Air Mail Flights

By Johnny McDonald

They were lonely and courageous flying eagles controlling bucking, vibrating bi-planes across the country on dangerous daily mail runs.

Four times a week they took off from San Francisco or New York in an open cockpit, single-engine DeHalviland or Curtiss R4s (known as Jennys) with 400 pounds of mail. This was standard operating procedure from 1918 to 1928.

With a couple stops along the way, they could cover the 2,630 miles in about 36 hours flying time if the wind was kind. Time on the ground could extend the mission to as much as 72 hours.

The San Francisco-to-New York mileage constituted all but 825 miles of the total for the Air Mail service.

The DeHavilands, acquired from the Army Air Corps, were refitted for postal specifications. Later, the Jennys supplemented the new air force.

San Diego’s Aerospace Museum in Balboa Park has a Jenny, flown by stunt man, Frank Tallman in the movie “Spirit of St. Louis” which covered Charles Lindbergh’s mail run days.

An early mail flight experiment was made in 1910 with the venerable pioneer aviator Glenn L. Martin out of Los Angeles’ Dominguez Field.

As a rule, postal pilots went alone but occasionally there might be a passenger or two. It was still lonely 2,500 feet up there because engine noise eliminated conversation.

The flights were called 20th Century’s version of the Pony Express. At least they didn’t have to contend with robbers and broken-down horses. Customary running times for trains in 1921 was five full days and nights.

First step was a daylight run, splitting the profiles of the Rockies and Sierras (looking for passes) to Cheyenne. A faster pace over the plains from Cheyenne to Chicago was possible by night flying. Air distance was 800 miles. The toughest was navigating over the Allegheny Mountains.

Navigation was relatively simple. A turn in a river, railroad bridge or scattered houses of a town along the course were guideposts. The route was charted like a road map. Conflicting currents and winds would snap across the wings.

In 1921, 224,000 letters were carried and the average load was 400 pounds.

There was a calculated risk to get that mail through and 43 were killed and 306 injured in a 10-year span. That number included mechanics, superintendents and passengers

A flight roster consisted of four regular fliers and two reserves with six planes available. A refueling stop was at Canute Field in Rantoal, Ill.

Maywood Field was the Chicago terminal and Forest Park landing field at St. Louis served as the air mail activity center. In 1918, $100,000 was appropriated for the service and by 1928 it reached $21 million. The first year there were 16,009 trips and 10 years later they jumped to 173,987.

Pilots received $2,000 a year salary and 5 cents a mile for the distance flown. So a regular pilot could make between $3,000 and $6,000.

“The fliers in the air mail service have to be twice as proficient as those in the military service,” commented J.C. Stanton, then superintendent of operations. “They go out under all sorts of weather conditions, winter and summer. The mail flyers cannot select their days. Their job is before them...that of getting the mail to the destination.”