Search


	Podcast:		Local Features by WXPR
	Episode:		The Air Mail Route That Lasted for a Single Day
	Category:		Government & Organizations
	Duration:		00:03:20
	Publish Date:		2021-01-13 06:14:18
	Description:		Today no one really thinks about air mail as anything particularly unique. In the past, however, the railroads transported most interstate mail in the U.S. To receive a letter with a special air mail envelope and stamp meant that it was either important enough for the sender to pay extra for the postage, or that it came from overseas. The United States Post Office Department, which is today the U.S. Postal Service, began experimenting with air mail delivery as early as 1911. In 1918 the Post Office established the first air mail route between New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. All mail had to be flown on government-operated aircraft in those early days, but that ended in 1926 when the Kelly Act required the Post Office to start contracting air mail out to commercial carriers. Unfortunately, corruption in the awarding of contracts during the Hoover Administration led newly elected President Franklin Roosevelt to cancel the program in 1934. The Army Air Corps temporarily carried
	Total Play:		0