Brian Colitti
CIS-270WX-02
MAJ Jung
Help Received: EasyBib, MS Word, See works cited
Nugent’s comments, Instructor comments
Air Mail in the United States
Over the course of history, communication has constantly improved by becoming faster,
more sizable, and more secure. Today throughout the world, and the United States in particular,
communication has been revolutionized by air mail. Gaining its fame after World War I, air mail
in the United States changed the whole mail delivery industry. Not only has it seen continuous
innovation to become faster, but it has also changed the distance over which mail can be sent.
Air mail began as just a new idea for how to use airplanes, but has transformed into the only way
to get important letters and packages across long distances. Although government opposition
almost ended the air mail service before it began, a little bit of money and a lot of testing allowed
the world to see what it was missing out on (Keogh). Getting its start in the United States, air
mail has truly stood out among other transportation methods as an effective and affordable way
to communicate. In order to see just how far this service has come, it is important to examine the
process, history, and impact of the air mail service in the US.
Air mail can be defined simply as the process of delivering mail by airplane or other
flight transportation. Today air mail, though it has been redesigned and reengineered, is not
much different from its original delivery method. Modern air mail starts by mail pick up and
sorting at local post offices. From there, mail that needs to be flown is separated from other mail,
labeled, and sent to an airline handling facility for further processing. Next the mail is sorted by
destination and put on planes that will go to those specific locations. After that, the mail is
picked up and given to a postal exchange center, and finally sent to local post offices and
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prepared for delivery (Air Cargo). This is just slightly different from the original air mail service
in that there is additional processing and sorting, whereas originally the mail only went between
a few locations in the northeast (Bilstein). This is how air mail works today, but just how did the
entire process get started?
Before the conception of air mail as a worldwide industry, it was just an added bonus in
the new age of flying machines. The first air mail was sent in 1870 in free balloons that were
carried by wind, but these were ineffective due to a lack of receipt guarantee. This method could
neither guarantee that the mail would get to the recipient nor that it would even be sent in the
right direction. Later in 1911, airplanes were used in demonstration of transporting mail in India,
Britain, and the US. Little did the people of that time know, this would be the start of a
communication boom in the United States. A year after these demonstrations, the US Post Office
proposed the idea to congress of using airplanes to transport mail, but was declined many times.
This all changed after WWI, when the world got to see the potential of airplanes in peace time.
The US government supplied military pilots and planes to run the first regulated air mail service
in the world. Initially used on a trial basis, this service was just available to a few cities in the
Northeastern United States, but spread west as it gained popularity. Air mail really proved its
worth when it knocked off an enormous amount of transportation time, beating the train in
certain routes by 16 hours. Later it set a new precedent by getting mail across the entire United
States in less than 34 hours (Keogh). This was only the beginning of air mail, with decades of
improvement and innovation to come.
This new industry came with many advantages to the customer. After using a slower
trainer plane for mail transport, the implementation of the De Havilland DH-4 made it possible
for air mail to beat the rail system in the US. The time saved by night flying is what really did
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people the most good. This meant that mailed checks could clear faster, anything earning daily
interest would not cost as much, and anything that was financially time sensitive could speed the
economy along. Some further innovation was the 1925 Contract Air Mail Act, which allowed for
private companies to deliver mail, aiding in healthy competition and better service for all
customers. As with any other industry, competition in the air mail service drove down the cost to
customers since corporations battled for their business. The next year brought the 1926 Air
Commerce Act, enacting official legislation over air mail to increase safety standards for pilots
and crews (Bilstein). Government regulation did hinder air mail at some points, such as in 1934
when the Post Office was accused of favoring certain airline contracts, putting the Army Air
Corps in control of mail. This, however, did not last due to poor service and popular complaint
(Smithsonian). In years to come, the air mail service would actually spark an idea that changed
transportation for people, and not just mail.
In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, someone had an idea to transport something other
than mail: people. This idea took off and aircraft started carrying passengers in addition to mail.
