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The Smithsonian has a print [arago.si.edu/record_194367_img_1.html] of this, captioned "New York City Postmaster Thomas Patten is photographed handing Lt. Torrey Webb equipment to make ready for one of the first regularly scheduled airmail flights in the United States. On May 15, 1918, the United States officially established airmail service between New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, under the direction of the Post Office Department, using army aircraft and pilots. The Army Air Corps pilots chosen to fly that day were Lieutenants Howard Culver, Torrey Webb, Walter Miller and Stephen Bonsal. Lt. Webb carried the first day’s mail in this Curtiss "Jenny" aircraft numbered 38278 from a temporary airmail field at Belmont Park, Long Island, New York to Bustleton Field, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. " and dated May 15, 1918.

This sequence of photos is related to the first scheduled airmail route. See www.aerofiles.com/airmail.html for details.

Torrey Hord Webb (7 December 1892 - 23 November 1975) and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_G._Patten

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.