This method bettered the all rail service by 22 hours. , The first mail was flown by day and loaded onto trains for night travel, then reloaded and flown the next day. Murray returned with the first east bound mail on September 13, thus helping complete the inaugural circuit of the first transcontinental air service in history. The next day, James "Jimmy" Murray landed with the first load of mail from the east. Air Mail Service began operations in Cheyenne when pilot Buck Heffron left town with 400 pounds of mail destined for the West Coast. Russell however, the city along with Laramie County secured the current airport site and started construction of a hangar to hold up to six mail planes. , Initial plans called for the first airport at Cheyenne to be co-located at the landing field for Fort D.A. The railroad line itself had significance, serving as a landmark pilots could easily follow across the continent during the daytime. He believed Cheyenne to be perfectly suited as a major division point along the transcontinental airmail route due to the fact that it was almost exactly in the middle of the direct flight route between Chicago and San Francisco, the city lay at the foot of the lowest crossing point of the treacherous Rocky Mountains, and the Union Pacific Railroad ran through the city which meant easy re-supply of the airmail station. Jordan arrived in Cheyenne to begin planning for an airmail station. , In May 1920, Post Office superintendent of airfield construction John A. This last leg included stops in North Platte, Cheyenne, Rock Springs, Salt Lake City, Elko and Reno. The first leg of the transcontinental route was from New York to Cleveland in 1918 the Cleveland to Chicago leg was established in 1919 Chicago to Omaha in 1920 and the last segment from Omaha to San Francisco was opened on September 8, 1920. New York to Washington) the Post Office envisioned a transcontinental airmail route from New York to San Francisco to better its time on long hauls and to lure more people to use airmail. , Although at first the routes were short (e.g. Of the original 48 aircraft that would depart New York and 15 that departed San Francisco, only 33 would complete the one-way crossing and only eight would make the full round trip. The route used was later adopted by the Post Office as the most practical. Although a number of aviators had flown across the United States since Cal Rodgers first accomplished the feat in 1911, there was no organized route and landing areas were few and far between, especially in the western U.S. Air Service transcontinental air race in October 1919. , General William "Billy" Mitchell, a staunch advocate of aviation, put together a U.S. Early airplanes has no radios, instruments or other navigational aids and pilots flew by dead reckoning Few facilities existed and pilots were often forced to land due to bad weather however, fatalities were rare. In the fall of 1918 the Post Office purchased six specially-built mail planes and hired civilian pilots. They argued that this cross-country flying would provide invaluable experience to student flyers and the Secretary of War agreed. In 1918 Congress appropriated $100,000 to establish experimental airmail routes and the Post Office encouraged the Army Signal Corps to lend its planes and pilots to start the service. From 1912 to 1916 they urged Congress to appropriate money to launch airmail service and in 1916, $50,000 was authorized but no aircraft were received due to the absence of suitable planes. By 1912 it had authorized 52 flights at fairs, carnivals and air meets in more than 25 states. Post Office Department authorized the first experimental mail flight in 1911 at an aviation meet on Long Island, New York. The First Transcontinental Airmail Route.
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