THE AIR MAIL DISPATCH BOARD AT OMAHA In the Superintendent's office, at the foot of the beacon tower of the Omaha field, is this board, with a list of the main fields in the Central Division. The names of the pilots and numbers of the planes at each place are on cardboard plaques suspended from hooks (see text, page 19). The Air Mail Field of Omaha is at Fort Crook barracks, 12 miles from the heart of the city. to the winds-for I am only an Army, not a Mail pilot-he at once begged the Superintendent for ten days of his annual leave, kissed his wife a hurried goodbye and vaulted into the seat, shouting, "California, here we come!" INVISIBLE AIR LANES LINK EAST AND Having flown with Berger before, I was sure I had struck a good bargain. As for Pete, his delight knew no bounds. He leaned far over the side of the cockpit, waving wildly at the farmer lads plowing in the fields. The sight of the pigs and the grazing horses and cattle frantically scuttling aside before the onrushing thunder of our engine filled him with unholy glee. His broad face was wreathed in a happy grin that lit up the whole State of Nebraska. Below us the dappled earth, alternate black and green, spread out like a vast inverted bowl, a spacious lawn "full of sunlit dancing spaces." The growing grain lay flattened under a strong north wind. waving rows of green sending ripples of light flowing under our bow, like water over an emerald washboard. Little tubby cloud-boats came scudding by, with creampuff tops and dark flat bottoms, in endless, close-set rows, like battle cruisers on maneuver (see, also, page 7). So we followed the westbound section lines, along that invisible lane binding the Nation, through the "uninterrupted navigable ocean that comes to the threshold of every man's door." Early the following morning we were off for Cheyenne. Here began in real earnest those desolate plains over which the bellowing of uncounted buffaloes once A GROUP OF FAMOUS AIR MAIL PILOTS DRESSED FOR WINTER FLYING Photograph by Nat L. Dewell From left to right, Jack H. Knight, Clarence C. Lange, Leland H. Garrison, and William C. Hopson; on the extreme right, Andrew N. Dunphy, formerly Superintendent of the Central Division, at Omaha. There are 745 employees in the Air Mail Service, with an average salary of $1,764. There are 46 pilots, who receive a base pay ranging from $2,000 to $3,300, and in addition five, six, or seven cents per mile flown, depending on the difficulty of the particular route. For night flying the mileage pay is doubled. The average earnings for each pilot during the past fiscal year were $6,760. Pilots and planes are changed six times en route between New York and San Francisco: at Cleveland, Chicago, Omaha, Cheyenne, Salt Lake THE AIR MAIL FIELD AT NORTH PLATTE, NEBRASKA The field is in the foreground and the mail plane hangar is close by the highway bridge. The town appears in the distance. Note the numerous islands in the Platte River. echoed like the ocean beating on a distant shore. Our route skirted the flat bed of the South Platte, where the shallow water divides into a dozen threadlike sluices, broken by little wooded islands and gleaming stretches of quicksand. Occasional tiny beacon markers in the open fields along the bank marked the night mail's course. A short half hour out we skimmed by Ogallala, once the Gomorrah of the cattle trail, now a respectable-appearing little city, with church spires projecting among its scattered trees, where once had stood long rows of saloons and gambling dens. Here it was that the "Long Drive" of Texas longhorns* used to cross, out of As the rangers sang of old, The aspen shakes with cold." And the weary cow-punchers would urge on the heat-maddened herds with "Ip-e-la-ago; go 'long, little dogies; you'll make a beef steer by and by! Here, too, the old Oregon Trail wound through shallow gulches to the North *See "The Taurine World: Cattle and Their Place in the Human Scheme-Wild Types and Modern Breeds," in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE for December, 1925. LESTER BISHOP'S LANDING ON GRANGER'S BENCH (SEE TEXT, Page 46) H. A. Collison flew the plane off three weeks later, after 31 attempts. New planes with much improved performance are now being tested by the Post Office Department to replace its present De Haviland plane, which has been the standard for five years. The average price asked by the manufacturers, in lots of 10, is about $14,000. Mail Pilot Jack Knight has just taken off in the direction of the thunderstorm. The flash of lightning was caught by the camera during a time exposure. |