Postal flyers Succeed Against Odds in “Bringing” Mail Through

AT NOON, May 15, 1918, four pilots stood beside their planes ready to take off on the first official attempt to carry mail by air. That day was the beginning of a thing that has spread, not only through the United States, but into all of North America. Since that day millions of dollars have been spent, planes have been wrecked, and pilots killed, but the air mail goes on and it stands today as one of the great affairs of the nation.

Air Torpedo Speeds Mail Delivery

THE speediest thing yet in the way of devices to facilitate mail delivery is an air torpedo which has recently been introduced in Germany. The invention of a Berlin engineer, Herr Richard Pfautz, the vehicle speeds from city to city on a special overhead trolley, which carries the current to power the two electric propeller motors situated at each end of the cylinder, as shown in the accompanying photo.

That sure is an interesting way to refuel a plane…

NEW MAIL PLANE HIDES WHEELS AS IT RISES

When the newest of the mail planes leaves the ground, the landing wheels swing backward and tuck themselves away in the lower side of the wing. A study in streamlining, the 158-mile-an-hour “Boeing Monomail” is shaped so that its speedy passage through the sky meets with the least possible air resistance. Recently the all-metal craft was placed in regular service on the air mail route between Chicago and San Francisco.

A glance at this low-wing monoplane’s lines shows how far airplane designers have progressed since the “bird-cage” biplanes, crisscrossed with struts and wire braces, of fifteen years ago. The “Mono-mail’s” fuselage tapers like a cigar, and is broken only by a low windshield for the pilot. Around the motor a newly-developed type of cowling further reduces wind resistance.