Presentation will begin at 2:00 p.m. (EST), 11:00 a.m. (PST).
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the first airmail flight, the National Air and Space Museum and the Sonoma County Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate, have organized a program that will connect online viewers and live audiences between the Sonoma County Museum and the National Air and Space Museum to celebrate this event.
The flight was piloted on February 17 and 18, 1911 by Fred Wiseman. Wiseman took off from Petaluma, California and flew 25 miles to Santa Rosa with three letters. Wiseman’s plane, a pusher biplane similar to the type developed by Glenn Curtiss, is part of the National Air and Space Museum’s collection and is currently on display at the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C.
During the program, National Air and Space Museum Senior Curator Tom Crouch and National Postal Museum Curator Nancy Pope will share their knowledge about the flight. Crouch will discuss the historical context of the plane and Pope will talk about its significance to postal history.
A question and answer session will follow the presentation.
In May 1910, as the first Wiseman airplane was being tested, construction started on a second aircraft. Wiseman made all his significant exhibition flights using this airplane, including the first air mail flight officially sanctioned by a U.S. post office, from Petaluma to Santa Rosa, California, in February 1911.
The Wiseman-Cooke Aircraft is on display at the National Postal Museum.