Airmail in the United States

¶ … Airmail in the United States

In the Age of Information, many observers suggest that email, instant and text messaging have virtually replaced the need for a national postal service in the United States, but the fact remains the U.S. Postal Service continues to deliver billions of pieces of mail each year and represents the largest service of its kind in the world. Although various classes of mail receive different levels of treatment, much of the U.S. mail continues to be delivered by air following a long tradition established more than 90 years ago. Indeed, the importance of air mail service to the development of the United States cannot be overstated, having contributed to both the development of the interior portions of the country as well as promoting interest and investment in aviation research and development that continues today. To gain some further insights into these issues, this paper provides an examination of the history and importance of airmail, including a discussion of the Contract Airmail Act, the Air Commerce Act, airmail during World Wars I and II, and how airmail and cargo fits into today's economy. A summary of the research and important findings are provided in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion

Background and Overview.

Today, the U.S. Postal Service delivers almost half of the entire world's card and letter mail using an assortment of "planes, trains, trucks, cars, boats, ferries, helicopters, bicycles, hovercrafts, subways and even mules" (Fact and figures about the Postal Service, 2008, p. 3). The history of the Postal Service's use of airplanes to deliver mail throughout the United States and abroad, though, is certainly not new and is as colorful as the early pioneers that barnstormed their way across the country, introducing aviation to all comers. Nevertheless, many people today may not realize that the history of air mail in the United States is fundamentally different from that of passenger services. In this regard, one historian notes that, "The Post Office Department's most extraordinary role in transportation was probably played in the sky, a role, unfortunately, little known today other than to postal employees and the pioneers of American aviation" (U.S. Postal System 1775-1993, 2008, p. 3). Likewise, in 1941, Glover and Cornell reported that, "The aeronautical industry of today is in reality two industries. One is concerned with the manufacture of airplanes, engines, and such accessories as propellers, tires and instruments; the other, with the transportation of mail, passengers, and merchandise on regular schedules over established routes. The problems and history of each are quite different" (emphasis added) (p. 707).

Although the pace of research and development in the aviation industry would gain incredible speed in later years, the United States government was initially reluctant to invest much time or resources in the newly invented airplane. For example, "In 1905, the War Department refused three separate offers by the Wright brothers to share their scientific discoveries on air flights. Even after the brothers had satisfied many European nations in 1908 that air flight was feasible, America owned only one dilapidated plane" (U.S. Postal System 1775-1993, p. 4). By sharp contrast, the U.S. Post Office Department, as it was called at the time, believed that airplanes held some significant promise for their purposes and authorized the first experimental mail flight in 1911 during an aviation meet on Long Island in New York (U.S. Postal System 1775-1993).

Likewise, while regular air mail service was still in the future, there were still some signs that things were changing in major ways both in terms of the technology involved as well as how people were viewing the airplane. For example, "Earle Ovington, sworn in as a mail carrier by Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock, made daily flights between Garden City and Mineola, New York, dropping his mail bags from the plane to the ground where they were picked up by the Mineola postmaster. Later, in 1911 and 1912, the Department authorized 52 experimental flights at fairs, carnivals, and air meets in more than 25 states" (U.S. Postal System 1775-1993, p. 4).

Based on the positive results from these early experimental flights, the Post Office recognized the potential for airplanes to carry a payload of mail, and postal authorities sought approval from Congress after 1912 to appropriate money to begin regular air mail service in the United States; as a result, Congress appropriated $50,000 from the budget for steam-and-powerboat service and additional air mail experiments were continued during 1916 (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1993). It is important to keep in mind that these early efforts by the Post Office to apply these new technologies to the task at hand must have been a risky endeavor since the advent of flight was so recent and the amounts of money involved, though small by current measures, were significant at the time. The Post Office placed requests for proposals for bids in both Massachusetts and Alaska; however, it failed to receive any bids that would provide the service with aircraft useable for their purpose (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1993). Despite these initial setbacks, though, Congress appropriated an additional $100,000 in 1918 to establish further experimental air mail routes, and the Post Office Department sought the assistance of the Army Signal Corps to provide the service with both planes and pilots for its initial air mail service. This approach was viewed as a win-win situation by both the Post Office as well as the military authorities involved: "Carrying the mail, the Department argued, would provide invaluable cross-country experience to student flyers. The Secretary of War agreed" (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1993, p. 5).

