3
Still, the public was reluctant to use this more expensive service,
which was just a few hours quicker than regular service by train.
During the first year, airmail bags often contained as much regular
mail as airmail.
Transcontinental Route, 1920
To better its delivery time on long hauls and entice the public to
use airmail, the Department’s long-range plans called for a
transcontinental air route from New York to San Francisco. The
first legs of this transcontinental route — from New York to
Cleveland with a stop at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, then from
Cleveland to Chicago, with a stop at Bryan, Ohio — opened in
1919. A third leg opened in 1920 from Chicago to Omaha, via Iowa
City, and feeder lines were established from St. Louis and
Minneapolis to Chicago. The last transcontinental segment — from
Omaha to San Francisco, via North Platte, Nebraska; Cheyenne,
Rawlins, and Rock Springs in Wyoming; Salt Lake City, Utah; and
Elko and Reno in Nevada — opened on September 8, 1920.
Initially, mail was carried on trains at night and flown by day. Still,
the service was 22 hours faster than the cross-country all-rail time.
In August 1920, the Department began installing radio stations at
each airfield to provide pilots with current weather information. By
November, ten stations were operating, including two Navy
stations. When airmail traffic permitted, other government
departments used the radios for special messages, and the
Department of Agriculture used the radios to transmit weather
forecasts and stock market reports.
Regular Night Flying, 1924
Before the air mail service can offer … its full measure of value it
will be necessary to operate the planes at night as well as in the
daytime.
—Postmaster General Harry S. New, 1923
10
To demonstrate the possible speed of airmail, the Department
staged a through-flight from San Francisco to New York on
February 22, 1921 — the first time mail was flown both day and
night over the entire distance. Winter was not an ideal season for
test flights, but the Department was pressed — Congress was
deciding whether or not, and to what extent, to continue to fund
airmail service. Despite bad weather, the flight was a success,
largely through the heroic efforts of pilot Jack Knight (see at right).
Congress was impressed. Instead of ending the service, Congress
appropriated $1,250,000 for its expansion, and later increased the
amount.
To prepare for night flying, the Post Office Department equipped its
planes with luminescent instruments, navigational lights, and
parachute flares. In 1923, it began building a lighted airway along
the transcontinental route, to guide pilots at night. The first section
completed was Chicago to Cheyenne, 885 miles. Emergency
Jack Knight, “The Hero Who Saved Airmail,” 1921
Courtesy Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum
On February 22, 1921, the first daring, round-the-clock,
transcontinental airmail flight started out with four
planes. Two westbound planes left New York’s
Hazelhurst Field while two eastbound planes left San
Francisco. One of the westbound trips abruptly ended
when icing forced the pilot down in a Pennsylvania
field. The other was halted by a snowstorm in Chicago.
One of the eastbound pilots fared even worse —
William E. Lewis crashed and died near Elko, Nevada.
The mail was salvaged and loaded onto another
eastbound plane.
It was after dark when the airmail reached North Platte,
Nebraska, and pilot Jack Knight was ready to fly the
next leg of the relay, to Omaha. A former Army flight
instructor, Knight looked bad and felt worse, suffering a
broken nose and bruises from a crash landing the week
before in Wyoming. He had flown to Omaha many
times — but never at night.
Knight’s first taste of night-flying was nerve-wracking.
Residents of the towns below lit bonfires to help mark
the route. As the weather worsened, Knight set down in
Omaha, wind-chilled, famished and exhausted. Then
he got more bad news: the pilot scheduled to fly the
next leg, to Chicago, was a no-show. Though the route
was unfamiliar, Knight volunteered to fly the mail to
Chicago himself.
Between Omaha and Chicago lay a refueling stop in
Iowa City, which Knight had never seen in the daytime,
let alone at night in a snowstorm. There were no
bonfires or beacons marking the airfield — the ground
crew had gone home, assuming the flight had been
canceled — but by some miracle Knight found it. He
buzzed the field until the night watchman heard his
airplane and lit a flare. After landing and refuelling he
was back in the cockpit. He touched down at Maywood
Field, outside Chicago, at 8:40 a.m. The mailbags were
quickly loaded onto a plane bound for Cleveland and
then the final stretch to New York.
The mail from San Francisco reached New York in
record time — 33 hours and 20 minutes. Newspapers
hailed Knight as the “hero who saved the airmail.”
Congress, which had debated eliminating funding for
airmail, instead increased it.