Lot 53201 – The Royal Air Force Desert Air Service Exhibition collection

The Royal Air Force Desert Air Service

1919-1925 Exhibition collection neatly mounted and knowledgable written on 121 album pages, this collection traces the development if the RAF’s military air services in the Middle East after the British Governments Colonial Office conference of March 21 held in Cairo.

The exhibit is illustrated in chronological order under four main sections:

1) RFC & RAF Special & Emergency Airmails Flights – June 1917 – July 1921 (10 pages)2) Proving Trial Air Services Carrying Official Only Mail – July to October 1921 (4 pages)3) Regular Airmail Services to and from Iraq – October 1921 to December 1926 (100 pages)4) Imperial Airway Takes Over the Air Mail Services from the RAF, January 1927 (4 pages)

The strength and value is in the Special & Emergency Airmails Flights which were prior to the regular airmail services, nevertheless, the rest of the collection is wonderful in it’s scope of frankings, usages, origins and destinations, an excellent basis for study and expansion