They Died Flying the Mail

Did you know
...that a helicopter was used to carry mail from the roof of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania post office to an airport at Camden, New Jersey?
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Thirty-five of the pilots hired by the Post Office Department between 1919-1926 were killed while flying the mail. Most of those pilots died in the early years of the service. In 1919, one pilot died for every 115,325 miles flown. By 1926, the number had dropped to one pilot death for every 2,583,056 miles flown. These are the stories of some of those courageous pilots who died flying the mail.

 
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An airmail official inspects the wreckage of a downed mail airplane.
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The charred remnants were all that was left after the crash of this de Havilland aircraft.

Fad to Fundamental: Airmail in America