10/30/2022 0 Comments James cleveland air mail pilot![]() ![]() The letters which left San Francisco were in New York in 33 hours and 20 minutes. Two more pilots flew the remaining legs to Hazelhurst Field on Long Island. Minutes later he took off into darkness again, his nose pointed toward Chicago. With the man who’d lit the flare, he found a drum of gas and refueled the DH-4. A small red flare lit up and Knight landed beside it. With minutes of gas left, he buzzed the town, revving his engine. On reserve fuel, he saw the lights of Des Moines but there was too much snow for a safe landing. Only one pilot dared to fly the mail through wretched weather in the middle of the night between Omaha and. ![]() Congress that airmail could travel both night and day. These pilots were tasked with proving to a skeptical U.S. Knight fought a strong crosswind and increasing cloud cover. James 'Jack' Knight was part of the relay team of pilots that flew 2,629 miles across the country on February 22-23, 1921. Postal officials assumed the flight was off. He had a flashlight and a Rand-McNally road map on his lap. Knight took off on a compass course for Des Moines, Iowa. “But I can make it if they keep on lighting bonfires.”Īt 2 a.m. Jack Knight after his flight from Salt Lake City to Chicago, 1921. Hill jokingly claimed his cigar was the first instrument to aid commercial fliers.Įarly routes were in the East but with the public reluctant to pony up 24 cents for mail going from New York to Washington DC, the Post Office sought to show the real time savings by flying airmail from coast to coast. By that time he figured it was safe to descend to the landing field in Bellefonte, PA. Hill leisurely puffed the stogie until only two unburned inches remained. Dean Hill crossed the Alleghenies by first lighting a long cigar, then climbing above the cloud deck. To fight off disorientation, another mail pilot, Wesley Smith, used a half-empty whiskey bottle as an attitude indicator, the tilt of the whiskey showing whether his wings were level or not.Īnother pilot named J. He had been an airmail pilot for only five weeks. He was carried from the wreck but died before reaching a hospital. Lamborn’s airplane came out of clouds at 400 feet, nose-down, smashing into the mountain. Without visual reference, he became disoriented. ![]() Flying through fog and rain Lamborn climbed into clouds to pass over Snowshoe Mountain. In August, 1919 Charles Lamborn took off from Cleveland for Bellefonte, PA, crossing the Allegheny Mountains on his mail route. ![]()
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