Middlefield – 100 years ago this coming September, the U.S. Post Office launched its riskiest gambit yet: fly the mail coast-to-coast from Long Island, NY to San Francisco Bay in surplus WWI biplanes that lacked even the most rudimentary navigation and blind-flying instruments. The pilots, made up mostly of former Army Air Service instructors, had only two guides: their compass and the railroad tracks below.
On the morning of September 8, 1920, a lone DH-4 mail plane, powered by a war surplus Liberty engine, lifted off from a grassy runway on Long Island and pointed its nose due west. Four days later around 2:30 PM local time, another airmail plane, No. 151 with ‘Monte’ Mouton at the controls, bounced across Marina Field on the shores of San Francisco Bay. Reported the Associated Press a few hours later, “The west was moved 24 hours nearer to the east today…”
This coming September, a group of over a dozen volunteer pilots will retrace the same route, relaying some 5,000 commemorative postcards honoring the pilots, airfields and communities that funded and nurtured them. With the encouragement of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), Airplane Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), multiple chambers of commerce, and Scouting B.S.A., the aircraft will fly in relay between 16 airports: five of them originally activated a century ago to support the Post Office and still in service today. They will make a stop at Middlefield’s Geauga County Airport (identifier 7G8) on Tuesday, September 8th at 12:30 pm. The public is encouraged to arrive at the airport early enough to see the plane land and witness the transfer of the mail sack before the next plane in the relay takes off at 1:00 pm.
To prepare for the celebration, there will be a “postcard signing event” in Hangar 3 of the Geauga County Airport on Sunday, August 30th at 1:00 pm. Community members of all ages are asked to bring the addresses of friends and family members who would like to receive a commemorative postcard from the anniversary celebration. Blank postcards will be provided and so will the postcard postage stamp. Attendees may complete multiple postcards including one for themselves. Information about the history of AIRMAIL 100 will be available as well.
“We seek to honor the memory of the men whose courage, dedication and determination helped propel America from a second-rate airpower at the close of the First World War to the pre-eminent aerospace innovator and builder in the world,” explains Richard Blamer, airport manager.
“So ‘cutting edge’ was the institution of the nation-spanning airmail service at the time that the National Aeronautics Association, founded in 1906, awarded it their prestigious Collier Trophy… twice.”
Both events are FREE and open to the public, however donations are being accepted to fund the commemorative postcards and decals for the airplanes. Information on the route, as well as the history of the airmail can be found on the AirMail100.com website.
