Ethiopia

     In 1931 Ethiopia issued a set of four airmail stamps with the same design which shows a bi-wing airplane flying above a map of Ethiopia showing the major rivers and the route of the Franco-Ethiopian Railway from Djibouti to Addis Ababa.
     On August 18, 1929 the first airplane, a Potez 25 A2 bi-plane, built at the Establissements Henry Potez in Paris, France, was delivered to the air port in Addis Ababa. It was named “Nesre Makonnen” (Prince Makonnen), and it was the beginning of a small Ethiopian air force.
     Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, was born Tafari Makonnen, and the words at the bottom of the stamp, Avion Nessre Tafari, refer to him, as does the name of the plane.