A Curtiss Jenny airplane is being readied for take off from the polo fields in Washington, DC on May 15, 1918.
President and Mrs. Wilson were present at the polo fields near the Potomac River the morning of the flights.
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On May 15, 1918, the United States officially established airmail service between New York and Washington, D.C., using Army aircraft
and pilots. Army Major Reuben H. Fleet was charged with setting up the first U.S. airmail service, scheduled to operate beginning
May 15, 1918 between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City. The army pilots chosen to fly that day were
Lieutenants Howard Culver, Torrey Webb, Walter Miller and Stephen Bonsal, all chosen by Major Fleet, and Lieutenants James Edgerton
and George Boyle, both chosen by postal officials. Edgerton and Boyle had only recently graduated from the flight school at Ellington
Field, Texas and neither had more than 60 hours of piloting time.
Lieutenant Boyle had a powerful ally on his side. Boyle was engaged to the daughter of Interstate Commerce Commissioner Charles McChord.
Boyle was selected to pilot the first plane out of Washington, DC. After all his preparations, Boyle hopped into his plane and was unable
to start it. The plane had not been fueled. It was an inauspicious start.
Lieutenant Boyle finally got his Curtiss Jenny, loaded with 124 pounds of airmail, in the air. His assignment was to fly to Philadelphia,
the mid-way stop between the Washington and New York ends of the service. He did not make it there that day. The novice pilot got lost
and low on gas, crash landed in rural Maryland, less than 25 miles away from Washington.
Fortunately for the service, the other flights operated as scheduled that day. Thanks to his political connections, Lieutenant Boyle was
given a second chance to fly the airmail out of Washington, D.C. This time, he was given an escort who flew him out of the city, having
given him directions to "follow the Chesapeake Bay" towards Philadelphia. Unfortunately, Boyle followed those instructions too literally,
following the curve of the bay over to Maryland's eastern shore, where he landed, out of fuel again. Not even Boyle's connections could
help him now, and he was removed from the pilots list for the service.
Lieutenant James Edgerton, the other rookie pilot, did much better on his flights and stayed with the service. On another flight,
Edgerton managed to keep his plane aloft during a violent storm, even as the propeller was pelted by hail. He was discharged from the
service the next year, and became the Chief of Flying Operations.
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Major Fleet gives some words of advice to Lieutenant Boyle before he takes off that morning with the airmail for Philadelphia.
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