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. ..."

From National Postal Museum: "Ira Biffle first flew as a pilot for the army air service where he gained a reputation as a demanding instructor. He found that his airmail service supervisors were just as demanding. After landing 55 minutes late because of fog, he was suspended without pay. Only the intervention of ex-pilot Chief of Flying James C. Edgerton kept Biffle on the payroll. "After he left the Air Mail Service on October 22, 1919, he flew for different organizations, including the Nebraska Aircraft Corporation in Lincoln, Nebraska. While serving as a flying instructor there in April 1922, Biffle taught flying to a lanky young man named Charles Lindbergh. In "We," written by Lindbergh in 1928, he noted that Biffle's reputation as "the most ‘hard boiled' instructor the army ever had during [World War I]" was still well known among the aviation students. "Ira Biffle returned to flying for the Air Mail Service on August 6, 1923 and stayed on as a pilot until the service was turned over to commercial companies. In 1930, he was forced to retire as a pilot due to his failing eyesight. Biffle passed away on April 7, 1934 at the age of 44 of heart disease."

From Edith Dodd Culver's THE DAY THE AIRMAIL BEGAN: "To quote from Reuben Fleet's 1966 speech before the Air Mail Pioneers: "I left Lieutenant Webb in charge at Belmont Park and the Curtiss plant, with Lieutenant Miller and Bonsal helping, and in reserve, and instructed Webb to get the other four aerial mail airplanes ready, and fly one from Belmont Park with the aerial mail at eleven the next morning to Bustleton Field, which the Philadelphia Postmaster had selected for Philadelphia. Edgerton at Bustleton Field would relieve Lieutenant Webb there and fly on to Washington, while Lieutenant Culver would relay the aerial mail at Busttleton Park in New York."

Jean Dieuzaide – Concorde Essai de Freinge - 1968

Hi,
I'am the admin of the new group Art'flighing Machines dedicated to an artistic approach of flighing things

It would be an honour to have your picture into this group

Aviation was not very safe in 1918. I can't imagine some pilot risking his or her life to deliver a small package of mail from the NYC area to the Philly area, flying in an open cockpit with a small fuel tank. It made more sense to put it on a train in Manhattan and deliver it to Philadelphia city center in about 3 hours with a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the chance of disaster. Pilots often got lost in bad weather and ran out of fuel.