Henry Ford was one of the first Americans to profit from carrying mail and cargo. He began by carrying cargo in 1923 and went on to win two airmail contracts in 1925, flying his Ford Trimotor aircraft.
The Boeing 40-C could accommodate a pilot, the mail, two passengers, and their baggage.
William P. MacCracken became Assistant Secretary of commerce on August 11, 1926. Here he poses (left) with his new boss, Secretary Herbert Hoover.
Acquired from the military service and modified so they could carry 400 pounds of mail, the de Havilland 4s were the backbone of the U.S. airmail service.
National Air Transport, a predecessor of United Airlines, was awarded the contract in May 1926 to fly the mail between Chicago and Dallas
The Ryan M-1 was the first plane for Pacific Air Transport, which flew the Seattle-Los Angeles mail route.
The Douglas M-2 was flown by Western Air Express, which eventually became part of Transcontinental & Western Air, Inc. It would fly the New York-Los Angeles route.
An airmail pickup around 1927.
This map shows the stops on the original airmail route. The transcontinental route appears as a solid black line. The contract routes are in white, and the overnight sections are in black and white and run at this time only between Chicago and New York.
This map shows the sections of the airmail route that were lighted at the end of 1927.
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Airmail: The Air Mail Act of 1925 Through 1929
As airmail began crossing the country successfully in the mid-1920s, railroad
owners started complaining that this government-sponsored enterprise
was cutting into their business. They found a friendly ear in Congressman
Clyde Kelly of Pennsylvania, chairman of the House Post Office Committee,
who largely represented railroad interests. On February 2, 1925,
he sponsored H.R. 7064: the Contract Air Mail Bill, which, when
enacted, became the Air Mail Act of 1925 or the Kelly Act. The act
authorized the postmaster general to contract for domestic airmail
service with commercial air carriers. It also set airmail rates
and the level of cash subsidies to be paid to companies that carried
the mail. As Kelly explained: The act “permits the expansion of
the air mail service without burden upon the taxpayers….” By transferring
airmail operations to private companies, the government effectively
would help create the commercial aviation industry. The first sign of commercial
interest came on April 3, 1925, when the automaker Henry Ford opened a private
air freight service between Detroit and Chicago. Soon after, when bids were
solicited for the first contract routes, there was no shortage of interested
companies submitting bids stating how much they would charge the government. Eighty percent of the stamp money
received by the Post Office was to be paid to the airmail carriers. The
quantity of stamps needed depended on the weight of the mail and also on how
many of the three zones the mail had to cross. (The country had been divided
into three air zones on July 1, 1924.) Companies saw that they would make more
money if they carried smaller but heavier pieces of mail. Also, since they
would receive the same amount of money no matter how many miles they flew
within a zone, they preferred to fly shorter distances within a single zone and
save some operating costs. Harry S. New, postmaster general
under President Calvin Coolidge, wanted the airmail carriers to expand their
routes and to buy larger airplanes to carry more passengers. He awarded
contracts only to the largest companies that bought the largest aircraft, which
could accommodate more passengers as well as the mail. New realized that if the
airlines sold more passenger tickets, which then numbered only a few hundred
each year, they could carry less mail and still make a profit. The companies
would receive their income from passengers rather than from the Post Office as
payment for carrying the mail. New awarded eight airmail routes to seven
airmail carriers, beginning in October 1925. One carrier, Ford Air Transport,
won two of the routes and was the first to fly airmail under contract, starting
on February 15, 1926. The postmaster general noticed
that airmail operators continued to fly only the shortest routes within their
zone, since they would receive no more stamp money for flying longer distances
within that zone. To remedy this, on June 3, 1926, the Kelly Act was amended to
instead pay $3.00 per pound of mail (454 grams) for the first 1,000 miles
(1,600 kilometers) and 30 cents per pound for each additional 100 miles (160
kilometers). In May 1926, Congress passed the
Air Commerce Act, which gave the government responsibility for fostering air
commerce, establishing airways and aids to air navigation, and making and
enforcing safety rules. Under this act, the government supplied money for air
navigation facilities so that the routes would become safer to fly, day and
night. Management of the route system moved to the new Aeronautics Branch of
the Department of Commerce, which was established in August under the
leadership of William MacCracken. By the early part of 1926,
contract airmail carriers flew most of the airmail, but government airmail
pilots in government airplanes still flew the transcontinental route connecting
San Francisco, Omaha, Chicago and New York. This transcontinental line was
divided into two segments in 1927. Boeing began contract service on the western
sector, between Chicago and San Francisco, on July 1, 1927. National Air
Transport took over the eastern sector,
between New York and Chicago, on September 1, 1927. Now, all airmail operations
had shifted to private companies flying with their own pilots and aircraft. Other changes were made too. Most
of the airfields on the route system had been paid for and managed by the
Federal Government through the Post Office Department. They were now handed
over to the local government near each airfield to pay for and manage, except
for the important mail centers of Omaha and San Francisco and possibly Chicago.
