Iowa City Airport will Host Vintage Planes to Help Mark

90th Anniversary of First Air Mail Flight

IOWA CITY, IA — The press and public — especially kids and aviation buffs — are invited to catch a glimpse of history, when three historic airplanes re-enact the first Air Mail flight with a stop at the Iowa City Airport on Friday, September 12.

The Iowa City stop is one of 15 along the original U.S. Air Mail cross country route, weather and conditions permitting.

The public and media are invited to view the vintage aircraft and talk with the pilots on the tarmac of the Iowa City Airport, located at 1801 S. Riverside Drive, from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m., on Friday, Sept. 12. There is no charge to attend.

The restored airplanes making the journey are a 1928 Boeing 40C, a 1927 Stearman C35, and a 1930 Stearman 4E. All the airplanes are restored versions of the originals that flew Air Mail.

The celebratory flight commemorates the 90th anniversary year of the first Air Mail flight in 1918. It will take six calendar days and encompass 29 flying hours. The trip starts Sept. 10 in Farmingdale NY at Republic Field, and ends Sept. 15 at San Francisco’s Hayward Executive Airport in California. The Smithsonian Institute has a website tracking the progress of the flight with information at www.airspacemag.com.

The Iowa City Post Office also will offer a 90th Anniversary souvenir postmark on the day of the event.

To obtain a postmark by mail, customers should affix stamps to any envelope or postcard of their choice, address the envelope or postcard to themselves or others, insert a card of postcard thickness in envelopes for sturdiness, and tuck in the flap.

Place the envelope or postcard in a larger envelope and address it to: AIR MAIL POSTMARK, POSTMASTER, 400 S. CLINTON STREET, IOWA CITY, IA, 52240-9998, by October 12.

All requests must include a stamped envelope or postcard bearing at least the minimum First-Class postage. Items submitted for postmark may not include postage issued after the date of the requested postmark. Such items will be returned to the sender without postmark.

Media Note: This is a privately-funded anniversary flight by the pilots themselves, and the USPS was asked to help publicize it.

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Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/welcome.htm.

An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation — 146 million homes and businesses. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.