![]() ![]() Most were placed on a skeleton tower approximately 50 feet in height and powered by a generator, gas, or local power and used by air mail pilots for night flying. They are sites along an airway that consisted of a rotating navigational beacon. The beacons were spaced closer together near mountainous terrain and further apart in flat, open plains.īeacon stations were developed for night and poor visibility flying conditions. Between these fields, at 3-mile intervals, 289 flashing gas beacons - each visible for up to 9 miles - clearly showed the way through the air corridor. Emergency landing fields were constructed every 25 miles, clearly identified by revolving beacon lights that could be seen for up to 80 miles. Its location permitted aircraft to depart from either coast in the morning and reach the lighted airway before night. The first segment was 885 miles between Chicago and Cheyenne, Wyoming. ![]() ![]() The ambitious plan was almost comical in its simplicity. The answer came in the form of the Transcontinental Airway System. If airmail over long distances was to be successful, something had to be done to allow pilots to fly at night without getting lost or endangering themselves. Air mail route (Click on image to expand) Harding considered prohibiting airmail altogether. The practice was so hazardous, in fact, that President Warren G. On average, airmail pilots spent 900 hours in flight before being permanently retired by a fatal crash. Consequently, efforts to fly in darkness or during bad weather had a nasty tendency to result in pilots getting lost and getting dead. Radar, wireless communication, and other navigational tools were yet to be available. In those early days of aviation, pilots navigated by dead reckoning, using visual landmarks to help keep them on course. The problem with regular nighttime flying was navigation. The flight was successful, and Congress responded by appropriating $1,250,000 in support of expanded nighttime delivery of the mail. This was the first time mail flew during the night as well as day. When you consider that a train, without the help of an airplane, could accomplish the same task in 108 hours, there didn’t seem to be a lot about the airmail system to get excited about.Īn all-airplane airmail delivery from San Francisco to New York was attempted on February 22, 1921. Using this method, a letter could make it from one coast to the other in 79 hours. The train took over during the night hours until again handing the mail off to a waiting plane once there was enough light to be able to see. As the sun started to set, the pilots landed near a railroad depot and offloaded the mail to a train. Pilots flew the mail as far as possible during daylight hours. Through an arrangement between the Postmaster General and the Secretary of War, Army Signal Corps pilots and planes were assigned to start regular airmail serve between New York City and Washington, D.C.Įarly attempts at involving airplanes in coast-to-coast mail delivery divided the responsibilities with trains. It wasn’t until 1917 that Congress got around to appropriating funds to establish a permanent airmail service. Eight pilots were sworn in as “aeroplane mail carriers.” From September 23 to October 1, 1911, the pilots flew bags of mail, dropping them from the plane to the ground, where an awaiting representative of the Postal Service took custody. As an experiment, he authorized mail flights from Garden City Estates, New York to Mineola, New York. Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock was one person who saw promise in airmail. … postmen will wear wired coat tails and on their feet will be wings.” The New York Telegraph scoffed at the concept, saying that the notion might as well be envisioned as “Love letters will be carried in a rose-pink aeroplane, steered by Cupid’s wings and operated by perfumed gasoline. ![]() Evidently, not everyone had confidence in the newfangled flying machines. On June 14, 1910, Texas Congressman Morris Sheppard introduced legislation to authorize the Postmaster General to investigate the feasibility of “an aeroplane or airship mail route.” The bill died in committee. It did not take long after the Wright Brothers’ historic first flight before the plans for mail delivery envisioned the use of the airplane. The Pony Express, Transcontinental Railroad, and automotive delivery systems fueled the public’s desire to communicate and do business over long distances in as little time as possible. Mail delivery has always attempted to employ cutting-edge methods to increase the speed of its service. What are these arrows? What are they pointing toward? Who put them there? To find the answer to these questions, we must navigate our way through the early days of aviation, mail delivery, and the ever-present desire to speed up the means of communication. ![]()
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