Air Mail History Comes to Life

Transcontinental Air Mail reenactment flight to land at Burke Lakefront Airport Sept 10

Cleveland OH — To commemorate the 90th anniversary of the invention of airmail, three antique aircraft will reenact the first transcontinental Postal Service Air Mail flight next week. 

The trio will start their trip from New York Republic field on September 10, landing at Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport at approximately 4:30 p.m. The planes will appear at a total of 15 historic Air Mail stops along the way and finally land in San Francisco. The trip will take six calendar days with approximately 29 flying hours.

The flight will carry several hundred pieces of U.S. Mail — envelopes that will collect postmarks from each stop along the way.

A 1927 Stearman C3B, will be joined by a 1928 Boeing 40C and a 1930 Stearman 4E. All three airplanes were at one time used to carry mail.

With a 42 gallon tank and a top speed of 100 mph, Pilot Larry Tobin says he can travel far, but rarely exceeds two hours because of the physical exertion of flying. Tobin’s aircraft — the Boeing 40C — has been lovingly refurbished and has more than 80 percent of its original parts, including the wooden wings. It has taken Tobin several years — and more than $200,000 — to restore the airplane. Tobin retrieved the plane from a mountainside where it had crashed in 1928 while transporting mail.

The historic flight is scheduled to land at Burke Lakefront Airport on Sept 10 at 4:30 p.m. Cleveland Postmaster Spencer Hsu will greet the planes in a fully restored 1931 mail delivery truck to retrieve the mail for cancellation. Following the landing, an open public reception for the flyers will be held at the International Women's Air & Space Museum at Burke Lakefront Airport. The press and general public are invited to view the landing and attend the reception. Admission to the event is free but there is a charge for parking.  A special cancellation will be available to commemorate the occasion.

The Post Office Department took control of all aspects of Air Mail Service in August 1918, and set out to ensure the service would become a fundamental part of American life. Because of the financial advantages of ever-speedier mail service, banks and businesses were the first to recognize the potential of Air Mail Service. The general public viewed the early years of aviation as an adventurous curiosity. For most Americans, flying could not become an instrumental part of life until schedules and service were regular and reliable, air travel safe and useful. By financing the postal service's development of airmail routes, aviation advocates in Congress worked with postal officials to create an infrastructure within which the private aviation industry could grow and flourish.

Airmail would prove to be a boon to aviation. Airmail service was both reliable and lucrative, so manufacturers began to engineer larger airplanes. These planes could soon carry cargo along with the mail and eventually passengers.

On May 15, 1919, air mail service established between New York and Chicago with Cleveland as the intermediate stop. One trip a day was made with the plane landing at Woodland Hills Park. The first day’s flights were successful and brought about enthusiastic predications for transcontinental service.

Transcontinental service officially began on September 20, 1920. Two planes left Mineola Field, New York — one at 6:30 a.m. and the other an hour later. Both planes landed at Martin field on the East Side of Cleveland and completed the schedule at San Francisco. In 1925 Cleveland was threatened with the loss of U.S. Air Mail Services unless it could provide an airfield for such purposes. The present site at Brookpark Road and Riverside Drive was selected — now known as Hopkins Airport.

Just like today, there was a constant need to move the mail along faster. Also just like today, the answer was found in better technology. The Postal department pressed for and funded better navigational instruments, radio communications and beacons to fly at night. The Post Office Department's ultimate goal was to provide coast-to-coast airmail service. By 1919 it had established service between New York and Chicago. After September 8, 1920, airmail was flown across country, from New York to San Francisco by day.

The lack of ground lighting made night flying impossible, so mailbags were taken off airplanes at night and placed on mail trains, which sped them on their way. The next morning the bags were put back on the nearest mail airplane to continue their journey. At it's fastest, transcontinental airmail service saved less than 2 days over mail sent the entire distance by train.

To institute coast-to-coast airmail service, postal officials had to show Congress that round-the-clock flying was possible. If mail moved only slightly faster by air than by train, few in Congress would be persuaded to fund the service.

Night flying mail service began arriving in Cleveland on July 2, 1925. The air mail rate was 10 cents an ounce, and the planes were heavily laden. In 1928 air routes connected Cleveland virtually with all the nation’s principal cities. From Cleveland: San Francisco – 26 hours, Miami Florida – 23 hours, Montréal, Canada – 9 hours, and New York City – 6 hours.

Army pilots took over flying he mail on February 26, 1934 and within a week 6 pilots were killed and 6 injured. The government withdrew from air service and awarded it to the commercial airlines.

One of the modern aviation giants, United Airlines, got its start as an airmail network. The airline industry literally was born from a sack of mail.