Please explain what was the prevailing attitude of the U.S. military in the immediate post-World War I period.
Best to present your thoughts in three complete paragraphs. ( write a min 100 word per paragraph answer)
6.0: Airmail
The Army Air Service proved the feasibility of airmail service by carrying the mail from May to August 1918. The Post Office Department’s Air Mail Service assumed responsibility for carrying mail, expanded the airmail routes, built airways along the air routes, and experimented with instruments, equipment, and techniques.
In September 1911, the United States Postmaster -General named Earle L. Ovington [link] flew the mail in a queen monoplane, making him “Official Air Mail Pilot #1.”
After an intermittent series of government sponsored experimental flights between 1911 and 1918, domestic U.S. Air Mail was formally established as a new class of service by the Post Office Department on May 15, 1918, with the inauguration of the Washington-Philadelphia-New York route for which the first of special Air Mail stamps [link] were issued.
https://youtu.be/7RB3bM9zVog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6-oMlVnNH0
6.1: Inaugurating Airmail Service
Airmail service began with Army Air Service pilots, there was a shortage of pilots and very few Air Service pilots had any experience flying cross-country. There were no adequate maps available.
The range a plane could fly was dependent upon its fuel supply and they had no baggage compartment where mail could be stowed. Also the lack of good, experienced aircraft mechanics left the task of transporting mail almost impossible.
https://youtu.be/dipOaKHq1Pg
https://youtu.be/dipOaKHq1Pg
· The 1918 Flights [link]
· A Brief History of the Air Mail Service of the U.S. Post Office Department [link]
· Airmails of the United States [link]
A number of DeHaviland planes were also obtained from the War and Navy Departments, and when remodeled and rebuilt into mail planes, they were speedy, reliable, long lived and capable of carrying a mail load of 500 pounds.
Read more about the DH-4:
· De Havilland DH-4 [link]
· The DH-4 Liberty Plane at War and in Peace [link]
· De Havilland DH-4 [link]
6.3: Jack Knight’s Epic Flight
In February 1921, an experimental coast-to-coast flight of the mail occurred. Jack H. Knight and two other pilots, flying day and night in relay fashion, crossed the United States to demonstrate the feasibility of transcontinental airmail.
Read more about James Knight and airmail:
· James H. Knight [link]
· Airmails of the United States [link]
https://youtu.be/z1oQ9GoUkTk
7.0: Barnstormers of the Early 1920s
https://youtu.be/RjnGsrV7G-8
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh learned valuable flying skills on the barnstorming circuit, he spent two years as an itinerant stuntman. During “barnstorming” excursions through the American heartland, the young aviator wowed audiences with daring displays of wing-walking, parachuting and mid-air plane changes. He flew under the title “Daredevil Lindbergh”.
Ormer Locklear
Ormer Locklear starred in a early aviation movie, the 1920 silent film “The Great Air Robbery” [link] . The film showcases the talents of stunt pilot Locklear was considered the foremost “aviation stunt man in the world”, and depicts pilots flying air mail, the first film to deal with the subject.
Clyde “Upside-Down” Pangborn
Pangborn made crowds gasp when he performed his daring aerial stunts during the Roaring 20s. He was among the period’s finest aerial showmen. As his nickname suggests, he was anything but a conventional pilot, and people loved him for it.
https://youtu.be/FI6STwhPCuI
7.1: The Air Commerce Act of 1926
Congress passed Air Commerce Act, May 20, 1926. The Air Commerce Act, placed in federal hands the responsibility for fostering air commerce, establishing new airways, improving aids to navigation, and making and enforcing flight safety rules. President Calvin Coolidge signed the Air Commerce Act, which shifted the management of air routes to a new branch in the Department of Commerce [link] , which was also responsible for “licensing of planes and pilots, establishing safety regulations, and general promotion”.
To read more about the air commencement act visit the sites below:
· Congress passed Air Commerce Act, May 20, 1926 [link]
· Calvin Coolidge, Dwight Morrow, and the Air Commerce Act of 1926 [link]
· The First Regulations [link]
7.2: The Father of Wichita’s Aviation Industry & Travel Air Manufacturing Co.
Jocob “Jake” Moellendick was at the forefront of aviation in the USA. His design originally known as the Laird Tractor or Laird Wichita Tractor became known as the Laird Swallow. The Swallow has the distinction of being America’s first commercially produced aircraft.
Kansas, Wichita which would become the “Air Capital of the World,” produced more airplanes than any other city on earth.
For more information on Jake Moellendick please visit these sites:
· Air Capital of the World: Travel Air Days [link]
· Jake Moellendick and Wichita – The Air Capital [link]
Travel Air Manufacturing Company
Lloyd Stearman and Walter Beech had an idea to improve the Swallow by making a tubular steel fuselage frame. Moellendick was enraged at the suggestion and invited them to take their proposal and their employment elsewhere. They did. They went to see Clyde Cessna, and the result of that meeting was the Travel Air Manufacturing Company. The Travel Air Company and its products achieved almost legendary status, and rightly deserves its own chapter in the annals of American aviation history.
For more information about the Travel Air company, visit these sites:
· Travel Air [link]
· Travel Air Manufacturing Co. [link]
· Travel Air MFG. Co. Nominated as Historic Aerospace Site by the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics! [link]