In fact, the evolution of the aviation industry in the U.S. largely parallels the development of air mail service as well. For instance, by the turn of the 20th century, people in the United States had become accustomed to traveling long distances by trains which offered a number of advantages over other forms of existing transportation, including aircraft. As Heppenheimer (2001) points out, "The railroads had a quarter million miles of right-of-way in service, and offered both comfort and speed. Airplanes were faster, but not by much, and train stations were located downtown, where they offered particular convenience" (p. 154). It appears reasonable to assert that the introduction of air mail service and the competition for government contracts was responsible in large part for changing this perception among the general public early on. For example, according to Malin (1930), "The first field of government activity in civil aviation was the establishment of air-mail service between Washington and New York in May, 1918. This was owned and operated by the government. In 1919 the first division of transcontinental service was opened from Chicago to Cleveland, and during the next year the Cleveland-New York division and the Chicago-San Francisco division. Until 1924, when night flying was begun, the service was by train and plane" (p. 153). The first U.S. Postal Air Mail Service pilot was Max Miller, who flew a 1916 Curtiss JN-4D "Jenny" aircraft with a maximum speed of 75 miles per hour (see Figure 1 below) (Boston, 2005).

Figure 1. Curtiss JN-4D "Jenny" aircraft.

Source: 146th Airlift Wing, 2007 at https://www.146aw.ca.ang.af.mil/aircraft.htm.

During its first quarter of operations, the Post Office employed Army pilots only as well as six Jenny training planes of the Army (JN-4Hs) as shown in Figure 1 above (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1998). According to these historians, "On August 12, 1918, the Post Office took over all phases of the airmail service, using newly hired civilian pilots and mechanics and six specially built mail planes from the Standard Aircraft Corporation" (U.S. Postal System 1775-1993, p. 5). In fact, there were truly "daring young men" in some otherwise primitive flying machines. "These early mail planes had no instruments, radios, or other navigational aids. Pilots flew by dead reckoning or 'by the seat of their pants.' Forced landings occurred frequently because of bad weather, but fatalities in those early months were rare, largely because of the small size, maneuverability, and slow landing speed of the planes" (U.S. Postal System 1775-1993, pp. 5-6).

The "invisible hand" played a role in how air mail evolved as well, with the American public making it clear early on what type of air mail services they were willing to support and how much they were willing to pay for it. For instance, although Congress had set air mail postage rates at 24 cents (including special delivery), most people refused to pay for the more costly service and regular mail articles accounted for fully 50% of the mail carried by air mail service airplanes during the first year of regular service (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1993, 2008).

The Post Office's long-term plans for expanding air mail service to the entire country began with an envisioned transcontinental air route stretching from New York to San Francisco in order to improve service and reduce delivery times in large part to help overcome the American public initial reluctance to use the more expensive air mail service. The first segment of this transcontinental route began service in 1919 and ran from Cleveland to Chicago, with a layover in Bryan, Ohio; from there, the air mail planes traveled to New York and Cleveland with another layover at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1993). A third segment of this transcontinental route was established in 1920 and ran from Chicago to Omaha by way of Iowa City, with feeder lines to this primary route being provided from St. Louis and Minneapolis to Chicago (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1993). The final transcontinental segment was established on September 8, 1920 and ran from Omaha to San Francisco by way of North Platte, Cheyenne, Rawlins, Rock Springs, Salt Lake City, Elko, and Reno (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1993).

