Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-05

! line, paSStngO through IllS ClCy,
the monthly poundage OF airmail
has increased more than 200 per
cent in less than a year. The in
crease throughout the country
has averaged more than 10 per
cent a month for several years.
There is no indication that this
rate of increase will flag in the
near future. In fact there are
prominent postal officials who
predict publicly that within a few
years all firSt-claSS mail in the
United States will travel by air.
Airmail Growth Meteoric.
. Growth of the airmail has been
meteoric. Shortly before noon on
May Is, 1918, four young Army
officers stood at attention beside
four Army De Haviland obServa-
tion planes; one of them on the
Polo Field in East Potomac Park,
two in Philadelphia and orie in
New York. At noon the pilots in
this city and New York climbed
into their planes, received small
pouches of mail, and took off. The
worlds first airmail route had
been inaugurated.
Lieut.. George Boyle, flying out
of the Polo Field, Philadelphia
bound, lost his way and came
down with the mail in Maryland.
Lieut.. Torey Webb, who left New
York, transferred his mail at
Philadelphia to the waiting plane
piloted by Lieut.. James c. Edger-
ton. a brother of the writer, who
landed at the Polo Field here on
schedule, completing the first reg
ular airmail flight in history.
The Army continued flying the
mail, with fair success, until
August, 1918, when the airmail
service was transferred from the
War Department to the Post
Office Department and the flrSt
tranScontinental line was eStab-
lished, the WaShington-New York
line being abandoned.
Later came the contract airmail
system, now in effect. This proved
one of the SoundeSt incentives to
commercial aeronautical develop
ment the Government could have
devised. Airmail development
from that day on has been rapid
and continuous.
The National Capital again
took it's place on the country's
airmail map year ago. At $50
pm, on May l, 1928, Pilot
Amberse M, Banks brought his
fast little Pitcairn Mailwing plane
down out of the darkness and, dis
regarding flood lights at the south
end of Boiling Field, landed by
the light of his wing-tip landing
lights in front of group of postal
and military officials and Wash
ington civic and business repre-
Sentatives. He carried several
sacks of mail from New York and
Philadelphia and at Boiling Field
he received from the hands of
former Postmaster General Harry
S. New three additional pouches
of mail for the South. At 2:35
am. the northbound plane, carry
ing 1874 pounds of mail, stopped
here for a few minutes on the
way to Philadelphia and New
York.
Backing of Public Grows.
Since then, in the face of flying
conditions worse, with perhaps
one exception, than on any air
mail route in the country, the
Pitcairn pilots have been plugging
away steadily, with the organiza-
ton and the backing of the public
growing up behind them. Today
there are seven pilots on the New
York-Atlanta line. The Pitcairn
line has been extended from
Atlanta to Miami and subsequent
ly to Daytona Beach, Orlando and
Tampa, Fla.
Passenger service is to follow
the airmail and 1t is expected that
the first unit of the passenger
line, from Greensboro, N. c., to
Atlanta, will be inaugurated this
Summer with tri-motored Ford
monoplsnes. This service will be
extended up and down the coast
as facilities are provided at the
various cities en- route.
The passenger line eventually
will be in operation from New
York to Miami and, like the air
mail line, will make connections
at New York with air transport
lines to the Mississippi Valley and
the Pacific Coast and at Miami
with lines to all of the West In
dian island nations and to Central
and South America, so that within
another year it should be possible
for a WaShingtonian to board a
passenger plane in this city and
fly to almost any part OF the New