It was subsequently ordered to be broken up. The investigation’s hearing also revealed the monopolistic nature of the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation. Consequently, all contracts were canceled by newly elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on February 19, 1934, with the Army Air Corps taking over the service once more. The investigation found evidence of collusion between the Hoover Administration and the contractors, systematically setting aside smaller bidders. The Air Mail Scandalįour years later, an investigation into the attribution of the air mail contracts by the postmaster was initiated by Senator Hugo Black, after 90% of the contracts had been awarded to three big holding companies, including the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation. The capacity to transport people became an additional revenue stream for companies that were not paid by the amount of mail they were carrying. The aircraft featured three engines and could carry 12 passengers. In less than a year, the corporation was able to design a new biplane for air mail transport: the Boeing 80. ![]() One of the prominent beneficiaries of this policy change was United Airlines, which was awarded most of the northern air mail route due to its well-established routes, its manufacturing capacity, and innovative aircraft. Companies with larger aircraft were favored. Instead of a flat rate per mile regardless of the weight of the load, contracts were awarded based on aircraft payload per route, regardless of the amount of mail the plane was carrying. They would become Boeing Air Transport, and later United Airlines.īased on the recommendations of Walter Folger Brown, the postmaster general under President Herbert Hoover, the Air Mail Act of 1930 changed the method in which air mail contracts were awarded. ![]() The United Aircraft and Transport Corporation even acquired several air carriers to fly its aircraft. This powerful monopoly allowed for complete control of the entire supply chain. This holding acquired a number of other companies related to aviation, such as Chance Vought Corporation, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. In 1929, Frederick Rentschler, the founder of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, convinced William Boeing of The Boeing Company to create the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation. A lucrative businessīy the end of the 1920s, North American routes had become increasingly monopolized by a handful of United States air carriers. In 1927, US Air Mail pilot Charles Lindbergh earned international recognition after successfully flying solo from New York to Paris on the Spirit of Saint Louis. In France, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry used his piloting experience flying for the Aéropostale as inspiration for writing several novels. With every flight being a risky adventure, air mail pilots gained the status of trailblazing adventurers all around the world. The USPS contracted as many as 45 commercial carriers to take over mail routes. Airmail cost 8 cents (about a buck in today's cash) to travel one of the three zones, or 24 cents for a cross-country trip.In 1925, the market was opened to private operators through the Contract Air Mail Act, also known as the Kelly Act. Night flights became practical in 1924, with a transcontinental airway of rotating beacon lights and well-illuminated emergency airstrips. The system cut transcontinental mail-delivery time from 4½ days by rail to 33 hours by the air-and-rail relay. ![]() The following morning, the mail was re-transferred back to another plane for another day's worth of flight. They'd land at dusk and transfer their bags of mail to overnight trains. Pilots flew by day, using visible landmarks to guide them. Postal planes started flying transcontinental relays in 1920. The managers learned how to be reasonable about balancing the weather and the schedule. If they didn't know how to pilot a plane, they had to sit in the mailbox in front of the pilot. All the other pilots went out on strike.Īfter three days of talks, new rules specified that postal field managers had to fly a brief inspection flight to check the weather. When pilots Leon Smith and Ham Lee refused direct orders from Praeger to take off during some nasty weather in July 1919, both were fired.
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