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as the scheduled flights between Washington, Philadelphia and New York were operating to my satisfaction, I began planning an expansion of the airmail service. My eventual goal was to tie together in an airmail system every major city in the United States, and I plotted the routes out on a map. The obvious first step in this expansion was the addition of a New York-Chicago leg to the part of the system already in operation. Later, this leg was to be extended to the west coast.

Took Off From Race Track
The take-off on this trail-blazing flight was from Belmont Park, New York, noted more for its horses than its aviation facilities, on the morning of Sept. 5, 1918. Max Miller was flying a Standard mail plane with a 150 h.p. Hispano-Suiza engine. Gardner's plane was a Curtiss R-4, with a 400 h.p. Liberty engine. We selected these two different types for the flight because we wanted to learn from practical experience which type would give the most reliable service on longer flights. Miller and Gardner had all kinds of bets as to who would be in Chicago first, and in their minds it was more of a race than a pathfinding flight.
Miller lifted his plane off the ground at 7:08 A.M. He was all alone, flying without a mechanic, and headed west under a leaden sky. After passing Newark, he encountered a heavy fog which completely obliterated the ground. For two hours he flew blind, through and over this--and this was really flying blind, for he had no instruments other than a compass. He told me later he didn't dare try to go down through the fog to find out where he was for fear of running into a mountain.
After Miller took off, Gardner's plane was wheeled into place. It began to rain hard. But Gardner was anxious to be gone and started into his take-off. But before the plane had picked up much speed, he was signaled to come back. By the time he got back to the line, Gardner was so mad he was smoking. Then they told him that he had broken his tailskid in the take-off run. He spotted another plane and determined to take it. There was an argument with the field superintendent, but Gardner won. So he and his mechanic, Ed Radel, transferred to the new ship, and at 8:50 A.M. they were in the air. They carried three pouches of mail and spare parts for both planes. Radel told me afterward that they were crossing the Hudson River before he recalled that he had not brought

December, 1953
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[[Image 1]]
First mail flown by air in U.S. - from Garden city to Mineola, N.Y., Sept. 23, 1911. Pilot Earle Ovington. Left: Postmaster Gen. Frank Hitchcock.
[[Image 2]]
This was Belmont Park, L.I., doing double duty as a race track and an airfield in the make-shift days when the U.S. air mail was being organized.
[[Image 3]]
Despite planes like these, the air mail map expanded. This 1923 photo shows mail being transferred at Chicago into a Cleveland-bound plane.
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