![]() Boyle was summarily dismissed from the Air Mail service by Maj. After a second failed attempt on May 16 to again fly the mail from Washington to Philadelphia which ended in a crash landing on a Philadelphia golf course, Lt. George Leroy Boyle Also just out of flight school, Boyle flew the first northbound Washington, DC to Philadelphia leg on but got lost and made a forced landing near Waldorf, Maryland just 18 minutes after takeoff. He retired in 1949 and died on Octoat age 88. He left the Air Service and in 1923 formed Consolidated Aircraft Corporation. He then was assigned the task of creating the logistics for regularly scheduled airmail service for three cities. By 1918 he was a Major and was supervising pilot training. Post Office by then had been flying the mail for 27 months, but it had not been a happy time for the new service. He learned to fly at the Army Aviation school in San Diego, California. Robinson took off from Hampstead, New York bound for Cleveland in a de Havilland-4H, 31697 carrying 14 bags of mail. He was born on Main Montesano, Washington. Later he organized and became Superintendent of the Radio Service of the Post Office Department establishing its first aeronautical radio stations, helped to organize a civilian pilot-training program, and as a Colonel during World War II served as executive officer for air operations of the War Department. When the Post Office Department took over flying operations of the Air Mail Service in October, 1918, Edgerton stayed on and eventually became Superintendent of Flying Operations. Over the next five months as an Army Air Mail pilot Edgerton flew 52 trips over a total of 7,155 miles, spending 107 hours in the air and making only one forced landing. Oddly enough, and not knowing the date of his crash until I reached the summit, I did this hike on May 23rd, one day prior to the 74th anniversary of his crash. This trail is named for that pilot and a memorial is erected for him at the end of the trail on the top of the mountain. James Edgerton flew the mail from Philadelphia to Washington. ![]() But 100 years ago, it was cutting edge communicationand was about to be radically transformed by the introduction of the airplane. James Clark Edgerton (1896-1973) As a young Army 2nd Lieutenant fresh out of flight school, Edgerton flew the Philadelphia to Washington, DC, leg on the first day of scheduled Air Mail service in the United States on May 15, 1918. On May 24th, 1931, a US Mail pilot by the name of James Cleveland apparently was disoriented or had plane problems and crashed his plane onto the top of Mount Nittany. By today’s standards, sending a letter in the mail might seem a little antiquated.
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