#airmail pilot

[retrocgads]

USA 1981

[retrocgads]

USA 1981

[lovelyhandwrittennotes]

USPS Hall of Fame: Charles Lindbergh

When Charles Lindbergh was In flight school, he trained under pioneering airmail pilot Ira O. Biffle. When Lindbergh graduated, he too became an airmail pilot. He worked for Robertson Aircraft Corporation, the second of five private companies to obtain contracts with the USPS in 1925. Thus the Robertson route was called Contract Air Mail #2. CAM #2 ran from the company’s base in St. Louis to Chicago, and 23 year-old Lindbergh was the first to deliver mail by it in April 1926.  

“First back Lindbergh and Green loading cargo”

In September of that year, outside Ottawa, Illinois, Lindbergh couldn’t land because of heavy fog. His plane ran out of fuel and he had to parachute out and let it crash. Three sacks of mail were retrieved from the wreck and forwarded to the Ottawa post office.  

In November, Lindbergh was again forced to parachute out during a nighttime snowstorm near Covell, Illinois. Lucky Lindy landed on a barbed wire fence, but his flight suit protected him. The mail sacks were again recovered and made it back into circulation.

Lindbergh’s plane, November 1926

The following year, he became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic.

1927 commemorative air mail stamp

In the late 1920′s, Lindbergh began exploring routes through the Caribbean and Central America, delivering mail as he went.

February 4, 1929, Lindbergh’s 27th birthday

We recognize that Charles Lindbergh was not an entirely savory personality, and this post does not mean to over-glorify him. We do salute his contributions to air mail!

[theskywasnevermylimit]

Airmail pilot, "Wild Bill" Hopson in his winter flight suit. Circa 1920.