, Farman was the author of the first passenger flight in Europe.
In 1909, next to Versailles, he set up his own aircraft manufactory where the first plane created would bear the name of Type III.
In 1914 he starts production of the famous aircraft Farman F-40 “Horace”, a biplane airplane with propelling airscrews, part of the military equipment of several armies among which the Romanian Air Forces. Another aircraft, the Goliath, part of the Farman airplanes series, was the first long distance passenger plane in the world to undertake regular flights from Paris to London starting with February 1919.
In recognition of its exceptional merits, in 1919, Henri Farman was awarded the distinction of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
Issue date: 2008-01-25
