This
piece of aviation history from has been extracted from Nancy Wright's "On Wings of Faith" The world's first scheduled long distance flight - New York to San Francisco - established a pattern that evolved into the present global air transportation network. This flight was undertaken on February 22, l921, by U.S. Air Mail Service pilots, flying four De Havilland-4B, wire-braced, open-cockpit, World War I surplus bomber biplanes, which were to carry mail across the continent between New York and San Francisco. This flight included an 882 mile stretch that would be flown in the dark! Many pilots doubted that you could keep an airplane right side up in the dark; - the New York Sun editorialized that the flight was "homicidal insanity." In the prior three years 17 airmail service pilots had died in crashes traced to mechanical or weather-related causes. They flew low - peering over the side of their planes to navigate - skimming rivers, railroad tracks and towns; how could they possibly fly at night! Well wishing residents from towns along the route ignited bonfires in upended oil drums, which created a flarepath on the darkened airway. "Squinting down at them through drifting snow swirls, I felt as though many friends were sending me up signals of bon voyage," said a pilot after the flight. One of the pilots circled a town for 12 minutes in the dark, looking for the landing site when, upon hearing the drone of the distressed plane, a night watchman dashed out to the field and touched off several red flares. The flares provided a general layout of the field; - the pilot made a nearly perfect landing. "...by more luck than skill," he said later. When he landed, his gas tank was empty! The pilots faced the furies of icing, snow, wind, fog, violent winds and weather changes. Only one of the aircraft completed the journey; engine failures, forced landings and an after take-off crash claimed the life of one of the pilots and wrecked the other three aircraft. The mail had been carried the 2,666 miles in 25 hours and 53 minutes, 75 hours shorter than the best train time. This feat impressed congress enough to grant much needed funds to the Air Mail Services to improve and build the service up to become the fast and efficient service it is today. What a great example of small, selfless acts by ordinary people who have helped to turn dreams and ideas into great triumphs for humankind! |
