On May 15, 1918, America’s first official airplane mail service was inaugurated. The man in charge was Major Reuben H. Fleet, U. S. Army Air Service. We will hear more of Major Fleet later on in our story. Piloted by Army aviators, airplanes took off from Washington, D. C., bound for New York, via Philadelphia--and from New York bound for Washington, by the same route. Twenty minutes after Lieutenant George Boyle took off from Potomac Park, Washington, with 350 pounds of mail, he lost his course, and in landing near Waldorf, Maryland, the plane nosed over, breaking the propeller. Lieutenant Leroy Webb, who took off from the old Belmont Race Track near New York City at 11:40 A.M., had better luck, however, and reached Philadelphia an hour and twenty minutes later. Lieutenant J. C. Edgerton took over the controls and flew on from there, landing in Washington at 4:00 P.M. Within another half hour Boy Scouts had completed delivery of the 500 letters and parcels consigned to Washington, and air mail service in the United States had begun. Wartime Curtiss _Jenny_ training planes were used for the first air mail service. They could carry about 300 pounds of mail and had a top speed of 90 miles per hour. In August, 1918, the air mail service was taken over by the Post Office Department. [Illustration: THE FIRST ATTEMPT AT PASSENGER COMFORT. A TWO-PLACE CABIN INSTALLED IN A DH-4 BY AIR MAIL MECHANICS IN 1920.] [Illustration: 1918-1920 WINGSPAN LENGTH THE DH-4 BIPLANE, ORIGINALLY AN OBSERVATION SHIP IN WORLD WAR I, WAS CONVERTED FOR PEACETIME USE AS A MAIL PLANE BY THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT. POWER ONE 12-CYLINDER, 400-HP., LIQUID-COOLED ENGINE. THE DH-4 MAIL PLANE WAS POWERED WITH A _LIBERTY_ ENGINE FROM THE ARMY’S SURPLUS WAR STOCK. SPEED ONE HOUR 100 MILES RANGE 350 MILES CEILING 4,000 FEET THE DH-4 HAD A CRUISING SPEED OF APPROXIMATELY 100 MILES PER HOUR AND A RANGE OF AROUND 350 MILES UNDER GOOD WEATHER CONDITIONS. =ALTHOUGH IT WAS ABLE= TO REACH A HIGHER CEILING, ITS BEST PERFORMANCE WAS AT ALTITUDES FROM 2,000 TO 4,000 FEET. PAYLOAD 2 PERSONS OR 1 PERSON AND 350 POUNDS OF CARGO. IN ADDITION TO THE PILOT, THE DH-4 COULD CARRY ONE PASSENGER OR A 350-POUND LOAD OF MAIL OR EXPRESS. THE DH-4 WAS ORIGINALLY BUILT FOR WAR SERVICE WHERE THE COST OF OPERATION WAS A SECONDARY MATTER. IT WAS A COMPARATIVELY SLOW SHIP AND DID NOT FLY WELL IN BAD WEATHER. IT HAD A VERY SMALL PAYLOAD CAPACITY AND WAS COSTLY TO OPERATE. POSTAGE RATE FOR AIR MAIL THEN WAS 24 CENTS PER OUNCE.] [Illustration] The original air mail route of 1918 was only 218 miles in length, but it was not long before the Post Office Department extended the service. By September, 1920, transcontinental air mail service was in operation between New York and San Francisco, California.