Photograph of airmail pilot Jack Knight and unidentified individual

1922

Unidentified individual and airmail pilot Jack Knight standing next to Knight's de Havilland airplane. In 1922 Knight was one of a group of airmail pilots who helped test the use of radios in aircraft for the Post Office Department. At the time, airplane cockpits were sparse, and did not include radios. The debate over the use of radio in mail aircraft included a discussion over its purpose. Were airborne radios to be used by pilots merely to inform their superiors of their location? Or to help transmit weather information to the pilots, helping them avoid potentially deadly storms? Postal officials determined that radios were important as a communication method between field operations, but not necessary inside the aircraft.