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Date of Issue: 1979, March 29
Country: United States of America
First Day of Issue Site: Chanute
KS
Title: Octave Chanute
Designer: Ken Dallison
This is the second issue in the Pioneer Aviation Series honouring
American aviation pioneers and significant aviation developments.
The series began in 1978 when two stamps were issued in tribute
to the Wright Brothers, seventy-five years after their 1903 flight.
More on this in next month’s article.
This stamp series shows a new and different approach to the normal
printing of these small pieces of paper. The evolution in the invention
of the aeroplane is colourful and broad, so this subject was ideal
for the offset/intaglio process which combines engraved lines with
offset colours.
Ken Dallison, a designer and artist from Long Beach Island, New
York, USA and Ontario, Canada, is well-known for his mastery of
the “line-and-wash” technique, but he also skilfully combines
faces and machinery.
He is very interested in the ingenuity of man. In his biography
Dallison writes, “I always attempt to fill my drawings with
characters in the same way a director would cast a movie, fulfilling
the need to create a good design and tell a story.”
This skill was needed for the Pioneer Aviation series. Looking
at the two Chanute stamps, Dallison succeeded to capture all the
important aspects of the two months' of glider flying experiments
along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, near what is now Gary,
Indiana.
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