East and Westbound Mails Delivered This Morning by Planes Arriving In Nation’s Largest Cities.
NEW YORK, July 2.—(Associated Press.)—Dark-to-dawn air mail service between America’s two greatest cities became a reality today. Cleaving the night along a beacon lighted highway the government’s mail planes transferred letters to and from New York and Chicago between the close of one business day and the opening of the next. Two eastbound air couriers, aided by a stiff wind bettered their schedule of 8 hours and 15 minutes—in one case by two hours. The same wind held back the westbound planes. One completed its assignment in a little more than the allotted time. Accidents to the other emphasized the differences the airmen nightly must overcome.
When the first west-bound plane, Pilot D. C. Smith, hopped off at 7:47 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, but was forced down by generator trouble at Kylerstown, Pa., resuming flight he was compelled to land again at Solon, Ohio, 12 miles short of his objective at Cleveland airport, when fuel ran short. Another machine went to the relief at Solon, transferred the mails and covered the last leg to Chicago, arriving at 5:20 a.m. central time.
Casper Daily Tribune, Casper, WY, July 2, 1925