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The Post Office Begins Flying the Mail
The U.S. Post Office began using airplanes to move the mail in order to help establish an air transportation system.
The new field of air transportation was risky business. Early airlines proved unprofitable-they flew and then folded. The airline industry could not get off the ground.
So as it had with stagecoaches, steamships, and railroads, the federal government stepped in to foster a new transportation system. It authorized the U.S. Post Office to begin flying the mail. In 1918 the vision of Postmaster General Albert Burleson and Second Assistant Postmaster General Otto Praeger became a reality with the creation of the U.S. Air Mail Service. |