| People have become accustomed to airmail; a letter | | | | began carrying the mail between New York, |
| can be carried anywhere in the world by air, and | | | | Philadel¬phia, and Washington in 1918. A year later |
| usually gets to its destination from one day to five or | | | | service was started between New York and Chicago, |
| six weeks earlier than it would if it went by regular mail | | | | and still a year later it was extended to San Francisco. |
| (over land or by a ship). The cost of sending an airmail | | | | At first the planes flew only in daylight hours, the mail |
| letter in the United States has ranged from five to | | | | continuing by train at night. In 1924, however, airmail |
| eight cents, and a letter weighing no more than half an | | | | planes began to fly at night as well as during the day. |
| ounce (which is about as much as most letters do | | | | Airmail helped a great deal to ad¬vance aviation in |
| weigh) can be sent overseas for ten to twenty-five | | | | the United States. When the airlines were young, and |
| cents. | | | | were having trouble getting enough pas¬sengers to |
| It has become sure that nearly all mail will eventually be | | | | pay expenses, the Post Office Department made |
| sent by air, except for packages and some kinds of | | | | large payments to them for carrying airmail, and this |
| mail on which there is no rush. In 1953, the United | | | | helped them through the early years. These payments |
| States Post Office began sending regular mail by air | | | | were first authorized by an Act of the United States |
| between New York and Chicago, and between New | | | | Congress, the Carey Act, in 1925. Earlier than that, |
| York and Washing¬ton, even when no airmail stamp | | | | flying the airmail had given valu¬able training to Army |
| had been put on (of course, much of this mail also | | | | pilots. This Boeing Model 40 was one of the first |
| went by train, and it was neces¬sary to put on an | | | | planes designed to carry passengers and mail. It made |
| airmail stamp to make sure the letter would go by air). | | | | its first trip on July 1, 1927, and is now preserved in the |
| Mail was first carried by air in 1870 when the French | | | | Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution American |
| used balloons to send mail out of Paris after the | | | | Overseas Airlines These Cub Scouts are learning how |
| Germans had surrounded the city. In the United States, | | | | a propeller keeps an airplane moving forward. |
| Army planes, then a branch of the Signal Corps, first | | | | |