page_title: Airmails of the United States
section_title: Air Mail franking
hierarchical_section_title: Airmails of the United States / Scheduled airmails / Air Mail franking
caption_attribution_description: 24-cent 1924 air mail United States postage stamp, depicting the Curtiss Jenny, Scott Catalog number C3;modeled after plane in photo, which bears the same number on its fuselage that's depicted on the stamp:
context_page_description: Airmails of the United States or U.S. Air Mail was a service class of the United States Post Office Department and its successor United States Postal Service delivering mail flown by aircraft within the United States and its possessions and territories. Letters and parcels intended for air mail service were marked as "Via Air Mail", appropriately franked, and assigned to any then existing class or sub-class of the Air Mail service.
  After an intermittent series of government sponsored experimental flights between 1911 and 1918, domestic U.S. Air Mail was formally established as a new class of service by the Post Office Department on May 15, 1918, with the inauguration of the Washington–Philadelphia–New York route for which the first of special Air Mail stamps were issued.
  The exclusive transportation of flown mails by government operated aircraft came to an end in 1926 under the provisions of the "Kelly Act" which required the USPOD to transition to contracting with commercial air carriers to fly them over Contract Air Mail routes to be established by the Department, although during the first half of 1934 the U.S.
context_section_description: The original Air Mail letter rate per ounce between any two points on the route when service began was 24 cents per ounce for which the first special purpose U.S. Air Mail stamp (C-3) was issued on May 13, 1918. The red and blue stamp's vignette depicted Army JN-4 #38262, the aircraft that made the first Air Mail flight from Washington two days later, and the 24 cent fee it represented was apportioned at two cents for postage, 12 cents for air service, and 10 cents for Special Delivery. On July 15 the rate was dropped to 16 cents for the first ounce and 6 cents for each additional ounce, and on December 15 the rate was dropped again to 6 cents per ounce when Special Delivery was made optional. Additional monochromatic stamps of similar design to C-3 were also issued contemporaneously with these rate changes in 16 cent (green) and 6 cent (orange) denominations. Although these extra fee stamps were issued for use on mails to be serviced by air, the legend "AIR MAIL" did not appear on any USPOD stamp until eight years later when the 10-cent C-7 rectangular was issued on February 13, 1926, two days before the first ever mail flight under contract with a commercial carrier was made on February 15, an eastbound trip between Detroit and Cleveland over CAM Route 7.
caption: C-3, issued on May 13, 1918
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