In July 1927, the Department of Commerce took over the construction and
maintenance of the still-incomplete transcontinental lighted airway. In
addition to hundreds of light beacons, the airway's facilities included 95
emergency landing fields and 17 radio stations that had been built since 1921
to provide pilots with weather information. Improved aircraft technology helped
increase the volume of mail and freight that could be carried. Some airplanes
could carry passengers, baggage, and airmail. Air-cooled engines replaced
water-cooled engines. Some of the new engines generated more than 450
horsepower (336 kilowatts) and helped airlines improve on the average speed of
110 miles per hour (176 kilometers per hour). In 1928, the Post Office gave
operators that had been in business at least two years a 10-year contract that
excluded any competitors. The mail carriers still favored the shorter routes
within their zones but to meet government requirements, airlines began to merge
and create longer routes to more cities. Pilot groups were founded as well
as airline companies. In 1928, the National Air Pilots Association (NAPA) was
formed, and by 1931, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). By the spring of
1929, there were 61 U.S. passenger lines, and 47 airmail lines. Airmail volume
in 1926 had been 810,555 pounds (402, 525 kilograms); by 1929, airmail volume
had grown to 7,772,014 pounds (3,532,733 kilograms). Though the aviation industry made
money, the Post Office supported growth of the system and lost more money each
year. In 1929, airmail subsidies reached $11,618,000, but airmail revenues were
only $5,273,000. To keep airmail stamps affordable, the Post Office limited the
stamp price to five cents per ounce and made up the difference with tax money. Airmail carriers learned to use
the subsidies to make money regardless of the true public demand for airmail.
They sometimes sent postcards to themselves using registered mail, which
required a heavy, secure lock. The lock added weight and, therefore, the
government had to pay more. Despite such abuses, the postal subsidies
encouraged aircraft designers to design aircraft that were more reliable, could
fly longer distances, and were less expensive to fly. Herbert Hoover was elected
President in 1928. He would appoint a new postmaster general, Walter Folger
Brown, a man who wanted to create a stable and efficient air transport system
that served both passengers and the mail. Brown began work on March 6, 1929 and
rapidly began to shake up the industry. Sources: Bilstein, Roger E. Flight
in America From the Wrights to the Astronauts. Revised Edition. Baltimore
and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994. Bruns, James H. Mail
on the Move. Polo, Ill.: Transportation Trails, 1992. Christy, Joe, Wells, Alexander T. American Aviation--An Illustrated History. Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.:
Tab Books Inc., 1987. Ethell, Jeffrey L. Smithsonian
Frontiers of Flight. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, New York: Orion
Books, 1992. Komons, Nick A. Bonfires
to Beacons. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. Leary, William M. Aerial
Pioneers – The U.S. Air Mail Service, 1918-1927. Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985. Smith, Henry Ladd. Airways:
The History of Commercial Aviation in the United States. New York: Russell
& Russell, Inc. 1965. “The Airmail Act of 1925.” http://avstop.com/History/NeedRegulations/Act1925.htm “FAA Historical Chronology, 1926-1996.” http://www.faa.gov/apa/history/ChronIntro.htm Further Reading: Boughner, Fred. Airmail
Antics. Sidney, Ohio: Amos Press Inc., 1988. Heppenheimer, T.A. Turbulent
Skies; The History of Commercial Aviation. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
1995. Holmes, Donald B. Airmail,
An illustrated History 1793-1981. New York: Clarkson N. Potter Inc., 1981. Jackson, Donald Dale. Flying
the Mail. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1982. Lipsner, Benjamin B. The
Airmail Jennies to Jets. As told to Leonard Finley Hiltsd. Chicago: Ill.:
Wilcox and Follett Company, 1951. Shamburger, Page. Tracks
Across the Sky. New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1964.
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