| Summary: |
Late in 1918, air mail service in the United States moved from being an experiment into the first phases of a complex nationwide system, under the U.S. Post Office Department. Bellefonte, a small town in central Pennsylvania, was in the right place at the right time -- exactly where a refueling stop was needed for the biplanes flying the air mail route from New York to Cleveland. In a few months' time, Bellefonte built an airfield and became the only scheduled stop in Pennsylvania for the early U.S. air mail. This is a story of Bellefonte's role during the period when the government operated the air mail, 1918-1927, including tales about the daredevil pilots, based on contemporary newspaper articles and using numerous photographs. Every pilot flying on the eastern sector of the air mail system knew Bellefonte, and many of them formed ties with the residents. The lives -- and deaths -- of these brave men mattered very much to their local friends. This book offers a unique, local viewpoint of one of the most exciting periods of national history -- when Bellefonte helped to fly the U.S. mail.
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| Item Description: |
Includes errata sheet detailing a missing paragraph on page 55. The paragraph is supposed to have been located after the 2nd paragraph, which starts and ends as follows "Pilot Lloyd Bertaud . . . . manmade light pollution." Missing paragraph reads: "In all his flying [Bertaud] does not recall a night when the visibility was as perfect as that night. He avers that from the time he rose in the air at Hadley field, N.J., until he descended for the Bellefonte landing field he could see the powerful revolving beacon light on the top of the Elverson building, in Philadelphia; and also before landing in Bellefonte he could see the city lights in Altoona, Johnstown and Pittsburg. Twelve of the beacon lights along the blazed trail between New York and Bellefonte were always in view, covering an approximate distance of one hundred and fifty miles. (Democratic Watchman, January 15, 1926)."
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| Physical Description: |
vii, 151 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
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| ISBN: |
9780933580077
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