Air Afrique: B707 Stamp for the Republic of Benin c.1975

For the next few months, we will be publishing select posts from the Timetablist, a unique aviation blog dedicated to airline route maps, route post cards from the last 5 decades. To our younger audiences,especially in Africa, it's a rare glimpse to a bygone age. You can visit the Timetablist and enjoy the rest of the posts from across the world.We thank the dedicated blogger Matt for giving us the permission to reuse this material. This week , we will feature Air Afrique.

 Here is a classically exotic image from both the golden age of jet travel and Africa's independence era: A broad-winged B707 in on a palm-fringed airfield, as the ground crew awaits deplaning passengers from Marseille, Paris or Geneva.

The pride of the young Benin, which was originally colonial Dahomey. The blacked out labelling on the stamp from Republique du Dahomey to Benin suggests the vintage of this issue to be 1975 or just thereafter.

Also, other than the occasional freighter version, Air Afrique did not employ the B707, utilizing instead the DC-8. Given that this is a non-Afrique aircraft which is not painted in Afrique colors, perhaps this drawing was originally an Air France B707. It can only be guessed that this is a gateway Benin airfield of Cotonou or Porto-Novo.