Reno hosts Transcontinental Air Mail reenactment

Historic birds make stop September 15

RENO, NV — The public is invited to get a glimpse of history, as three historic airplanes making a coast-to-coast trip reenacting the first transcontinental Air Mail trip make a stop on the general aviation side of Reno-Tahoe International Airport from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., Sept. 15.

The privately funded, epic flight commemorates the 90th anniversary year of Air Mail. The service is recognized as the godfather of modern commercial aviation.

True to history, each of the pilots will be carrying real U.S. Mail. There are 15 original air mail stops, starting in New York Republic Field and ending at San Francisco’s Hayward Executive Field. The journey will take six calendar days and encompass approximately 29 flying hours.

The Smithsonian Institute is hosting a website so interested fans can track the progress of the flight, (www.airspacemag.com)

In Reno, Acting Postmaster Renee Brown and other postal representatives will be dressed in period-era clothing, to reflect the fashion of the day. She’ll be escorted in a 1929 Ford postal delivery van, on loan from the National Automobile Museum.

The airplanes making the journey are a 1928 Boeing 40C, a 1927 Stearman C3B and a 1930 Stearman 4E.All of the airplanes are restored versions of the originals which flew Air Mail.

Pilot Addison Pemberton, will be flying the 1928 Boeing 40C and is the trip flight coordinator. He can be reached during the coast to coast flight at (509) 995-6240.

Click on this link for the history of airmail: http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub100/pub100_026.htm

Air Mail Facts

The first scheduled air mail service was in 1918 between Washington, DC and New York.
Transcontinental Service started in 1921. By 1925, to meet the needs of the Post Office for faster delivery, the transcontinental route was lit coast to coast which enabled night flying.
Until 1926 air mail was flown entirely by Post Office pilots, including such famous ones as Jack Knight, Bill Hopson and Dean Smith. After 1926, the Post Office Dept. began contracting mail to be flown rather than having their own planes and pilots.
In the early days of air mail, pilots could fly only by constant contact with the ground. There were no aeronautical maps and instrument flying had yet to be invented.

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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.