US POSTAL HISTORY BLOG

President Herbert Hoover appointed Walter Folger Brown as his postmaster general in 1929. In 1930, Brown, citing inefficient and expensive air mail delivery, requested legislation from Congress granting him authority to change postal policy.  The legislative body obliged, passing the Air Mail Act of 1930 which gave Brown strong, almost dictatorial power over the nation’s air transportation system.

The main provision of the Air Mail Act changed the manner in which payments were calculated.   The purpose of the provision was to discourage the carrying of bulk junk mail to boost profits and to encourage the carrying of passengers instead.  A second provision allowed any airmail carrier with an existing contract of at least two years standing to exchange its contract for a route certificate giving it the right to haul mail for 10 additional years. 

But it was the third and most controversial provision that raised concern.  The Act gave Brown authority to extend or consolidate routes based on little more than his personal judgment.  Brown took full advantage of his new powers which resulted in one of the most notorious ‘black eyes’ in Post Office history.
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The largest airmail customers were in the banking business. They used the service to send checks and financial papers more quickly. Bankers wanted to reduce the float time of checks and pushed for an extension of routes. Financial papers were light, and the cost to send them was low—just 16 cents an ounce, having been reduced from 24 cents in July 1918 to attract more customers. It was further reduced to six cents per ounce on December 15, in an effort to draw even more customers. In July 1919, the extra charge for airmail was eliminated completely and airplanes began to carry a random selection of mail. The charge would be reinstated in 1924 when regular transcontinental service began.

Postal aircraft could fly with sacks of mail for an average cost of $64.80 for each hour in the air. Pilots received a base pay of about $3,600 per year and then were paid five to seven cents more for each mile they flew, flying an average of five to six hours each day. After a year in operation, postal revenues for the year totaled $162,000. The cost to fly the mail had been just $143,000. This first year of operation was to be the only time in airmail history that the service showed a profit.

Aerophilately – A combination of aero (air) and philately (the hobby of stamp collection) gives us aerophilately, the popular area of collecting devoted to air mail. Aerophilately is the hobby of collecting air mail stamps, and envelopes (covers) that have been sent by air mail — including by airplane, balloon or other types of aircraft. Many consider airmail a snapshot of the development of aviation and its effect on world communications as new routes opened the doors between people, nations, and continents.
 
Air Mail Etiquettes – Etiquettes are labels and stickers that are affixed to covers to denote a special type of service such as registration, certified, etc. Air mail etiquettes, denoting non-ground transport, they may be created by a government or a private firm. Air labels are similar to etiquettes. They are issued by airlines as a way to advertise their name and identify airmail letters. The definitive guide is the eight-volume Airtransport Label Catalogue, published by the Aeronautica and Air Label Collectors Club.

Collecting air crash mail covers is an intriguing and somewhat unusual pursuit. You can collect the covers of a single airline that has crashed, our create a collection focused on a, country, continent, region, state or specific time period. Some people collect the covers from crashes of a single type of aircraft. The earliest crash covers are those carried by balloon out of Paris during the siege of the French city from 1870-71. Many of the balloons crashed, but a surprising amount of the mail was recovered.

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Charles Lindbergh — equal parts flying enthusiast, risk taker, and showman – was determined to make a career in aviation. He enrolled in the Army Air Service Cadet Program in 1924 and earned his wings the following year, graduating at the top of his class in March 1925. In October, he became chief pilot for Robertson Aircraft Corp., the company that won the federal Contract Air Mail route from St. Louis to Chicago in October.

It was love at first flight.

The fact that airmail service was relatively new — and particularly dangerous — appealed to Lindbergh’s daredevil nature. He wrote of the perils of his profession that, “the best way to cope with danger is to keep in contact with it.”

Lindberg loved the challenge of a good competition and was drawn to the Orteig Prize of $25,000 for the first nonstop New York-Paris flight. He was competing with top flyers from around the world, including U.S. Navy Commander Richard Byrd.

In 1927 at age 25, Lindbergh left his competitors in the dust as he crossed the country in 22 hours to arrive in New York on May 12th, before departing again on May 20. He left at 7:54 am from Roosevelt Field on Long Island and arrived at Le Bourget airfield near Paris May 21 at 10:54 pm to a cheering crowd of more than 150,000. Lindbergh’s total flight time was 33 hours, 30 minutes, 29.8 seconds. The pilot had not slept in 55 hours

Lindbergh carried only five covers on his famous 1927 Trans-Atlantic flight and they were for purely promotional purposes. He had declined to take a real mail sack onboard because of concerns about over the effects of extra weight.