One of the more interesting aspects of this early transcontinental route was the need to remove all of the mail from airplanes at the end of the day and place it on trains for continuation of the service at night by trains since these early aircraft were unable to fly at night; despite this added contrast, though, the transcontinental route was truly a "Pony Express" of the era and managed to improve delivery times over train-only delivery service by almost a full day (22 hours) (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1993).

Another innovation that can be directly tied to the introduction of air mail service in the United States was the push to establish more radio stations across the country in order to provide air mail service pilots with timely weather information that was required to transport the mail across country. In response to this need, the Post Office started installation of radio stations at each of its air fields in August, 1920 and by November of that year, ten ratio stations were in operation (including two Navy stations) (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1993). According to these historians, "When airmail traffic permitted, other government departments used the radios instead of the telegraph for special messages, and the Department of Agriculture transmitted weather forecasts and stock market reports over the radios" (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1993, p. 6).

From its beginnings just a year-and-a-half before, the Post Office succeeded in transporting air mail across the country by February 22, 1921, and airplanes were flying at night by this time as well, thereby eliminating the time-consuming step of taking the mail off planes and placing on trains at night. In response to these successes, the U.S. Congress appropriated an additional $1,250,000 to further expand air mail service, with much of this allocation being devoted to providing improved ground facilities (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1993). Here again, these early efforts on the part of the government and the Post Office Department were directly responsible for contributing to the creation of an aviation industry infrastructure that would continue to facilitate growth in the industry for years to come. Based on this supplemental appropriation, the Post Office built additional landing fields, towers, beacons, searchlights, and boundary markers across the nation; in addition, the department also provided its aircraft with equipment that would contribute to flight safety at night, including luminescent instruments, navigational lights, and parachute flares (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1993). As a result of its effort to improve service and pilot safety during these early years of flight, the Post Office was awarded the Collier Trophy for its significant contributions to the development of aeronautics, especially its safety record, and for demonstrating the feasibility of night flying in 1922 and 1923; in addition, an airmail pilot received the first Harmon Trophy for advancing aviation in 1926 (U.S. Postal System 1775-1993).

Thereafter, Chicago was designated as the hub for the nation's midcontinental service, with lateral lines being established by 1928 with St. Paul, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Detroit, San Antonio, and Galveston by way of Kansas City and Dallas. Salt Lake City became the center of mountain service, with radiating lines, by 1928, through Boise to Pasco, Washington, then to Great Falls, Montana and subsequently to Los Angeles (Malin). In addition, Pacific-coast lines connected San Francisco north to Seattle and south to Los Angeles. Atlantic-coast lines reached New Orleans and Miami (Malin). In the midst of all of this innovation and development, a series of important legislative initiatives would further fuel growth in both the aviation industry and air mail service as well, and these are discussed further below.

The Contract Air Mail Act.

In 1925, Congress passed the Contract Air Mail Act which provided that the nation's airmail routes were to be assigned to commercial carriers, which would serve particular connections under contract (Heppenheimer, 2001). It is significant to note, though, that these early airlines were nothing like their modern-day counterparts. In this regard, Heppenheimer emphasizes that, "These carriers were not major enterprises with coast-to-coast service, such as the future TWA or American Airlines. They were more like Robertson Aircraft Corporation, which carried the mail from St. Louis to Chicago, numbering Lindbergh as one of its pilots. Even so, with airmail providing a steady source of revenue, this law encouraged the growth of start-up airlines that had considerably better prospects. These start-ups carried mail, not passengers; if they indeed carried paying travelers, it was merely as a sideline. But they provided day-by-day scheduled flights along marked routes, thereby laying groundwork for the passenger lines of subsequent years" (p. 154). In his book, Eastern's Armageddon, Saunders (1992) reports that, "In the early 1920s, civil aviation consisted mainly of 'barnstorming, stunt flying, and occasional charter trips.' Everything changed in 1925 when the Contract Air Mail Act was passed. Sponsored by Pennsylvania Representative Clarence Kelly, the bill gave the job of flying the mail to private contractors. Thousands of bids began pouring in within weeks. Among the successful bidders was Pitcairn Aviation," the predecessor to Eastern Airlines (p. 24). By mid- 1928, Pitcairn was responsible for carrying almost 33% of all of the nation's total airmail mileage (Saunders).

