![]() Lytle Adams engineered a device that allowed for an airplane to drop off and pick up a mail sack from a ship while in flight. In 1927, aviator Clarence Chamberlain took off from a temporary flight deck on the passenger ship Leviathan, and flew 100 miles to New Jersey, delivering 60 pieces of mail.Ĭhamberlin prepares to take off from the Leviathan in his Fokker S.II The late 1920s also saw a series of experiments that investigated the delivery of mail to and from passenger ships. ![]() McCoy showing Charles Lindbergh's Sikorsky S-38 on the first airmail flight to the Canal Zone from Miami in February of 1929 Over the next decade international routes were established to such destinations as Havana, Mexico City, the Canal Zone, and the Bahamas. A year later, Hubbard would be the main pilot on the first international contract route between Victoria, British Columbia and Seattle.Ī Boeing Model C-700, the type used on the March 3, 1919 international flight Eighty per cent of modern commercial airliners rely on Saft batteries and Saft also plays a role in the email and telephone communications that have taken away much of the demand for airmail - powering many of the satellites that share data.The first international airmail flight from the United States occurred on Mawhen William Boeing and Eddie Hubbard flew 60 letters from Vancouver to Seattle. Even "standard" mail will often be transported at least in part by air. Today, airmail is no longer anything special. If it wasn't for airmail, international flight would have developed far more slowly. 7, taken in 1953, shows an Air France McDonnell Douglas DC3 being loaded with mail.įor a brief period in the 1990s, the Aéropostale name once again appeared on aircraft as part of a joint venture between Air France and La Poste ( photo no. Airmail became just a standard part of airplane cargo. That aircraft was destroyed in 1943 when it crashed while attempting to land in Lisbon, Portugal.Īfter the Second World War, seaplanes were replaced by land-based aircraft that could carry more passengers and fly long distances without refueling. 8, is the Yankee Clipper being loaded with mail. Designed for luxury travel, passengers would enjoy six-course meals on board and there were dressing-rooms for male and female flyers. One of the largest aircraft of its day, it had 74 seats that could convert into 40 bunk beds. ![]() In 1938, Boeing developed the 314 Clipper for Pan Am. ![]() It could even be refueled in the air, making it possible to cross the Atlantic without landing. 6, above) was developed for Britain's Imperial Airways and could carry 17 passengers. In the 1930s, flying boats became large enough to carry passengers as well as post, creating an era of glamorous travel. However, the company was dissolved in 1932 after a scandal over the misuse of postal payments from the French government. 4) was catapulted off a ship and flew up to 900 miles - significantly reducing the time mail took to reach the US by 20 hours on westward trips and as much as two days going east.īy 1930, when the poster on the right was designed, Aéropostale was operating regular routes to Africa and South America, as well as across Europe. Since aircraft couldn't cross large oceans, Luft Hansa - the forerunner of Germany's Lufthansa - created an innovative ship-to-shore service in 1929. The image on the right is a 1929 poster advertising the service. Later, the company expanded as far as Dakar, Senegal, where mail was loaded on to ships for South America. In 1918, Latécoère Airlines, later renamed Aéropostale, began France's first international airmail service connecting Toulouse and Madrid, Spain. Throughout the 1920s, the British Royal Air Force expanded airmail routes to the Middle East. The first scheduled international service flew from Folkestone, in the UK, to Cologne, Germany, delivering mail to troops. In other parts of the world, airmail quickly became international. 2 shows mail being loaded on to an aircraft in Cleveland. Airmail was enormously important in the US because of the country's size.
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