Show 0 aa y W surf 1 10 1 r A c figures in 7 circles show 4 approximate 1 GA 5 I 1 hours of LL mall express passenger 10 planes from 7 CHICAGO auen A mtv 11 SAN A co AIR MAIL ROUTES fit approximately cities in 42 state he bi i doo air WI po I 1 me and very aa fly I 1 acad through plant rail connections th 1 plan flying the network shown I 1 travel it daily r letter every 24 hours Is v saw X 2 Z 4 A 4 f all wig n ak k J only a small b of it Christma 5 C eer map and pictures courtesy united air lines by ELMO SCOTT WATSON ARA ill RA SE such as this of a famous poem A the night before christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a mouse cut but up tip in the sky over a nil 11 of tile the land roared airplanes and pilots a new santa claus band night might be aptly used to describe the situation of air mall mail and air express this christmas truly airplane pilots will be roaring through the skies carrying christmas gifts and greetings from one end of the united states to the other oilier and quite fitting it Is too that gifts should arrive in this manner for it true that those reindeer steeds of santas always had a propensity for air travel always the pictures we have seen of them thein show them coming coining down the sky about to settle on the snowy roofs of houses below them dut but now instead of dasher and D fancer nicer ce r and vixen ponder donder and blitzen nil ten the six fast animals who for so sd long have pulled santas sleigh loaded with gifts to our chimney tops it Is pratt and whitney curtiss find and fokker ser boeing and corsair airplanes and engines that zoom through the skies carrying the great load of christmas mall mail and that rotund figure with white beard and jolly face who dressed in a bright red costume trimmed with arctic fur his has been supplanted by a different breed of man one who Is leaner of figure and sterner of face lie ile Is no less jolly by nature perhaps but lie he Is serious with the new intelligence of air navigation ile he and his fellow pilots are men who have been selected to fly ly the mail because of alier superior qualities as aviators the well placed falth which the public has in the accuracy and speed of air mall mail dispatch Is more than usually evident at christmas time beginning about the first of december air line employees start preparation for the rush of air mall mail and express tint that will begin about that time and by three days das before christmas will all have reached an almost cyclonic pitch As the influx of mall mail increases extra etra planes and pilots will be culled called into service and in some instances it will be necessary necess iry to cancel passenger reserva eions so that the space a passenger would occupy in a ship can be utilized for carrying more I 1 mall mail it Is a common sight around tin an airport nt at christmas time to see people who have delayed their christmas walling mailing until the very last inin ute come hurrying in their cars on toot foot and on street cars to got get their packages in a plane which will get them to their destination in time practically all types of merchandise Is accepted by air lines for transport and a n variety of gifts cd their way into the cockpit A chinese fisherman who lived on the const coast of alaska last year sent a 10 40 pound alaska salmon to his fits sportsman friend in new york for whom he worked duriez ohp fishing season as a guide with such a tremendously rapid medium of transportation as the airplane that accomplishment fell into the realms of the commonplace mon place no more precautions were taken for preparing that ish fish for a 2500 2 mile ride across the continent than would be taken by bi a confectioner preparing an icing to be delivered to a suburban customer 20 miles away aw a the fish was packed in a bit of dry ice placed pi iced in the compartment part ment of tin an airplane and about 48 hours later was served in the course of a christmas dinner for a group of new yorkers A young joung louian worn in living in los IOS angeles sent as it 11 christmas gift to a friend living on the snow swept prairies pra lilos of illinois it a bouquet of orchids santa claus clans with will tits his very swift reindeer have haie done iauch better in delivering a perishable gift such a long distance many shipments of toys tos such as little sets of tin soldiers dolls and mechanical gadgets form it a part of the cargo of a mall mail plane an exquisite qui site beautifully set pearl bracelet whose value was almost that of the ship which carried tt it was ns once part of the cargo in a shipment of air express what about the mail pilots on christmas lay day do they share in tile festivities or Is it just an other work lay day for them in the isolated districts in the far west and northwest it la Is cus c u a tomary for the people to come from miles abou arou around nd and gather at the airport to see the ship come in just as it used to be customary in small communities to go down to the depot and see the