Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Lex Anteinternet: Airmail! Lt. Torrey Webb gets a watch and New York and Philadelphia get air mail service (and meanwhile on the Western Front). May 15, 1918.

Airmail! Lt. Torrey Webb gets a watch and New York and Philadelphia get air mail service (and meanwhile on the Western Front). May 15, 1918.

Lt. Torrey Webb on the day of the inauguration of air mail between New York City and Philadelphia.  They gave him a Hamilton watch.  Dignitaries showed up. . . including ones from France.
The plane was a Curtis JN-4, a "Jenny".  The Jenny had, fwiw, just been commemorated by way of a postage stamp a few days prior.
Torrey Webb was was in the Army 's air service during the war, but he was studying engineering prior to it and would return to it.  He ended up the vice president of Texas Oil Company (Texaco).






Meanwhile, on the Western Front, these two RAF crewmen were were taking off in their RE8.

All of these air missions, we would note, were incredibly dangerous.