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By David Hartwig
Great Britain’s Royal Mail marks the 50th anniversary of Concorde’s commercial service Jan. 21 with a set of eight stamps plus a four-stamp souvenir sheet.
The Jan. 21 issue date comes exactly 50 years after British Airways and Air France inaugurated supersonic passenger flights with simultaneous departures from London to Bahrain and Paris to Rio de Janeiro.
The set of eight first-class (currently £1.70) stamps traces Concorde’s history through photographs taken between 1971 and 2003, from its early rollouts to its final flight, capturing milestones in speed, style and service. Royal Mail presents the stamps in four se-tenant (side-by-side) pairs, arranged so that the stamps can be organized chronologically by pair.
Stamps in one pair show Concorde during its pre-production stage in Britain: as it rolled out in 1971 and during a flight before commercial service in 1974.
Another 1974 photograph highlights Concorde in its first British Airways livery, or official paint scheme. This stamp is paired with the photograph capturing the first commercial flight from the United Kingdom.
1985 marked Concorde’s 10th year in service, and a stamp in another pair celebrates that feat, with another stamp showing Concorde flying overhead in the same year.
The final pair of stamps fast forward to the final years of Concorde service, with the last British Airways livery in 1997 and a photograph of Concorde’s final commercial flight in 2003.
Concorde represented a brief moment when speed, national ambition and faith in technological progress aligned. Its sleek fuselage, distinctive droop nose, and gleaming British Airways and Air France liveries made it a symbol of modernity, speed and prestige.
Flying at twice the speed of sound, it turned a transatlantic journey into a morning’s commute and let passengers reach London from New York in hours instead of the better part of a day. Concorde mattered not for its comfort, but for its ability to shrink the world.
Perhaps the most famous illustration of Concorde’s time-saving potential came in 1985, when musician Phil Collins used the aircraft to perform at Live Aid concerts in both London and Philadelphia on the same day.
Concorde jets appear on several previous Great Britain stamp issues, with the first being a March 1, 1969, set of three stamps (Scott 581-583) commemorating the jet’s first flight with two stamps illustrated by David Gentleman.
A souvenir sheet offered with the Jan. 21 issue reprises the three 1969 stamp designs on three stamps. A fourth stamp on the sheet shows an additional Gentleman Concorde illustration, with the flags of Great Britain and France, that was shortlisted for the 1969 issue.
Common Curiosity designed the stamps on the souvenir sheet as well as on the set of eight. Both were printed by Cartor Security Printers by lithography.
All 12 stamps measure 50 millimeters by 30mm and are perforated gauge 14. The stamps in se-tenant pairs were produced in sheets of 60 (sold in panes of 30 at most postal outlets).
A collectors sheet included with the issue contains the eight stamps with attached labels featuring more photographs of the jet.
Royal Mail offers a presentation pack which includes the set of eight stamps and the souvenir sheet along with insight from John Tye, former Concorde pilot and author of Life of a Concorde Pilot: From The Orphanage to The Edge of Space.
First-day covers franked with either the set of eight stamps or the souvenir sheet have two available postmarks. The standard Tallents House postmark features Concorde’s slogan, “Arrive before you leave,” and a postmark showing an illustration of Concorde overlaid on the number 50 has a postmark from Filton, Bristol, home to the Aerospace Bristol museum and the location where Britain’s Concordes were designed, built and tested.
Other products included with this issue are a set of 13 postcards reproducing the designs of the 12 stamps and the souvenir sheet.
The stamps and related products can be ordered from Royal Mail’s website at https://shop.royalmail.com/special-stamp-issues/concorde. Ordering information also is available from Royal Mail, Tallents House, 21 S. Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9PB, Scotland.
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