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Archives On The Air
Archives On The Air

Flying the Mail #536: H. Paul Culver Papers

Published October 16, 2025 at 6:00 AM MDT
Photograph of the Army training plane being readied for the first airmail flight from Washington D.C. to New York, May 15, 1918. Box 1, H. Paul Culver papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
1 of 3  — Flying the Mail - H. Paul Culver Papers image1.jpg
Photograph of the Army training plane being readied for the first airmail flight from Washington D.C. to New York, May 15, 1918. Box 1, H. Paul Culver papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Photographs from The American Legion Magazine documenting the first airmail flight from Washington D.C. to New York, May 1968. Box 1, H. Paul Culver papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
2 of 3  — Flying the Mail - H. Paul Culver Papers image2.jpg
Photographs from The American Legion Magazine documenting the first airmail flight from Washington D.C. to New York, May 1968. Box 1, H. Paul Culver papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Photographs from The American Legion Magazine documenting the first airmail flight from Washington D.C. to New York, May 1968. Box 1, H. Paul Culver papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
3 of 3  — Flying the Mail - H. Paul Culver Papers image3.jpg
Photographs from The American Legion Magazine documenting the first airmail flight from Washington D.C. to New York, May 1968. Box 1, H. Paul Culver papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

May 15, 1918, marked the beginning of regularly scheduled airmail delivery between Washington D.C. and New York. Army pilots, drafted into service by the U.S. Post Office, made the first flights in Army training planes. The planes weren’t designed to carry cargo. They had a range of only 88 miles, so a stop in Philadelphia was necessary.

President Woodrow Wilson was invited to witness the takeoff of the first airmail plane from the Washington D.C. polo grounds.

Army Lieutenant George L. Boyle flew the first leg of the flight – from Washington to Philadelphia. But he was an inexperienced pilot, having only just graduated from flying school. Boyle got hopelessly lost and ended up in a farmer’s field in Maryland.

The mailbag Boyle’s plane had been carrying was trucked back to Washington D.C. The mailbag’s 6,600 letters, including one President Wilson had autographed, finally made it to New York on the following day’s flight.

Learn more in the H. Paul Culver papers at UW’s American Heritage Center.

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Archives On The Air American Heritage CenterWyoming 250