WINGS FOR TRANSPOETATION — WRIGHT 565 



Tliis means could be used, of course, only for transportation out of 

 Paris, but an ingenious method was devised for making possible the 

 dispatch of return communications. Each balloon carried a quota of 

 homing pigeons when it left Paris which were subsequently released 

 with reply messages. 



The next step in aerial transportation took place in 1911, also 

 using lighter-than-air craft. A service utilizing 5 Zeppelins was 

 operated for 2 years between several cities in Germany. During this 

 time, over 34,000 passengers were carried, traveling 107,000 miles in 

 all with no loss of life. The service was far from satisfactory eco- 

 nomically and was abandoned. 



But we are interested primarily in heavier-than-air craft. The 

 epoch-making flight of the Wright Brothers in 1903 was followed by 

 9 or 10 years of activity which involved flying, but not air trans- 

 portation. Aviation meets consisting of much stunt and demonstra- 

 tion flying were the rule. 



Almost from the first, however, the prospect of carrying mail by 

 air was in the minds of all these enthusiasts though it was not until 

 the end of this period of infancy that any official carriage of mail 

 by air took place. Preceded by stunt mail-carrying wherein a small 

 amount of mail might be transported to a flying field by auto truck, 

 flown about a bit, perhaps to another field, and then picked up by an- 

 other (or possibly the same) truck and carried back to the same 

 post office, a real start was made on September 23, 1911, when the 

 Post Office Department authorized Earle Ovington to make an 

 official mail flight. Emphasis must here be placed on the fact that 

 at that time it was the carrying of mail that appealed to the popular 

 fancy as the goal of the airplane. 



Several isolated attempts at starting air transport lines took place 

 following this period, such as one in 1914 which operated with a 

 single flying boat between St. Petersburg and Tampa, in Florida, a 

 distance of 36 miles. All of these efforts, essentially uneconomical, 

 were abandoned after short periods of operation. Greater airplane 

 efficiency had to be realized before success could be attained. 



A real start, however, was made in 1918 when the Post Office De- 

 partment decided to fly the mail between New York and Washington, 

 D. C. The Army Air Service, with Maj. Reuben Fleet in charge of 

 the operation, was designated to do the job since initial bids for 

 airplanes designed especially for the service resulted in delivery dates 

 for the craft which were unsatisfactory to the impatient officials. The 

 first flight was made on May 15, 1918, and was intended to consist 

 of a trip in each direction. The flight of the plane leaving Washing- 

 ton, with the take-off witnessed by the President of the United States 

 and members of bis Cabinet, terminated shortly thereafter in southern 