According to Duke and Torres (2005), "The air transportation industry has experienced rapid growth since its origins dating back to the Contract Air Mail Act of 1925, and this growth has been accompanied by growth in the quantity and complexity of the capital stock. A number of important technological innovations -- before and during regulation -- made airplanes safer, faster, and more efficient, helping to attract passengers away from other means of transportation such as railroads" (p. 33). In his book, Government Regulation of Transportation, Johnson (1938) reports that, "The substitution of contract service in place of government transportation of air mail was made possible by the passage of the Air Mail Act approved February 2, 1925. Congress had regarded the performance of the service by the Government as a temporary measure to be given up when regular air-line carriers had become able to perform the service under contract" (p. 604).

Pursuant to authority provided the postmaster general by the Act of 1925, the postal service arranged periodic contracts whereby service over one route after another was arranged for; and, by the end of 1927, Johnson notes that, "the Post Office Department had ceased to concern itself with the operation of a roplanes and with the creation and equipment of airways" (p. 604). Likewise, Malin reports that, "Air-mail postage was fixed by act of Congress (May 10, 1918) at not to exceed twenty-four cents an ounce or a fraction thereof. The service was operated by the Postmaster General until 1926" (Malin, p. 154).

The prevailing sentiment against government operation, except in the experimental stage, when the government was to bear the losses, dictated a transfer to private operation. An act of February 2, 1925, was passed "to encourage commercial aviation and to authorize the Postmaster-General to contract for air-mail service" (quoted in Mailin at p. 155). Postage rates at the time were to be not less than ten cents an ounce and contracts with private operators were stipulated to not exceed four-fifths of the revenues that were collected for air mail and were not to exceed four fifths of the revenues from other first-class mail (Malin). According to this historian, "The contract price was changed by an act of June 3, 1926, to a fixed rate per pound. Rates for air mail were not to exceed three dollars per pound for the first thousand miles and thirty cents per pound for each additional hundred miles. Rates on other first-class mail were not to exceed sixty cents per pound for the first thousand miles and six cents for each additional hundred" (Malin, p. 155). During Fiscal Year 1928, air mail contractors were paid $4,042,777 for transporting 1,861,800 pounds of mail; because the average piece of first-class mail weighed 0.433 ounce, the receipts from postage represented approximately $3,425,712 (Malin).

The transfer to private operation was completed rapidly, the last contract (the one covering the New York to Chicago division) being announced April 3, 1927, at $1.24 per pound to the National Air Transport, Inc. (N a.T.). This company also operated the Chicago-Dallas line. These mail contracts were in the nature of a subsidy to commercial aviation, since it was intended that the private operators should develop express and passenger service along with mail service. At the end of 1928 the air-mail fliers were traveling 25,385 miles daily (Malin, p. 156).

The postal rate actually charged under the act of 1925 was ten cents per half ounce. An act of May 17, 1928, reduced the minimum rate to five cents per ounce. The new schedule was announced to take effect on August 1 at five cents for the first ounce and ten cents for each additional ounce. The act also provided that mail contracts on air routes might be extended for ten years after the service had been successfully handled for two years. The effect of the new rate was reported by the Post Office Department, December 5, 1928, to have about doubled the amount of mail handled. The annual deficit was estimated at from $5,000,000 to $7,000,000 (Malin).

