Chart of the Post Office’s first airmail flights

August 12 – 17, 1918

Benjamin Lipsner, superintendent of the Post Office Department’s airmail service, used this chart to record information about the first week of flights. The chart is separated by flights from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia and flights from Philadelphia to New York City. The sections include date, aviator, start and finish times, the amount of mail carried, and remarks. Lipsner added information about the chart by hand in the upper right corner, marking it “1918 / first Permanent Airmail” and signing it “B.B. Lipsner.”