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• The World's First Scheduled Airline
• The Post Office Begins Flying the Mail
• The Curtiss JN-4D Jenny
• Regularly Scheduled Air Mail Service Begins
• Air Mail Service Takes Root
• Flying the Mail at Night
• A Daring Demonstration
• How Did Air Mail Pilots Find Their Way?
  • Wild Bill
  • What Was It Like To Fly?
• Early Airlines
  • Who Flew?
• Early Aircraft Technology
  • Engine Technology: Water-Cooled Engines
• Airlines Take Over Carrying the Mail

 

 

Westbound		Eastbound
New York	Flights 1 and 2 leave New York.	San Francisco	Flights 3 and 4 leave San Francisco at 4:30 a.m.
Pennsylvania	Flight 1: Heavy icing causes pilot to make forced landing, damaging tailskid and axle. Cannot continue.	Elko	Flight 3 and 4 change planes. Flight 3: Pilot stalls plane after takeoff, crashes, dies. Mail transferred to standby aircraft; flight continues.
Chicago	Flight 2: Reaches Chicago despite bad weather. But with rain, snow, and fog to the west, flight cannot continue.	Rawlins	Flight 4: Makes emergency landing at Rawlins to fix oil leak, continues.
		North Platte	Flight 4: Jack Knight takes over. Ignition problem delays departure until 10:44 p.m.
		Omaha	Flights 3 and 4 reach Omaha. Only replacement pilot available who knows route to Chicago refuses to fly due to bad weather. Flight 3 ends. Flight 4: Knight volunteers to fly on, despite weather and having never flown the route. Departs at 1:59 a.m.
		Iowa City	Flight 4: Sky "dark as hob," with high clouds obscuring moon. "Sense of isolation that's hard to describe." Descends beneath low clouds into rough air to keep sight of ground, then encounters snow flurries. Spots flares at airport and lands to refuel.
		Chicago	Flight 4: Fighting lack of sleep, Knight reaches Chicago at 8:40 a.m. Another pilot takes over.
		New York	Flight 4: Reaches New York at 4:50 p.m. "Great jubilation" in the Post Office.

 

 

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