Most people know the name of Charles Lindbergh. He was a great American aviator, most famous for being the first pilot to complete a solo non-stop transatlantic flight, from New York to Paris, in May 1927.
But did you know that before his transatlantic adventures, Mr. Lindbergh was also a U.S. Air Mail pioneer (and later one of its advocates)?
As a child, Charles Lindbergh had always been interested in the mechanics of cars and motorbikes, and so it came as no surprise that when the time came, he chose to enrol in University as a mechanical engineering student. A couple of years later though, he found his true passion for aeronautics, dropped out and re-enrolled in a flying school in Nebraska. He spent a few years studying, doing air tricks & acrobatics across the country, testing planes and finally training with the American Army Air Service. At 23, he was a already veteran flier, but since the army didn’t need pilots at the time, he was looking for a job elsewhere…
Meanwhile, the US government had been running some experimental air mail routes between different cities for almost 8 years. The results were good, but the government had no intentions of continuing expanding the Air Mail Service on its own… and so in 1925, the Kelly Air Mail Act was passed by congress, which allowed the private sector to bid on specific airmail feeder routes to the main transcontinental system.
And thus in October that year Charles Lindbergh was hired by the Robertson Aircraft Corporation to be the chief pilot on a Contract Air Mail route between St. Louis and Chicago, with 2 stops in Springfield and Peoria.
He started flying a modified war surplus de Havilland DH-4 biplane after swearing the Oath of Mail Messengers, which had to be changed to note him as a pilot instead of a mail messenger – you can see it here.
Lindbergh did well as an airmail pilot, achieving a remarkable 99% delivery efficiency even in the harsh conditions of the time (which included no proper equipment or landing facilities).
Twice during his work he lost control of the plane due to bad weather or faulty equipment and had to jump out of it, landing by parachute on nearby fields. On both occasions, his first priority upon landing was to locate the wreckage of the planes and secure the mail – like a good mail carrier would!
He continued to be a chief pilot on this Air Mail route until February 1927, when he decided to take part on the race for the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris… Well, we all know how he did on that adventure! :)
And although Charles Lindbergh never returned to the Air Mail career after winning the Orteig Prize, he kept on promoting the Air Mail services, by doing speeches on their behalf and carrying souvenir mail covers from international flights in his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis.
Credits: All photos by the San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives collection on Flickr. Read more about Charles Lindbergh on his wikipedia page and on charleslindbergh.com.
