The American Philatelist May 2018

Lt. James C. Edgerton prepares to depart Philadelphia for Washington, D.C. on May 15, 1918. His flight carried 136
pounds of mail and went off without a hitch, with departure at 1:14 p.m. and arrival at 2:50 p.m.
The Origin of Scheduled U.S. Airmail
New Era Was Launched Despite Empty Fuel Tanks, Wrong-Way Pilots
and Inverted Stamps
BY CHARLES P. WENTZ
Historical Perspective
It was not until after World War I that the airplane was
first used for any practical commercial purpose, but the
Post Office Department had been propagandizing for
airmail service for many years.
In the fall of 1911 Postmaster General Frank H. Hitchcock
orchestrated a publicity stunt at the International Aviation
Meet held at Garden City Estates on Long Island. A temporary
post office was built on Nassau Boulevard.
Figure 1. Postmaster General Frank H. Hitchcock hands the first
sack of air mail to Earle L. Ovington, seated in his Bleriot.
On September 23, Hitchcock swore in pilot Earle Lewis
Ovington as a carrier, and Ovington flew a sack of mail seven
miles, dropping the sack over Mineola/Garden City to the
postmaster on the ground. The sack contained 649 letters and
1,280 postcards [Figure 1]. (Among other pilots sworn in as
airplane mail couriers was Lieutenant Henry H. “Hap” Arnold,
who later became the first Air Force five-star General.)
The airplane, a Bleriot, was so small that Ovington had to fly
with the sack on his lap.
Similar mail flights became common, and all flights were
made with the approval of the postmaster general, without
expense to the government, and in conjunction with some
general meeting or fair. In 1912, 31 experimental airmail
flights were flown. The possibility of regular airmail service
then received Congressional attention. Encouraged by the
success of these experimental flights, the Post Office Department
urged Congress to appropriate money to initiate airmail
service, but it was not until 1916 that Congress made
money available. After a delay caused by World War I, Congress
finally appropriated money in 1918 to establish an experimental
airmail route and for the purchase, operation and
maintenance of airplanes.
The next postmaster general, Albert Sidney Burleson,
became a champion of airmail. In April 1914 Burleson appointed
Otto Praeger, an old fishing and hunting buddy, to be
the new postmaster of Washington, D.C., and in September
of the following year, appointed him as second assistant postmaster
general. This assignment made Praeger in charge of
all mail transportation in the United States.
Seeking new ways to advance the mail, Praeger recognized
the potential of an airmail service and initially attempted
to contract with private companies for an experimental
service. However, aerial operations were beyond their technical
competence; thus Praeger, obsessed with the idea of
regular airmail service, decided that the POD must execute
with its own planes and pilots. After soliciting bids in February
1918 to build five airplanes for a Washington-New York
route, the Army Air Service volunteered to fly the route with
military assets.
On a day with heavy snowfall, Burleson summoned Praeger
and, looking out at the storm, told him he would authorize
airmail service if an experiment convinced him that such
service could be maintained dependably throughout the year,
“even on a day like this.” Another who shared Praeger’s obses-
430 AMERICAN PHILATELIST / MAY 2018