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The Harry Gordon covers in this section are slightly different than the rest. They can be thought of as his personal copy of an event cover, with many others of the same type existing addressed to other collectors (who also received them from the flight). Harry began designing, creating, and obtaining his own pilot-signed covers after WWII (1946-47) as shown in the following sections.

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A pioneering group in the basic style of text-based cachets with fill-in elements was active during the 1930's in Brooklyn, NY. What began as the Brooklyn College Philatelic Society (BCPS, 193?-35) had by mid-1935 changed its name to the Collegiate Philatelic Society (CPS, 1935-1941). This group had close ties with the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) in New York City and was rather successful in obtaining early military (ex. Y1B-17) and commercial prototype (ex. Boeing Stratoliner) aircraft test flown covers. Some covers of this era are directly addressed to the NAA on a CPS return address envelope or addressed to a CPS member c/o NAA Philatelic Society.

Most share an identical fill-in-the-blank text-based cachet in the form of: "This envelope was carried in" [blank] "From" [blank] "To" [blank] "Through the courtesy of" [blank]. Examples of these pioneering covers can be found archived below. Key memebers of this group were: Louis Fischbach, Gustave F. Lancaster, and Joseph H. Spiegelberg.

Along with the help of a Navy pilot Jesse G. Johnson (later an admiral), who was also an influential member of the American Airmail Society (AAMS), they amassed quite a collection of covers carried on Army and Navy training maneuvers, long-range flights, and many record setting trans-oceanic flights. A selection of their flown covers have been subsequently documented along with other covers of the era in the American Airmail Catalogue.

This group created material through the duration of WWII and immediately afterwards including covers carried on around-the-world B-29 training flights post-war. As the members of CPS transitioned to new roles during WWII, several of them chartered the Metropolitan Airmail Cover Club (MACC, 1941) to capture a wider geographical area and keep the collecting alive during the war. Also, as is to be expected, members were not limited to belonging to several organizations simultaneously, so finding covers with multiple names or correspondence between members has been beneficial. The MACC eventually changed its name to the Metropolitan Air Post Society (MAPS) and continues today. Harry Gordon was a member of MACC and decidely carried on in the footsteps of CPS, obtaining a significant number of pilot carried covers.

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The prototypical Harry Gordon typed cachet first appears in 1947; a C-54 flight on October 8th, 1947 is an early example captured below.

These cachets were created using descriptive text and fill-in-the-blank lines added via a typewriter, usually on the left-hand side of an airmail envelope. He applied many of the same elements used on earlier event covers by the CPS. Harry also included rubber-stamped text and etiquette labels (e.g. "Jet Air Mail") to further enchace the presentation. These etiquettes were created with a rubber-stamp at first then transitioned to being pre-printed labels placed on later covers. The etiquettes were applied at the same time as the cachet, with them often found underneath the postage or tied to the cover by postal cancellations.

Closer examination of return addresses for UK flights hints that, on numerous occasions, Harry enlisted the help of fellow AAMS memeber Jimmie Wotherspoon (formerly of the RAF during WWII) to obtain these specific flights.

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A fairly standard layout now exists for the covers. We begin to see Harry hit his stride, which would be maintained throughout the 1950's and into the early 1960's.

Harry was persistent in writing to pilots and the volume of covers are evidence of his success. Information contained within the letters he received back from the test pilots, US Air Force, and aviation manufacturers is insightful. The pleasantries exchanged in some are evidence that relationships were formed and the pilots were happy to oblige him as a collector.

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The types of events covered begins to shift in the early 1960's. Harry writes about these changing times in an Airpost Journal article published January of 1962. Increased levels of security around military flights prompts a warning to collectors against continuing to persue these flown covers. Whether this sentiment was genuine or simply a way to further "corner the market" it is not known. The volume of covers certainly does begin to decrese, however Harry is still successful in procuring certain events.

Around this same time, the US space program provides a multitude of new and exciting events to collect. While the majority of space events did not allow opportunity for flown covers, envelopes could be sent to ships and tracking stations participating in the missions. Many of these types of covers were located at stations around the world or on-board the primary and secondary ships during astronaut and capsule recovery.

Harry discusses his shift to collecting space covers in an Airpost Journal article titled "What Shall I Collect Now?" in November of 1962.

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The end of an era. By this time, Harry's covers are much fewer in number and are mainly for recovery ships, tracking stations, and other significant space related events. Other collectors have some success with carried covers however the "Golden Age of the 1950's" is now over.

For reference, the last cover shown with Harry's name is from ASTP Splashown on July 24th, 1975 and has a return address no longer on Garden St. Please send in any examples that are after this date, if they exist.

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One can only imagine how many requests went unfulfilled or were simply discarded over the years. Sometimes you see correspondence with pilots returning covers unflown and suggesting they should try having someone else fly them next time. In other instances, completely blank covers were returned without any details of the flight or not being posted at all. A few examples of these cases are included below.