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"First Commercial Airmail"
by Paul W. Gillan
Henry Ford, the powerful automobile manufacturer, was among the first successful bidders for airmail contracts, winning the right in 1925 to carry mail from Chicago to Detroit and Cleveland aboard planes his company already was using to transport spare parts for his automobile assembly plants.
On 15 February, 1926 Captain Lawrence G. Fritz and Captains Ross Kirkpatrick and Dean Burford, Ford pilots, started the service over the newly established company routes. Fritz was the first to depart flying one of the Liberty-powered 2-AT Air Transports east towards Cleveland, Ohio. Then, Kirkpatrick lifted off from the Ford airport in the second 2-AT and headed towards Chicago. Meanwhile, Burford was taking off at the same time from Chicago's municipal airfield and headed towards Detroit.
Loading the mail, 15 February, 1926
At Ford Airport for this inaugural event was W. Irving Glover, Second Assistant Postmaster General, who spoke in a nation-wide radio hook-up:
"To Mr. Ford goes the honor of being the first to undertake this new type of mail transport...it is really a first step in a new epoch."
In the same radio address, Henry Ford replied:
"I have sent a letter on the first mail plane to my friend Thomas Edison in which I told him, I thought this was a great step forward. The pioneering in plane building and operation is past. It now remains for men of business to take hold of the opportunity."
The fleet of six Ford single-engined "Air Transports" (the famous 2-AT series) flew over 1,000 trips between Detroit-Chicago-Cleveland during the first year of operations of the Ford Air Transport Service. Most of these planes were later sold to Florida Airways, a predecessor company of today's Eastern Airlines.
Two of the Ford 2-AT Air Transports
Ford Air Transport Service also has the distinction of incurring the first fatal accident on a commercial airmail route when a Ford-Stout 2-AT-2, crashed on May 18, 1926.
The Kelly Act
The Contract Air Mail Act, passed on 2 February, 1925, was the first major legislative step towards the creation of an airline industry in the United States. Known as the Kelly Act, the bill provided for the transfer of air mail service from the Post Office to private operators, under a scheme of competitive bidding, for a period of four years. On 3 June, an amendment to the Kelly Act made it more practical. The method of paying by a percentage of the postage was replaced by a system of paying by weight.In 1924 there was a ferry to Catalina Island, and the Puget Sound and Mississippi Delta foreign mail contract companies were going. The first five contracts were not awarded until 7 October, 1925, with the result that no airline company was carrying official mail until 1926. However, in 1925, two companies went ahead without the sponsorship of the Postmaster General:
On the West Coast, at San Diego, T. Claude Ryan was one of the many air-minded engineers who had started a small aircraft factory. He converted six Standard biplanes from two-seat open trainers to five-seat cabin transports and fitting them with 150 hp Hispano Suiza engines. Ryan Airlines opened a scheduled service between San Diego and Los Angeles on 1 March, 1925 ($17.50 one-way, $26.50 round-trip). This was the first regular passenger airline service to be operated wholly over the mainland of the United States, although Pacific Marine Airways had been operating from Wilmington to Catalina Island since 1922, and there is considerable doubt whether this service ran except on demand for some periods during the year.
The second venture which got under way without waiting for the Kelly Act was controlled by Henry Ford. William B. Stout, an engineer and designer, was trying to find a backer and found Henry Ford. They started a private daily express service between Detroit and Chicago (260 miles) on 3 April, 1925. The Stout Metal Airplane Company was invited to a site at Dearborn, where $ 2,000,000 was invested in a new airport with two concrete runways, hangars, airship mooring mast, aircraft factory and the first airport hotel in the United States. On 31 July, the Ford Motor Company opened a second route from Detroit to Cleveland, and on the same day purchased all stock and assets of the Stout Company.
The company was among the successful bidders for the two of the earliest contract mail routes for which bids were invited under the Kelly Act; and because it was already in operation, it was first off the mark, beginning official mail services on 15 February, 1926, having postponed the inaugural flight because of a $ 500,000 fire at the Dearborn plant.
2002 Wings Publishing
