May 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the first U.S. government airmail flight. To honor that milestone, a collection of classic airmail planes from 1931 will fly the original Contract Air Mail Route 8 (C.A.M. 8) from San Diego to Seattle. The flight is scheduled for Sunday, May 13-Friday, May 18.
Aircraft on the flight include a Model 4DM-1 owned by Addision Pemberton and two Model 4EM-1s owned by Jeff Hamilton and Ben Scott.
The 2018 flight is sponsored by the nonprofit Western Antique Airplane and Automobile Museum of Hood River, Oregon and endorsed by the U.S. Postal Service. The biplanes will carry commemorative envelopes that will be officially postmarked at each of the 12 stops. Delivery of traditional residential and business mail will not be affected.
Those interested in the flight can follow at the groups official website.
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Captain Flett is correct in that there were 52 experiments that were conducted by the US PostalService between 1912 to 1913.
mallhistory.org/items/show/28
For the commererative flight though there appears to be a conflict given the following account.
Title
US Airmail Service Begins
Description
The first airplane carrying US mail left the Washington Polo Grounds, now in West Potomac Park, on May 15, 1918. The US Post Office Department created air mail service to speed up the delivery of mail traveling between Washington, Philadelphia, and New York. President Woodrow Wilson presided at this event that drew a large crowd of spectators to the southwest end of the Mall. US Army Lieutenant George L. Boyle piloted the inaugural flight, but it never reached Philadelphia. Boyle crash landed near Waldorf, Maryland. After a rough first day, the post office began moving mail by planes regularly.
Source
Internal Archive, National Parks Service.
Date
05/15/1918
URL mallhistory.org/items/show/221
Following my post I did go to the CAM8FLIGHT web sight and the flight from Potomac Park is cited. As it appears here in the GA News site it leaves one with the impression that the west coast flight was taking that credit. It seems that Captain Flett is under the same impression. It is clear that they are celebrating the event by flying the contract route on the West Coast and not claiming it was the first route.
Hello Michael. I apologize for an confusion I caused. That was certainly not my intention. This flight is celebrating 100 years of airmail by recreating the CAM 8 route.
Looks like the 1918 LT had a rough flight on the way to his Waldorf MD crash site. Waldorf is SSE of DC, not on the way to Philly. May weather in DC area can be low overcast/fog; he may have been looking for the Chesapeake to follow north.
Hat’s off to those making this historic flight.
The U S Postal Service recognizes inventor and an entrepreneur Earl Ovington as the First [official] Aeroplane Mail Carrier. His September 23, 1911 from Garden City, New York to the nearby town of Mineola at an altitude of approximately 500 feet placed him in the record books.
Read all about it: www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=%22Earle+Ovington%22
These milestone events in Aviation are very important. Each aviation event that justified the value of the new technology, “The Aeroplane”, brought civilization large leaps forward.
Many prominent people of the day thought the “Flying Machine” had little value and was too dangerous. After the Airmail route proved to be more reliable then the horse and motor vehicles traveling over dirt trails, Aviation connected the world. At the time trains did not go many different cities and the mail still had to be distributed throughout by dusty, muddy, rocky trails with few bridges.
As a young man, I had the honor of knowing a couple of these pioneers and their stories first hand. The early pilots had overcome so many obstacles with such primitive resources. This 100 year landmark celebration should go viral on every young persons social media page. Educating these new young innovators of our history is the motivation that will keep them going especially when an experiment or endeavor goes wrong. History of our fathers will bring out ambition that is so lacking of so many.
Most of the people that will take the time to read this have already “been there and done that”. Our greatest contribution at this point is to get our stories out to every mind starving for knowledge. I know you know this but I’m reminding you.
Actually, the very first” airmail was unofficial airmail flight flown by Fred Wiseman, who carried three letters between Petaluma and Santa Rosa, California, on February 17, 1911.
This is a great way to remember history. My Grandfather flew the mail route in the Midwest during the thirties. Way different times from today in the avaiation industry! Thank you for keeping history alive!