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New French stamp celebrating Dewoitine aircraft

Written by catpaw
November 17, 2022

France’s annual aviation stamp features the Dewoitine aircraft company. The November 7, 2022, release celebrates the 100th anniversary of Émile Dewoitine’s first successful fighter plane to roll off the planning boards, the D.1 single seat hunter.  

Dewoitine D1 Fighter 1923

November 7, 2022

The stamp was unveiled on September 5, 2022, at the storied Aéro-Club de France and carries a cancel from Toulouse, where the company was located during the interwar years. 

The Dewoitine D.1 monoplane fighter is the first aircraft created by Émile Dewoitine in 1920, by his company Constructions Aéronautiques Émile Dewoitine based in Toulouse. Trained by Louis Breguet, who worked for Voisin and Latécoère, the young engineer had in mind the manufacture of a modern and innovative fighter aircraft for French aeronautics. Self-funded, the “Dewoitine 1” was born October 1922 and its first flight – successful – took place on November 18, 1922. In 1923, the French Navy placed an order for 44 copies. About thirty were delivered and were partially put into service on the aircraft carrier Béarn, as an embarked fighter. The success of this monoplane fighter was also built internationally. In the end, 230 copies of the Dewoitine D.1 were manufactured in France and Italy, paving the way and the success of Dewoitine aircraft, in particular, in the following years, with the D.338 airliner or the D.520 fighter aircraft which will gain its nobility during the France campaign in 1940.
Events – Aero-Club de France (aeroclub.com) News release September 5, 2022

The Dewoitine D.1, the aircraft carrier & the artist

La Poste tapped aviation art specialist Arthur Thomas, official Air and Space painter, for this stamp, titled Dewoitine D1 et Porte-Avions Béarn.  Thomas is known for his photorealistic paintings of aircraft from all eras.  To really appreciate this stamp, you need to see it in a large size – the details are stunning.  

Dewoitine D1 Fighter 1923 Dewoitine aircraft

Dewoitine D1 et Porte-Avions Béarn. Release date: November 7, 2022

Arthur Thomas expressed his excitement over being asked to create an aviation stamp for La Poste:  

Philaposte asked me to create, for the year 2022, the “Airmail” stamp, the center of gravity of aerophilately and, historically, one of the most popular stamps for collectors. Recognizing my aeronautical art, they invited me into the world of stamp artists: I couldn’t believe it, so great was the privilege granted to me.

The theme of this stamp is the #Dewoitine D.1, aircraft from the interwar period. It took me a lot of hours of research and documentation to create the canvas that ticks the 3 big boxes: historical accuracy, ultra-realistic work and, above all, a canvas corresponding to my art. Arthur THOMAS – Artiste (@arthurthomasart) • Instagram photos and videos

Aviation writers Bryan Cooper and John Batchelor described the D.1 in their reference book Fighter:

… the last development of the parasol-wing monoplane came with the Dewoitine series which began in 1921 with the D.1. These were all simple light metal construction with fabric-covered wings and had an excellent performance – D.1 in 1924 captured the world speed record at 144.84 mph – but they were mostly built for the air forces of other countries such as Switzerland and Yugoslavia. 
Fighter by Bryan Cooper and John Batchelor, p.71

Dewoitine D.1 single seat fighter

Dewoitine D.1 single seat fighter

The stamp is titled  Dewoitine D1 et Porte-Avions Béarn / Dewoitine D1 and the Aircraft Carrier Béarn. The Béarn was the first aircraft carrier floated by the French navy. The ship was a converted battleship, that went into service initially in 1920 and relaunched in 1928 as France’s first and only aircraft carrier until after WW2. There’s an entire tale to tell of the Béarn itself one day. I’ll have to see if there are any stamps featuring it.

After digging about I found a video showing a brief history of the Béarn. At about the .58 second mark (and the still frame at the beginning of the film), the aircraft flying over the ship’s deck looks like a D.1. It has the distinctive rotund fuselage and forward wings of the Dewoitine fighter but let me know if you agree.  

 

 

Émile Dewoitine

 

The D.1’s specs were:

  • 7.50 m (24 ft 7.25 in) long with a wingspan of 11.50 m (37 ft 8.75 in).
  • It was initially armed with 2 synchronised Vickers machine guns   
  • It could reach up to 255 km/h (158 mph, 137 kn),
  • Range of 400 km (250 miles) and capable of climbing to 8000 m (26,245 feet)

A little schematic fun

I love old schematics, so I poked about various archives for patents and schematics from the Dewoitine company. Happily, there were quite a few plans from this era. The wings below are from the 1923 patent FR553134A Improvements to aircraft, filed by Émile Dewoitine. 

 

D1 airplane schematics

D1 airplane schematics from 1924 Dewoitine patent.

 

 I had a bit of fun with Photoshop and turned the plain patent diagrams into a technical drawing. It downloads in a supersized version if you’d like to print it off for yourself. I love schematics, so any excuse I can find to post them, makes me a happy person. There’s something about them that brings about a great deal of joy when looking at them. But back to the D1 stamp. 

Details – it’s all in the details

As always, the details in the selvedge pull the design together. French designers lavish attention to all aspects of the overall appearance, including the borders and margins of the sheets. Designer Bruno Ghiringhelli used Thomas’ illustrations to decorate the edges. Fine details like this are what make French stamps so attractive. 

Engraving honours went to Claude Jumelet, who illustrated and engraved his first stamp in 1968 for Monaco. He also engraved the 2021 aviation stamp Clostermann et Roman

Émile Dewoitine

D.1 sheet

The second sheet is fameworthy. 

Dewoitine D1 Fighter   Dewoitine aircraft

Dewoitine D1 Fighter sheet of stamps

 

You can find more aviation and aerophilately articles here All about aerophilately | Bitter Grounds Magazine. Pioneer aviation is an enduring passion and I love writing about it. You can also take a look at all of the 2022 French stamps.  If there is an early aviation stamp you would like me to explore, post a note in the comments, and I’ll see what magic I can perform. 


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