Getting your player ready...
FARMINGDALE, N.Y.—Pilots in vintage airplanes are in the midst of a six-day, 15-stop flight from Long Island, N.Y., to San Francisco. It’s to mark the 90th anniversary of U.S. Mail delivery by air.
Stops are expected to include Bellefonte, Pa., Cleveland, Chicago, Iowa City, Omaha, Cheyenne, Wyo., Reno, Nev., and Hayward, Calif., before arriving in San Francisco on Monday.
The first regularly scheduled air mail service was in 1918. But the post office didn’t stay in the airplane business for long.
By 1926, commercial airlines took over the flights and a year later, all airmail was carried under contract. Today, the Postal Service is the airline industry’s largest customer, spending more than $3 billion for air transportation.