Bigger, faster planes after the 1930’s would be able to transport more mail and even more
people, eventually creating a spin off industry of commercial airlines. In this way, air mail
effectively started the fastest way to travel around the world today. The further development of
commercial airlines helped improve mail service so that mail could get around the world,
connecting people who may have never even met before. Flying over water also saved weeks of
traveling when compared to ships and trains (Bilstein). None of these technological outbreaks
could have been possible without small improvements made in the air mail service.
The planes of today would simply not be as effective or safe if the mail pilots of the
1920’s had not been the test dummies for long-range and night flying. One of the many
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improvements made in the air mail era was the flight compass, which had to be modified to
account for the metal airplane and the shifts in orientation. Officials also implemented fire
protection systems and better instrumentation for pilots, who had a constant need for speed,
safety, and reliability. These inventions were nothing compared to the radio and the beacon
system though. Old Naval radio stations were used for communication between airfields, but the
real revolution came when radios were put inside the planes themselves. When radios were
widely installed on planes in 1925, tracking the aircraft and giving weather updates became the
norm for the air mail service. Another huge improvement was the use of lighting beacons, which
acted as guided straight paths between the original ground stations. Beacons were placed with a
rotating light at one million candlepower so they could be seen by pilots every 10 seconds from
up to 40 miles away. Green beacons would indicate a nearby airfield, while red beacons would
do the opposite and tell the pilot to keep going. These beacons were important because they
made it possible to fly during the day and night, allowing for eastbound mail to get across the
whole country in 29 hours (Smithsonian). This is how the adaptation of the air mail service has
had an impact on planes and mail today.
The effects of air mail and its evolution are apparent throughout history. For instance,
when compared with how much people loved the train during its prime, air mail and commercial
flights are uncontested in speed and volume of transport. This service has changed commerce
and the way people connect with one another through its development into a passenger industry.
Also, air mail has gotten so mainstream that there hasn’t been a fee for it since 1975, when first
class mail became routinely flown (Smithsonian). Furthermore, packages and letters can now be
sent overnight across the country for an additional fee, and companies like FedEx and UPS even
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let customers track where a package is in route to the recipient. This service has been developed
and perfected for over a century, and is a world power for mail today.
People have impacted air mail just as it has impacted them. Through foresight and
perseverance, people like the Army pilots of WWI have kept their visions alive and have pushed
for the air mail service to exist. Air mail could not have survived without the people who fought
for its existence, like the Post Office officials who would not stop after congress turned them
down. Similarly, the service would not have advanced without the innovators who transformed
airplanes, thought of signaling beacons, and reinvented the use of radio systems. People were
required to shape and develop air mail like it shaped the lives of the people who used it.
In order to see just how far air mail has come, it is important to examine the process,
history, and impact of the service in the United States. Currently, air mail is second only to the
power of email, but remains uncontested when it comes to packages. Getting its start after WWI,
air mail became an industry that took off and never looked back. After one hundred years of
constant improvement, this revolutionary service has become a key factor in sending secure mail
safely and quickly. The United States government absolutely made the right choice in endorsing
air mail, for its growth in communication and transportation has created a ripple effect that will
be felt for years to come.
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Works Cited
"Air Cargo - How It Works." The Air Mail Chain. Blog Spot, 18 Feb. 2011. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.
<http://air-cargo-how-it-works.blogspot.com/2011/02/air-mail-chain.html>.
"Airmail Creates An Industry: Innovations." Fad to Fundamental: Airmail in America.
Smithsonian National Postal Museum, 2004. Web. 07 Mar. 2015.
<http://postalmuseum.si.edu/airmail/airmail/innovations/airmail_innovations.html>.
"Airmail in America Timeline." Fad to Fundamental: Airmail in America. Smithsonian National
Postal Museum, 2004. Web. 07 Mar. 2015.
<http://postalmuseum.si.edu/airmail/timeline/timeline.html>.
Bilstein, Roger E. "From Airmail to Airlines in the United States." Encyclopedia Britannica
Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/210191/history-of-flight/260585/From-airmail-toairlines-in-the-United-States>.
Keogh, Edward A. "A Brief History of the Air Mail Service of the U.S. Post Office Department."
Air Mail Pioneers. N.p., 1999. Web. 07 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.airmailpioneers.org/content/Sagahistory.htm>.
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