Since this year is the 90th anniversary of air mail service, there was an interesting event that took place in Iowa to celebrate it. At the annual Antique Aircraft Association fly-in at Blakesburg, several pilots were sworn in as airmail pilots on Friday, August 30th. They delivered mail from Blakesburg to Ottumwa to Iowa City and back. It was sponsored by the AAA and USPS. I didn't know about it until I read it about it in the Cedar Rapids Gazette Saturday morning the 31st, but since they were to repeat the flight on Saturday, guess where I found myself?
I got shots of the Ford and Stinson tri-motors, an old Stearman, a couple WACOs (one a UEC and the other a "straight-wing"), a Bird, and a New Standard. A Sikorsky float-plane was there on Friday but did not make the flight Saturday, instead it flew a different route, much to my dismay.
The USPS set up a temporary substation at the Iowa City terminal (if it may be called that - more of an FBO building) and they had, as reported by the Gazette, "a leather mail pouch from the 1940s and a turn-of-the-century wage book". They sold commemorative envelopes, of course, with an Iowa City postmark.
It seems that Iowa City played an important part in the airmail. As reported by the Gazette, "it was an early Iowa City postmaster who helped establish the airport here in 1918." The Gazette also stated that it was a night flight to Iowa City in 1921 in blizzard conditions that made Congress decide to keep the airmail program and boost its funding.
They were some really beautiful birds!