On 23 September 1911, Earle Lewis Ovington, an American aviation pioneer, conducted the first official airmail flight sanctioned by the U.S. Post Office Department. The historic flight took place during an aviation meet in Garden City, New York, on Long Island. Ovington was flying a Blériot XI monoplane, a small, single-seat aircraft with an open cockpit, which was one of the earliest airplanes built for aviation.
As the designated "Air Mail Pilot No. 1," Ovington took off carrying a mailbag containing about 640 letters and 1,280 postcards. Since the aircraft had no landing gear suitable for delivering mail, Ovington employed a creative method: he simply dropped the mailbag from the plane as he flew over Mineola, his designated delivery point. Unfortunately, the bag burst open upon impact, scattering letters and postcards on the ground, but postal workers quickly gathered them up.
The flight was relatively short, about five miles, but it symbolized a significant step forward in the use of aircraft for mail delivery. Ovington’s flight marked the official beginning of airmail service in the U.S., demonstrating the potential for airplanes to revolutionize communication. Over the next few years, air mail service expanded rapidly, eventually becoming a vital part of both national and international postal services.
Though the first flight was ceremonial and limited in scope, it laid the groundwork for future airmail services, which by the 1920s became a regular part of the U.S. postal system, with dedicated pilots and routes.
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