History of US Mail and the Birth of Commercial Aviation

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.

00:00 Intro
01:05 Studley Beacon
02:21 Airmail’s Bumpy Start
02:53 Katherine Stinson
03:57 Charles Lindbergh
05:28 Airmail Service Pilots
06:44 Next on Marking History



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.


History of Mail Part One here:
   • History of US Mail - From the Beginning