The first step in the crafting of a comprehensive national policy for civil aviation was undertaken by President Woodrow Wilson in his recommendations to Congress on February 26, 1919 concerning the National Advisory Commission for a ronautics's legislation which would assign licensing and regulation of aviation responsibilities to the Department of Commerce; however, no action was taken on the proposal at the time (Malin). By November, 1925, though, a report on civil aviation was provided by a committee appointed by the Department of Commerce with the American Engineering Council; J. Walker Drake, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, was chairman of the committee (Malin). This early report indicated that in 1918, there were 24 airplane factories in the United States with a combined capital investment of $22,000,000; by 1925 these numbers had decreased to fourteen plants with a total capital investment of $4,000,000 (Malin). This decrease was attributed to the U.S. government's failure after the armistice to "formulate and put into operation a continuing aviation policy" (quoted in Malin at p. 155). These deficiencies were recommended to be resolved at the earliest opportunity, as well as providing the following additional recommendations:

The government should license pilots and inspect planes.

It should "develop, establish, or take over and maintain air routes and air navigation facilities," marking and lighting airways and emergency landing fields.

The International Air Convention of 1919 should be ratified.

The government should engage in no flying activities which could be "properly performed by private operation," and the use of aircraft should be extended in all practicable fields.

Congress should authorize a reasonable use of army, navy, and air-mail fields for commercial aircraft.

Air mail should be transferred to private operation.

Government research should be conducted in aircraft design, and special types of aircraft should be purchased by the government from private builders.

Competitive bidding should be abolished and provision made for "equitable compensation to the manufacturer for design and development of aircraft."

The export of aircraft should be encouraged, not restricted because of fear of military use (Malin).

Clearly, the Contract Mail Act of 1925 was also responsible for fueling an enormous amount of research and development that contributing to the rapid evolution of the aviation industry in the United States during this period. Following hard on the heels of the Contract Mail Act, and further facilitating the development of the aviation industry in the United States, though, was the Air Commerce Act of 1926 which is discussed further below.

The Air Commerce Act of 1926.

By 1926, the rapidly burgeoning aviation industry in the United States was given additional impetus by the Air Commerce Act. In this regard, Poole reports that, "The Air Commerce Act of 1926 provided further encouragement to the development of commercial aviation. With its passage, government assumed the costs of navigation and airport development and responsibility for airline safety" (p. 2). According to De Syon (2004), "The growing pains of commercial aviation had led to the Air Commerce Act of 1926" (p. 56). In fact, the Air Commerce Act of 1926 established federal sovereignty over the airspace of the United States, thereby establishing the foundation for today's Federal Aviation Administration (Poole). Likewise, other historians note that the Air Commerce Act of 1926 established the authority of the Federal government to regulate routes, rates, and safety standards and as a result, "By the end of the 1920s, aviation was an increasingly accepted mode of modern transportation with enough momentum to weather the hard times of the Great Depression" (Heroes of the sky, p. 8).

The Air Commerce Act of 1926 was approved by the president on May 20 of that year, and the act was applicable to both interstate and foreign air commerce and tasked the U.S. Secretary of Commerce with further developing air commerce as follows:

To encourage the establishment of air ports, civil airways, and navigation facilities;

To make recommendations to the Secretary of Agriculture as to necessary meteorological service;

To study the possibilities for the development of air commerce, a ronautical industry, and trade in the United States and to collect and disseminate information relating thereto;

To advise with the Bureau of Standards and other executive agencies to promote research;

To investigate, record, and publish a report of accidents; and,

To exchange information with foreign governments (cited in Malin at p. 156).

At the time, regulatory powers embodied in the act allowed the registration of aircraft at the request of the owner; however, in order to be registered as an aircraft in the United States, the aircraft must have been owned by a citizen of the United States or by a government agency of the United States or a subdivision of the United States and ratings were to be provided for airworthiness of craft and for airmen (Malin).

