3 vintage planes noting 90th anniversary of first Air Mail flight to make stops at Cheyenne, Rawlins & Rock Springs airports on Sept. 13

Unidentified pilot CHEYENNE, WY—The press and public — especially kids and aviation buffs — are invited to catch a FREE glimpse of history, when 3 historic airplanes re-enact one of the first transcontinental Air Mail flights with stops at three WY airports this Saturday, Sept. 13.

The three stops in Wyoming, part of 15 stops along one of the first U.S. Air Mail cross-country routes, are planned for these times and locations on Sept. 13, weather and conditions permitting.

Jerry Olsen Field in Cheyenne with an arrival of 10:30 AM in Cheyenne from North Platt, NE and a departure at 12:30 PM that day to Rawlins
Harvey Field in Rawlins with an arrival at 2:00 PM from Cheyenne and a departure of 4:00 PM that day to Rock Springs
Sweetwater County Airport in Rock Springs with an arrival of 5:30 PM on Sept. 13 from Rawlins and a departure the next morning, Sept. 14, at 9:30 AM to Salt Lake City Airport.

The public and press are invited to see the restored airplanes and talk with the pilots at each stop. 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 which 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 Calif. with 15 stops total including the three in Wyoming. The Smithsonian Institute has a website tracking the progress of the flight with information at www.airspacemag.com.

Also greeting the pilots will be local postmasters and postal employees from the Cheyenne, Rawlins and Rock Springs Post Offices.

Media note: For more information about each Wyoming flight stop, please contact the Cheyenne, Rawlins and Rock Springs airport managers who can provide more detailed information. Or you can contact in advance pilot Addison Pemberton, will be flying the 1928 Boeing 40C and is the trip flight coordinator, at cell 509-995-6240. This is a privately-funded anniversary flight by the pilots themselves and USPS was asked to help publicize it with the media and public.

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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.