Front:
USIOC200 Years of Postal Service
1976
200
9278
SEP
1975
FIRST DAY OF ISSUE
19101
Commemorating
The Bicentennial of
Americas Posta Service
Fleetwood
Yficial First Day Cover+Philadelphia 76
HIA.PA
Back:
JENNYS TO JETS
America's first official air mail was one bag of letters flown by an
Army pilot from New York via Philadelphia to Washington on
May 15, 1918. The flight took three hours and twenty minutes.
Daily flights between New York and Washington continued with
the Post Office operating its own air mail service after the Army
was forced to withdraw due to the pressures of World War I.
Both aviation and air mail expanded phenomenally until the
Post Office could no longer cope with the increasing complex-
ities, and private contractors were invited to fly the mail. By 1920
air mail spanned the continent in fifty-four hours. Because of the
hazards of night flying, the mail was transferred to trains each
evening and returned to the air in the morning! Today's domestic
air mail numbers one and one-half billion pieces yearly, much of
it being whisked to its destination on sleek, jumbo jets.
