Antique Airplanes Deliver The Mail

To celebrate the 90th anniversary of airmail delivery in the United States, pilots participating in this week's Antique Airplane Association fly-in were sworn in as latter day airmail pilots.

According to the Solon,Iowa Gazette, they delivered mail back and forth between several small towns and the Iowa City airport.

Reporter Jennifer Hemmingsen writes that the Iowa City Postmaster and two postal clerks met the pilots at the airport, with a special cancellation stamp and some historic artifacts that included a leather mail pouch from the 1940s and a turn-of-the-century wage book.

Five antique planes particpated in the event. These included two early passenger planes, a World War II-era Stearman Trainer, a Waco Straight Wing and a Sikorsky Flying Boat.

Iowa City was part of the earliest airmail flights, when pilots navigated by landmark instead of radio.

Shown above in a Gazette photograph, an early American Airways Stinson Tri-motor and a 1927 Ford Tri-motor. Both planes are owned by Greg Herrick of Minneapolis.

To read the enitre article, click here.