History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. ~Winston Churchill

04 June, 2011

By Air Mail

More photographs of those postal men and their flying machines. The sequel, of course, to this blog's first airmail post .



The first day of airmail service in the United States, May 15, 1918, with pilot Lt. Torrey Webb. Source




Unloading the first airmail plane to fly across the continent in 1924, at Omaha, Nebraska. Source




Pilot Eddie Gardner with his plane, 1918. Source




Pilot Robert Shank (one of the first four airmail pilots) after a crash, 1918. Source




The airmail field and hangar at Omaha, Nebraska, 1927. Source




Airmail plane taking off, undated. Source




Photograph of pilot Arthur Roy Smith, who flew for the airmail service from 1923 until his death in a crash in 1926. Despite the skill of the pilots, crashes were sometimes unavoidable and several pilots were killed in the decade of airmail.  Source




Pilot John F. Milanzo, c. 1924. He flew with the airmail service from 1923-1927, when he sadly became the last pilot killed while working for the airmail service, his plane crashing in an April snowstorm. Source




Pilot Lt. James Edgerton and his sister, 1918. Edgerton was one of a group of army pilots who were the first to fly mail for the Postal Service. Source




Pilot William Carroll, c.1921. Sadly, in February of that year he and two other men were killed when their airmail plane burst into flames and crashed. Source




Pilot William C. Hopson in winter flying gear, c.1926. Source

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I want to fly in a biplane, hopefully not in a snowstorm though. Some of those pilots looked like movie stars.

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