Follow the Flight

Update for September 22: After eight days and 28 hours of flying time, the mailplanes completed their cross-country trip on September 18. A sad postscript: Larry Tobin's Stearman C3B was destroyed in a crash landing over the weekend, as the pilots were returning home. They were flying over the Columbia River Gorge between Cascade Locks and Hood River when the Stearman's engine quit and Tobin was forced to land in a field. The left wings hit trees, destroying the airplane. Luckily, Tobin was unhurt.

In September 2008, to celebrate 90 years of flying the U.S. mail, three pilots in three vintage mailplanes retraced the original route flown by Airmail pilots in the 1920s. Air & Space followed their trip with daily reports, photos, and feature stories.

At approximately 11:30 a.m. on May 15, 1918, the U.S. Post Office inaugurated regular airmail service with Curtiss JN-4H biplanes, which flew between Washington, D.C. and New York City with a stop in Philadelphia. It took two more years of dogged effort and experimentation, marred by dozens of crashes and 16 fatalities, for the service to fly the mail all the way across the country. By 1927, the Post Office had nursed the airmail service through its infancy and was ready to hand it off to private companies, like Boeing Air Transport and National Air Transport, which eventually developed into United Airlines. With aircraft like the Boeing 40C and Stearman Speedmail and with pilots like Charles Lindbergh, contract mail carriers laid the foundation for the most expansive national air transportation system in the world.

With major sponsorship from Bill Boeing Jr. and Jeppesen, the three pilots departed Long Island, New York, on September 10. Addison Pemberton was in today's only flying 1928 Boeing 40C, Larry Tobin in a 1927 Stearman C3B, and Ben Scott in a 1930 Stearman 4E Speedmail. The pilots stopped in the 17 cities that served as layovers and fuel depots for the early airmail pilots.

" />


Follow the Flight


Update for September 22: After eight days and 28 hours of flying time, the mailplanes completed their cross-country trip on September 18. A sad postscript: Larry Tobin's Stearman C3B was destroyed in a crash landing over the weekend, as the pilots were returning home. They were flying over the Columbia River Gorge between Cascade Locks and Hood River when the Stearman's engine quit and Tobin was forced to land in a field. The left wings hit trees, destroying the airplane. Luckily, Tobin was unhurt.

In September 2008, to celebrate 90 years of flying the U.S. mail, three pilots in three vintage mailplanes retraced the original route flown by Airmail pilots in the 1920s. Air & Space followed their trip with daily reports, photos, and feature stories.

At approximately 11:30 a.m. on May 15, 1918, the U.S. Post Office inaugurated regular airmail service with Curtiss JN-4H biplanes, which flew between Washington, D.C. and New York City with a stop in Philadelphia. It took two more years of dogged effort and experimentation, marred by dozens of crashes and 16 fatalities, for the service to fly the mail all the way across the country. By 1927, the Post Office had nursed the airmail service through its infancy and was ready to hand it off to private companies, like Boeing Air Transport and National Air Transport, which eventually developed into United Airlines. With aircraft like the Boeing 40C and Stearman Speedmail and with pilots like Charles Lindbergh, contract mail carriers laid the foundation for the most expansive national air transportation system in the world.

With major sponsorship from Bill Boeing Jr. and Jeppesen, the three pilots departed Long Island, New York, on September 10. Addison Pemberton was in today's only flying 1928 Boeing 40C, Larry Tobin in a 1927 Stearman C3B, and Ben Scott in a 1930 Stearman 4E Speedmail. The pilots stopped in the 17 cities that served as layovers and fuel depots for the early airmail pilots.

PHOTO BLOG #8: The mail has been delivered!

Follow the pilots’ progress with daily updates from photographer George Perks.

Sixth Leg: Reno to San Francisco

Reno, Nevada, Postmaster Austin Jackson (left) hands a mail bag to pilot Harry Huking in his DH-4 mailplane, July 1924.

The Route: Reno to San Francisco

Pilots flying the mail cross-country in 1921 followed these directions to find landmarks along the way.

Pilot Max Miller and Air Mail Service superintendent Benjamin Lipsner (right) before Miller

The Great Race

When the Air Mail Service decided to establish a route between New York City and Chicago, two pilots competed to fly it first.

Addison Pemberton pilots his restored Boeing 40C earlier this year. On the September 10 flight, the author rode in the compartment beneath the upper wing.

A Ride in the Boeing 40C

Onboard “Airmail 1” for the first leg of the trip, from New York to Bellefonte.

San Dimas, California, a suburb of Lost Angeles, boasts a population of 36,200.

A Flying Success

For an entire week in 1938, the country celebrated airmail.

Otto Praeger

The Father of Airmail Looks Back

On the 20th anniversary of airmail service, three key players recalled the early days.

In 1923, U.S. Air Mail DH-4s were equipped with lights on the nose and on wingtips for night flying.

No Longer Afraid of the Dark

The civil engineering project that got the airmail through the night.

A crashed Martin MB-1 mailplane, one of many in the service

Crash Course

Finding an airplane to deliver the mail should have been easy.

Airmail pilots (from left) Jack Knight, Harvey Lange, Lawrence Garrison, “Wild Bill” Hopson, and Andrew Dunphy pose for photographer Nathaniel Dewell in 1922.

The Image Maker

During the 1920s, photographer Nathaniel Dewell produced iconic portraits of airmail’s finest.

After his career with the airmail service, Knight flew for United Airlines between 1934 and 1937, when the airline was still flying single engine Boeing aircraft. By the time Knight retired, he had flown more than 2 million miles.

Crossing the Alleghenies in 1919

The man who saved the airmail describes “Hell Stretch.”

U.S. Air Mail personnel with a De Havilland DH-4 mailplane at the Bellefonte, Pennsylvania airfield, December 1923.

Slim Lewis Slept Here

Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, had one brief, shining moment when airmail pilots used it as a stopover. Then they went away, leaving only memories.

Learn More about The Airmail Odyssey

A Boeing 40C (background) and a 1927 Stearman C3B biplane are two of the three airplanes recreating the cross-country airmail route.

Airmail Odyssey: 1918-2008

Three historic mailplanes commemorate the anniversary of U.S. airmail by tracing the original coast-to-coast route.


Advertisement

Videos

Photo Blogs

Photo Galleries

National Air and Space Museum

America by Air

Interactive Exhibit: Fly the Mail