U.S. Airmail Service by the USPS is a story familiar to observers of our Congress; slow to get off the ground.
Our tale begins with a visionary Postmaster General, Frank Hitchcock. Serving in that capacity from 1909 to 1913, Hitchcock was convinced aircraft could be used for mail transportation. Hitchcock was Chairman of the Republican National Committee (1908-1909) which landed him the job of Postmaster General, but more than a partisan he reached across the isle with his argument for using airplanes for transporting the mails.
Responding to his persuasion, on June 14, 1910, Representative Morris Sheppard , a Democrat of Texas, introduced a bill to authorize the Postmaster General to investigate the feasibility of airmail service. The bill died in committee.
But Hitchcock was moving forward. In November 1910, at an aviation meet in Baltimore attended by top government officials, thousands of spectators cheered when Hitchcock agreed to fly as a passenger in a Bleriot monoplane.
In September 1911, Hitchcock authorized mail flights at an aviation meet on Long Island, New York — the first authorized U.S. mail flights. Eight pilots were sworn in as “aeroplane mail carriers” for the event, which ran from September 23 to October 1, 1911. Aviator Earle Ovington had the distinction of piloting the first history-making flight, on September 23.
In the next few years the Department authorized dozens more experimental flights at fairs, carnivals, and air meets in more than 20 states.
These flights convinced Department officials that airplanes could carry mail. Beginning in 1912, postal officials urged Congress to appropriate money to launch airmail service.
Finally, in 1916, using a typical Congressional Workaround, Congress authorized the use of $50,000 from steamboat and powerboat service appropriations for airmail experiments. The Department advertised for bids for contract service in Massachusetts and Alaska, but received no acceptable responses
In 1917, Congress appropriated $100,000 to establish experimental airmail service the next fiscal year. But the real breakthrough came when the Army Signal Corps. asked to operate the airmail service, to give its pilots more cross-country flying experience. The Postmaster General and the Secretary of War reached an agreement: the Army Signal Corps would lend its planes and pilots to the Department to start an airmail service.
Finally, eight years after Post Master Hitchcocks initial urging, Congress passed legislation on May 6, 1918, authorized the Post Office Department to issue airmail stamps and begin carrying the mail by airplane.The Post Office Department began scheduled airmail service between New York and Washington, D.C., on May 15, 1918 — an important date in commercial aviation.
During the first three months of operation, the Post Office Department used Army pilots and six Army Curtiss JN-4H “Jenny” training planes. On August 12, 1918, the Department took over all phases of airmail service, using newly hired civilian pilots and mechanics, and six specially built mail planes from the Standard Aircraft Corporation.
And as they say, the rest is history. And a joy to collect!