train come in at miny many m iny airports on christmas day the attendants tend ants there prepare a christmas dinner for the incoming pilot who will descend from a bitterly cold sky ski throw off his fur lined lying flying alt gult and join with ravenous appetite in its as fes the live a christmas dinner as will be served in the land the story of the development 0 of the air mall mail service device in this country Is an interesting one on the tenth anniversary of its establishment harry is new then united states post imster gen eral ern prepared an article on the early develop ment of the sen service ice from which tile the follow following ins excerpts are taken it wis was MB alay 15 1018 1918 that the department over which I 1 now preside took the initiative initiate e and with planes find and pilots borrow borro Ned rid from the department essayed a regular service by or between washington and new york on that eventful lay the stage was set n and nd rightfully so as in celebration of a major event the resident president of the united states and other high wore were present to witness tile the I 1 in n augur atlon of the first air mall mail route they were kept waiting a quarter of an hour when it wils was discovered that the plane ready to start other wise was without gas this inauspicious begin ning was by no means redeemed when the in experienced pilot landed near waldorf md to discover that lie he had been traveling almost in tile the opposite direction from philadelphia which had been his goal subsequent efforts at flying the mall mail proved more eff efficient lelent however and tines three months later the post poat office department took over operation of tile the route furnishing its own onva equipment and before the end of a year it had been demonstrated that with the solving of various problems flights on regular schedule and in all kinds of weather could be made with a cred bitable degree of performance it was exactly one year following the inaus of the new york washington route that service was begun between cleveland and chi achl cago designed as the first leg of a prospective transcontinental system the cond leg ne levs york to cleveland clev eland was as established less than two months later july 1 1910 1019 it was september 8 1020 before landing fields had been laid out and other necessary work completed to permit of operation from one coast to the other the transcontinental operation was not a through service sen ice planes flew in the daytime car crying only such mall mail its as could be advanced in delivery or speeded on its wily ft ay at a saving of 0 from 12 to 24 hours it was called an advani ing service sen ice it resulted in clipping something like 21 24 hours from the best possible tran scon tin train time of 87 hours in august 1923 the first continuous flights from coast to coast were ft ere made As they blazed the way for a new worlds record in ai aviation lation the pilots were guided by the newly installed land lighthouses for 4 days and 4 nights a 11 gallant group of air pioneers spanned the con with air mall mail 4 times in each direction at the end of the 4 days das they quit with a record of per cent perfect the next nest important steps in the progress and growth of the air mall mail came with the In augurn tion of the contract service and the reli by the government to private initiative of the operation of the transcontinental route the first of tile the contract routes was placed in operation february 15 1020 between detroit and cleveland and detroit and chicago other contracts were awarded from time line to time and the service expanded rapidly many of the con tract routes operating as feeders to the trans continental and the overnight new york chicago lines the government operated route between chi rago cago and san francisco went into private opera tion july 1 1027 1927 followed two months later by the double dally daily service between new york and chicago since that government operated route went in to private operation many more advances in air mall mail transportation have been made no longer Is the danger imminent of a pilot landing some place only to discover that lie he has been flying for hours in the opposite direction from his destination as happened on that first air mall mail night flight in 1018 now besides the magnetic compass the earth inductor compass find and numerous other lional aids the pilot Is aided by the use of the directional radio beam stations which trans mit alt this beam are located along the flight route find and each station emits a radio beam towards the other so that the two beams converge and torn form is direct live line for the airplane in flight to follow the beam of course Is not visible to tile the human eye ee but a receiving apparatus in the cockpit of the airplane Is sensitive to the beam and indicates by a radio dash dot system whether whet lier the ship Is on its course or oft its course either to the left or the right 0 by western newspaper union |