So this is a bit specific… and a bit broad at the same time since my research has focused on the period between 1918 and 1921. Right when the fledging airmail service was (literally) getting off the ground and establishing itself as a significant aspect of the US government. There was only one year that the airmail actually made money doing what it does. Even to this day. That’s amazing, and speaks highly of the pilots who dedicated themselves to this program.

I know that most of it was because of sheer guts and glory. The war was over, pilots needed and wanted experience, and there wasn’t a lot of money in doing stunt flying, nor could a lot of them afford their own planes. And, after being up in a biplane myself for the first time, I can understand the need to fly.

But the whole of the Great War and the 1920s fascinates me, so if I tend to wander off chronologically, forgive me…