Cross-country flight marks 90th anniversary of airmail

Addison Pemberton prepared his Boeing 40C in Farmingdale, N.Y., to reenact the first transcontinental airmail flight. (Howard Schnapp/Newsday via Associated Press)

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. - Getting a message from New York to San Francisco these days is as easy as a click of a mouse. But nearly a century ago, sending a missive across the country was an ordeal that often placed mail carriers in mortal danger in experimental flying machines.

It's a piece of aviation history being celebrated this week with a flight that will replicate those harrowing cross-country journeys.

A trio of pilots in vintage airplanes took off yesterday from Long Island's Republic Airport on a six-day, 15-stop flight to San Francisco to mark the 90th anniversary of the Postal Service's involvement in airmail delivery.

"This airmail anniversary flight of historic biplanes is a compelling display of pilot skills that too often seem forgotten in an era of autopilots, GPS, and daily flights high above the weather," said Josh Stoff, curator of the Cradle of Aviation museum, which chronicles Long Island's rich aviation history.

Historians are quick to point out that the post office's launch of airmail helped jump-start commercial aviation in America, showing airplanes could fly safely across country on a regular basis.

The first-ever experimental airmail flight took place on Long Island in 1911, a 3-mile journey between Garden City Estates and Mineola. The first regularly scheduled intercity US airmail began on May 15, 1918, after Congress appropriated $100,000 to establish airmail routes.

Using planes on loan from the Army Signal Corps, pilots flew between Washington's Polo Grounds and Belmont Park on Long Island, stopping in Philadelphia on the way. The first transcontinental airmail flight took off Feb. 22, 1921, from Mineola to San Francisco.

Among the initial airmail pilots was a young Charles Lindbergh, who flew for the post office in the early 1920s as part of a squadron that often had to fly exclusively in the daylight, following railroad tracks and dirt roads to locate destinations. Lindbergh took off from Long Island on his historic 1927 trans-Atlantic flight to Paris.

The post office didn't stay in the airplane business for long.

By 1926, commercial airlines took over the flights and a year later, all airmail was carried under contract.