Susan miller daily’s airmail mail bryan

A vintage airplane delivered airmail on Thursday to the Williams
County Airport in commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the first
airmail flight. Here, Bryan postmaster Dan Gustwiller (left) picks up
the mail from pilot George Perks.

BRYAN — On Thursday the Williams County Airport played host to a trio
of very special visitors, and their pilots.

Vintage aircraft filled with airmail landed at 11 a.m. — well ahead
of schedule — in commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the first
airmail flight ever. As the trio disembarked for fuel (gas for the
planes, hamburgers for the pilots), area postal workers went to work
postmarking the mail, something that had not been done at the airport
in more than 80 years.

“We’re certified as mail pilots,” said Larry Tobin, who retired as a
pilot with TWA after 31 years and now restores and flies old planes,
including the 1927 Stearman craft he was piloting at the time of his
visit.

“We’re going to make all 15 stops of the original route,” he said. “We
left New York this morning, we’re on our way to Chicago Lansing.”

The early landing, and subsequent departure from Bryan, were done in
response to the weather report that called for storms over Iowa City.
The trio planned to get there before the rain arrived. “We hope to do
this in five days if the weather cooperates,” Tobin said.

Bryan’s U.S. airmail field first went into operation on Sept. 6, 1918,
the same year New York-Chicago airmail service first kicked in. By
1920, daily airmail service from New York to San Francisco was
underway, spanning 2,666 transcontinental miles in 33 hours by air —
compared to railway delivery of 87 hours or weeks via the Pony
Express.

Bryan’s role in airmail service came to an end on Sept. 1, 1927, when
the U.S. Post Office turned its transcontinental mail route over to
private contractors and airmail planes bypassed the town.

The original transcontinental U.S. airmail route included stops in
Cleveland, Chicago, Iowa City, Omaha, Cheyenne, Rock Springs, Salt
Lake City, Reno, San Francisco and others.

Carrying about 1,000 pieces of mail between them Thursday were Tobin,
in his Stearman, Ben Scott in a 1930 Stearman and Addison Pemberton in
a 1928 Boeing 40 airliner (the Boeing 40, Tobin notes, is the world’s
oldest airliner).

“We’ll travel at 1,000 feet to three or four thousand depending on the
winds,” Tobin said. “We’ll be traveling at about 100 miles per hour,
(which) is about what planes did in that era.”

The planes themselves are an interesting mixed bag. Scott’s is
arguably the most interesting of the three, as it was originally used
in the Bryan airmail route and today is almost entirely authentic. By
comparison, Tobin estimates 70 percent of his plane is original parts,
while Pemberton’s is all but completely rebuilt.

“My family and I spent 18,000 hours restoring this,” noted Pemberton,
who added that the plane originally flew airmail when it crashed.

Pemberton intends to write a blog keeping track of the flight’s
progress on the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum website.

A ceremony which took place upon the trio’s safe landing in Bryan
included a welcome from Mayor Doug Johnson, followed by a presentation
on historic airmail flights and how they helped to jump start the
aviation industry. A certificate, for sale at the airport on the day
of the event, featured a history of transcontinental mail flight in
Bryan.

The trio were met by hundreds of aviation enthusiasts from all walks
of life, many of whom eagerly examined not only the vintage aircraft
but seven antique automobiles parked nearby and brought to the airport
for this occasion. Some of the spectators were former pilots, while
others had family ties to the original airmail route or even the Pony
Express.

Among the visitors were David Miller and Susan Dahl, who drove 15-plus
hours from Florida state in order to attend this event. Miller had
previously been instrumental in creating an airmail marker in Bryan
noting where the original hangar had been located (former site of the
Willett Field air strip and hangar at the Main/Foster street
intersection).

The median age of those in attendance seemed to be around 70, which
bothered Dahl a bit. “Kids have no clue about what planes did in that
era,” she said. “These were great pieces of art.”

While planning for this event took the trio of pilots about two years,
it ultimately involved far more than just the three of them.

“The airport asked us to be involved,” said Suzanne Phillips, delivery
supervisor at the Bryan Post Office, who was among those handling the
mail.

Phillips noted a number of others who made contributions to the event,
including airport manager Terry Hallett, whose connections made the
presence of the antique cars possible; library historian June Kelly;
and history buff Don Allison, who helped bring local residents to the
event. “It really was communitywide,” Phillips said.

Before noon on the near-cloudless Thursday, the three had bidden those
in attendance farewell and moved slowly down the runway before taking
off. Onlookers applauded and waved, watching genuine pieces of
American history fly off until they were out of sight — each plane a
bit heavier than when they landed, thanks to the post office’s airmail
system.

“There’s a weight limit,” Phillips says, not speculating on how much
mail the three will carry when reaching their ultimate destination in
San Francisco. “It’ll accumulate over time.”

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Tags: airmail service, commemoration, first airmail flight, fuel gas, gustwiller, hamburgers, iowa city, lake c, mail route, pony express, postal workers, postmaster, private contractors, stearman, tobin, twa, u s post office, vintage aircraft, weather report, york chicago