page_title: Robertson Aircraft Corporation
section_title: Mail and air carrier operations
hierarchical_section_title: Robertson Aircraft Corporation / Mail and air carrier operations
caption_attribution_description: English: Charles A. Lindbergh's pen endorsed (as "CA Lindbergh Jr"), cancelled paycheck as a U.S. Air Mail pilot from the Robertson Aircraft Corp. dated January 15, 1927, four months before his flight to Paris. By then Lindbergh had saved up $2,000 of his own money to contribute to the project which was funded primarily by a $15,000 loan made by the State National Bank of St. Louis on February 18, 1927.
context_page_description: Robertson Aircraft Corporation was a post-World War I American aviation service company based at the Lambert-St. Louis Flying Field near St. Louis, Missouri, that flew passengers and U.S. Air Mail, gave flying lessons, and performed exhibition flights. It also modified, re-manufactured, and resold surplus military aircraft including Standard J, Curtiss Jenny/Canuck, DeHavilland DH-4, Curtiss Oriole, Spad, Waco, and Travel Air types in addition to Curtiss OX-5 engines.
  RAC also operated facilities in Kansas City, San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans, and Fort Wayne. The company was owned and operated by brothers Maj. William B. Robertson and Frank H. Robertson who were both former US Army aviators. William Robertson left the company in 1928 to form the Curtiss-Robertson division of Curtiss-Wright to produce aircraft such as the Curtiss Robin, which RAC sold.
context_section_description: On April 15, 1926, Robertson Aircraft started Contract Air Mail service over route CAM-2 from Lambert Field to Chicago, with stops in Springfield, Illinois and Peoria, Illinois; Charles Lindbergh was employed as chief pilot for the service. RAC started service with four converted DH-4 aircraft (#s 109-112) acquired from the U.S. Postal Service's Air Mail fleet two of which were lost in accidents in September and November, 1926, while being piloted by Lindbergh. RAC added service over CAM-29 between St.Louis and Omaha in May 1929. By 1928 RAC was providing daily passenger and express service as well over the St. Louis - Chicago mail route flown in 12-passenger Stout Ford Tri-Motors. During the Great Depression Robertson's flight operations were merged into Universal Aviation Corporation along with Continental Airlines, Northern Air Lines, and Paul R. Braniff Inc., which became Braniff International Airways Universal Aviation became a component of The Aviation Corporation in 1930, merging many companies into American Airways in 1934, eventually becoming American Airlines.
  The 1957 motion picture The Spirit of St. Louis featured an RAC DH-4 mailplane in flying sequences as well as Maj. Robertson (played by James Robertson, Jr.) and company Air Mail pilots Lindbergh (James Stewart) and Harlan A. "Bud" Gurney (Murray Hamilton) among its characters.
caption: Charles Lindbergh's last pay check as an RAC Air Mail pilot.
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