March 16, 1921 - Chicago
December 1, 1921 - San Francisco
May 11, 1922 - Chicago
July 16, 1922 - Cleveland
September 1, 1922 - Chicago
July 1, 1923 - Hazelhurst
December 16, 1924 - Hadley Field
March 1, 1925 - San Francisco
May 1, 1925 - Concord
- Courtesy of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
Johnson found great success in his career as an airmail pilot. On August 19, 1923, Johnson was selected to pilot the first airplane out of New York on the transcontinental flight to San Francisco. The New York Times trumpeted the flight and Johnson's role.
TO LEAD AIR MAIL DASH.
Pilot Picked for First Plane in Transcontinental Flight
HAZELHURST FIELD, L.I., August 19.-Pilot C. Eugene Johnson has been selected to operate the first airplane hopping off in the Air Mail Service's proposed transcontinental flight scheduled to start Tuesday. Johnson will fly as far as Cleveland, to return with the first assignment of mail carried by air from San Francisco to New York.
It is estimated that the westward flight will take thirty hours and the return twenty-eight hours. This is because for a large part of the time there is a west wind averaging thirteen miles per hour.
The New York City Post Office has prepared a special pouch to carry complimentary letters on the plane. The plane is fitted to carry 24,000 letters weighing 575 pounds.
The other pilots will hop off as follows: Wednesday, Shirley J. Short; Thursday, W. L. Smith; Friday, P. F. Collins; Saturday, Brooke H. Pearson.
The schedule for the westward flights will be as follows: Leave New York 11 A.M., arrive Cleveland 4 P.M. Chicago 7 P.M. (Central time). Omaha 12 midnight (Central time). Cheyenne 4:30 A.M. (Mountain time). Salt Lake City 9 A.M. (Western time). Reno 2:15 P.M. (Western time). San Francisco 4:15 P.M. (Western time). The 2,60-mile flight from Chicago to Cheyenne will be done by night.
In the summer of 1924, Johnson secured a temporary leave of absence from the Air Mail Service to fly special flights for the New York Times. The pilot flew the Times newspapers from New York to Cleveland, Ohio, where they were placed in hotels and around the city during the time of the Republican Convention there. The newspapers reached Cleveland five hours faster by air than they would have by train.
On February 5, 1927, Johnson walked a way from a crash when his airplane was forced down near Cisco, California during a raging blizzard. Johnson was uninjured, and helped get the mail sacks trucked to the Southern Pacific railway at Tamarack, California, where they continued on their journey.
After the Air Mail Service was turned over to private carriers, Johnson joined United Air Lines, rising to the position of vice president with the company in the 1930s.
