Founding the First Airmail

1918
Fleet organized, launched, and commanded America’s first scheduled airmail service, proving that aviation could carry the nation’s communications into a new era.

A Nation Ready for Faster Communication

By 1918, messages and packages still traveled largely by train or ship. Aviation was young, unproven, and dangerous—but it also held extraordinary promise. The U.S. Post Office and the War Department agreed that America needed to test whether aircraft could move mail reliably over long distances.

Reuben H. Fleet, then serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps Aviation Section, was appointed to organize and command the new service. The assignment was clear: create a functional airmail system from scratch—and do it immediately.

Fleet’s Orders: “Have It Flying in One Week”

What followed became one of the most remarkable logistical achievements in early American aviation. Fleet was given:

• seven days

• a handful of pilots

• a group of mechanics

• several hastily modified training aircraft

• no established routes, no procedures, and no precedent

Yet the first scheduled airmail route—from Washington, D.C. to New York—was expected to launch on May 15, 1918, with President Woodrow Wilson watching.

Fleet personally selected aircraft, coordinated ground crews, inspected fields, trained pilots, and established guidance for navigation, safety, weather assessment, and emergency landings.

Launching America’s First Airmail Route

On the morning of the inaugural flight, crowds gathered outside Washington to witness history. Fleet watched as the aircraft lifted from the field carrying sacks of mail—a symbolic moment that demonstrated aviation’s practical value to the nation.

The southbound and northbound flights succeeded despite primitive instruments, unpredictable weather, and the limitations of early aircraft. What had seemed experimental now appeared viable.

Challenges of the Early Days

The first months were difficult. Aircraft lacked radios. Weather forecasting was unreliable. Engines were temperamental. Yet the mail continued to fly. Fleet’s insistence on discipline, checklists, and pilot training established practices that became standard across early civilian and military aviation.

Accounts from the era recall Fleet emphasizing that “the mail must get through,” echoing the frontier determination of earlier generations but applying it to a new technological age.

Airmail Becomes a National Institution

Thanks to the success of the first route, new lines soon opened across the country. Airmail proved faster than trains, more flexible, and increasingly reliable as aircraft improved.

The service Fleet built became the foundation for the modern commercial aviation network. Many of the pilots who flew under his early system later became airline pioneers themselves.

Why This Achievement Matters

Founding the first U.S. airmail service was more than an operational triumph—it was a turning point in public perception. Until then, many Americans saw aircraft as fragile novelties. Airmail changed that. It showed that aviation could perform a practical, everyday service with national impact.

Fleet’s organizational leadership, safety focus, and ability to transform chaos into structure helped push aviation from experimental curiosity into essential infrastructure.

The first airmail flights marked the beginning of the aviation age for the American public—and they remain one of Reuben H. Fleet’s most enduring contributions.