Since 1775, the Postal Service has hired many “before they became famous” people to deliver the mail.
Ben Franklin was our first Postmaster General.
24 year old Abraham Lincoln was appointed Postmaster of New Salem, Illinois in 1833.
Other famous postal workers include Knute Rockne, Bing Crosby, William Faulkner and Rock Hudson.
And here is young Charles Lindbergh back in 1926,
the most famous pilot to fly the new Postal Service airmail routes in the de Havilland DH-4 bi-plane
also known as the “flaming coffin.”
As you will see, it was the Contract Airmail routes assigned by the Postal Service
that led to the birth to commercial aviation.
This is the history of mail, Part Two. Next on Marking History!
This is the historical marker for the Studley Beacon constructed for Early Airmail Service.
This marker is located here in Studley Virginia.
Airmail service was initiated by the U.S. Post Office and the Army on May 15, 1918.
Because of the danger night- flying posed, flashing beacons such as Studley were erected along the airmail routes
to help the airmail pilots navigate.
Those beacon stations were called “Arrows across America.”
The Post Office Department's most extraordinary role in transportation was played in the sky.
By 1917, the U.S. government felt it had seen enough progress in the development of early planes
to warrant something totally new --- airmail.
Luckily, the Army wanted more pilot experience, so the Army Signal Corps lent its planes and pilots
to the Postal Department to start the airmail service.
Scheduled airmail service between New York and Washington, D.C.,
began on May 15, 1918 - an important date in commercial aviation.
However, airmail got a bumpy start.
On the first flight out of Washington, D.C., the pilot flew in the wrong direction.
He was supposed to follow the railroad tracks and head north towards New York,
but instead ended up near Waldorf, Maryland, about 20 miles south.
Suspecting he was lost, the pilot stopped to ask a farmer for directions, but crash-landed in a freshly plowed field.
The airmail had to be picked up by a truck and driven back to Washington, where it caught a flight north the next day.
Before there was Amelia Earhart, there was Katherine Stinson.
In 1912, at the age of 21, Katherine Stinson became the fourth woman in the United States
to earn her pilot's license.
The next year, she became the first woman to fly the U.S. Mail
when she dropped mailbags from her plane during an experimental flight at the Montana State Fair.
Dubbed the “Flying Schoolgirl,” she captivated audiences worldwide with her youthful looks, long brown curls,
and fearless feats of aerobatics.
When the United States Post Office started regular airmail service, Stinson became the first woman
to be commissioned as an airmail pilot.
She broke her flying record while carrying airmail on a 783- mile flight from Chicago to New York City.
When she was not delivering mail, she worked on her very dangerous loop-the-loop stunt.
In a plane she built herself, she became the first woman and fourth pilot in the US to master this treacherous stunt.
Before Charles Lindbergh made his record-breaking solo transatlantic flight in 1927, he flew the US mail.
After serving as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, Charles Lindbergh took a civilian job
as chief pilot for the Robertson Aircraft Corporation.
They held the contract to provide airmail service between Chicago and St. Louis - beginning April 15, 1926.
Later Robertson Aircraft Corporation would become American Airlines.
Lindbergh flew a modified war- surplus de Havilland DH-4 bi- plane over the route
with stops at Springfield and Peoria, Illinois.
The expedited schedule meant Lindbergh and other pilots flew at night with poor visibility,
had to push through inclement weather, and suffered from fatigue.
During this period he twice had to bail out from the mail aircraft.
Lindbergh achieved ninety-nine percent airmail delivery efficiency,
even without proper equipment and landing facilities.
While flying mail from Chicago to St Louis, Lindbergh decided to compete for the $25,000 prize
for the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris.
Lindbergh learned to deal with the many dangers of piloting during his airmail routes,
which prepared him for his most audacious goal: making the first solo transatlantic flight.
Air Mail Service pilots are the unsung heroes of early aviation.
In their frail Curtiss Jennies and postwar de Havilland bi- planes, they battled wind, snow, and sleet
to pioneer round-the-clock airmail service along the world's longest air route, the transcontinental United States.
Pilots flew in open cockpits in all kinds of weather.
During the day, they followed landmarks on the ground; in fog they flew blind.
At night they flew dead reckoning with the stars.
Unpredictable weather, unreliable equipment, and inexperience led to frequent crashes
and over thirty deaths during the first nine years of operation.
Once the Post Office Department had proven the viability of commercial flight,
airmail service was turned over to private carriers, flying under contract with the Department.
Those initial Contract Air Mail carriers would in time - through mergers and acquisitions -
go on to establish these major airlines.
America's commercial aviation industry owes its start to the Post Office Department and the early airmail service.
On the next Marking History episode, we will learn how the Postal Service handled mail during World War Two
with V-mail and help from the Six Triple Eight Postal Battalion.
Then we delve into the 60s to learn about Mr. Zip.
Later we will visit some of the Postal facilities with high speed sorting
perfect for getting your bills to you on time.
If history can be taught with stories
they can never be forgotten.
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