airmailpilots

From National Postal Museum: " Along with Jack Knight, E. Hamilton Lee was one of the most remarkable pilots to come out of the U.S. Air Mail Service. Lee was born in Paris, Illinois on April 18, 1892. He made his first solo flight on June 16, 1916 at Ashburn Field in Chicago. "Many of the U.S. Air Mail Pilots were in love with the danger of flight, as much as the fun and excitement, and many took risks that were not part of flying the mail. Lee could certainly count himself among that crowd, until a particular incident in which he survived a crash after trying to "buzz" a group of men on a Mississippi River boat. Lee did not see wires that lined the side of one river bank, and his landing gear and one wing caught them, forcing him down. "Fortunately, he survived the crash, but determined then and there to live to the credo that there are "old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold, pilots. ..."

This image has been used in the indicommons.org post: Just Plane Trouble

Like the image above, a very rare and famous stamp was issued in 1918 -- with the aircraft upside down -- as a result of an "accident" at the Post Office ;-) See the Inverted 1918 'Jenny' Airmail Stamp, Block of Four (National Postal Museum) here.

Lt. Torrey Webb at a happier event:

"First day of Airmail Service, May 15, 1918" by Smithsonian

According to the National Postal Museum, this is a description of this accident: "Although the JN-4 "Jenny" was most often used by the army airmail pilots, the service did experiment with another airplane. "Lieutenant Webb was asked to fly a Curtiss R-4 aircraft on June 6, 1918. Webb was to carry the mail from New York to Boston on a trial run to connect the two cities by air. Webb carried a passenger, mechanic Robert Heck, with him on the flight. "Lost because of bad weather during the trip, Lieutenant Webb landed in a pasture to get his bearings, then continued on to Franklin Park aviation field in Saugus, Massachusetts. On landing, the airplane hit a mudhole, flipping over. "Fortunately neither Webb nor his mechanic were injured. The airplane was repaired, and Webb returned to New York five days later with mail and another passenger, Boston's postmaster William Murray. Webb noted that weather wasn't much better on the way back. "Visibility was zero-zero, and I just skimmed over the telephone poles all the way." This airplane has been referred to as both a Curtiss R-4 and a Jenny JN-4 . I don't know if that is a contradiction or not.

I found this photo in a museum in Denver Colorado:


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Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Goggles, and we'd love to have this added to the group!