One of the fundamental intents of the transfer of the air mail to commercial providers was to help facilitate the development of express and passenger service. According to this historian, "The American Express Company announced a contract with the National Air Transport on November 8, 1926, service to begin on or before April 15, 1927, on two routes -- New York to Chicago, and Chicago to Dallas" (Malin, p. 158). Thereafter, contracts were awarded to the Boeing Air Transport to provide express service from Chicago to San Francisco and with the Western Air Express from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles; these contracts permitted service to begin September 1 with the goal of providing a 31-hour service link between New York and San Francisco on July 20, 1927 (Malin).

Air Mail During World Wars I and II.

The importance of air mail service during World Wars I and II related to the need for government communications with its far-flung operations as well as providing morale boosters for the troops in the field. Once again, air mail service would contribute to the development and evolution of the aviation industry in substantive ways. For instance, prior to World War I, human flight was still regarded largely as a novelty experience and aircraft design had not changed in substantive ways since the Wright brothers refined their aircraft in 1905 to become a stable and controllable flying platform (Heroes of the sky, 2004). As one authority notes, "Planes had few instruments for safety and navigation, and flying continued to involve life-or-death risks. No larger infrastructure was yet in place for airplane landing, storage, maintenance, or continuing research and development" (Heroes of the sky, p. 8).

By the time the United States entered the First World War, U.S. government control of all communications was authorized by a joint resolution approved July 16, 1918 (Malin). According to Syon (2004):

Early air transport lore likes to recount the heroic running of the mail routes in the interwar years and how mismanagement of air mail subsidies forced the government to step in and cancel existing contracts while airlines consolidated. Most accounts agree that airlines built their own route system and, thus, overlook the level of governmental involvement in the process. In fact, federal participation existed at several levels from aircraft technical requirements, to the establishment of navigational standards, to the indirect subsidizing of the nascent airline industry through mail contracts" (p. 56).

During the war years, though, the airplane industry was transformed in further dramatical ways: "Spurred by national pride and a sense of urgency, the government stepped in to boost development, forging a permanent link with aviation" (Heroes of the sky, p. 8). After World War I, the American public would become enamored with the prospect of flight. Although the motion picture industry promoted the concept of flight through both films and celebrity endorsements, the so-called "barnstormers" were responsible for most of the publicity for this fundamental shift in perception. According to these historians, "Unlike pre-war exhibition fliers -- who tended to perform where large crowds could be gathered -- now the 'aerial gypsies' gave demonstrations or riders for any audiences anywhere. In fact, Charles Lindbergh began his career as a barnstormer. Of course, no flight was more celebrated than Lindbergh's solo, nonstop trip from New York to Paris in 1927, which galvanized the nation and caused a celebration unlike anything ever witnessed in American public life" (Heroes of the sky, p. 8).

While these high-profile activities were responsible for attracting much attention and helped to convince the American public of the viability of regional and transcontinental air service, the aviation industry itself was also busy. Indeed, during the "War to End All Wars," the shift to commercial providers was responsible for a number of innovations that continued to influence the aviation industry in the next world war, as well as today. As these historians emphasize, "At the same time the industry was coming into its own. Airplanes were proving themselves useful in dozens of ways. While the U.S. Air Mail commenced in 1918, it was the transfer of this service to commercial careers in 1925 that spurred the serious development of the fledgling airlines as well as encouraging new safer airplane designs, infrastructure developments, and related industries" (Heroes of the sky, p. 8).

According to Syon (2004), "Early air transport lore likes to recount the heroic running of the mail routes in the interwar years and how mismanagement of air mail subsidies forced the government to step in and cancel existing contracts while airlines consolidated" (p. 56). Even though there was a great deal of private investment and entrepreneurship involved during these early years of flight, the importance of the U.S. government's efforts to provide regular air mail service across the country was responsible for much of this interest. As Syon emphasizes, "Most accounts agree that airlines built their own route system and, thus, overlook the level of governmental involvement in the process. In fact, federal participation existed at several levels from aircraft technical requirements, to the establishment of navigational standards, to the indirect subsidizing of the nascent airline industry through mail contracts" (p. 56).