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93-644: Beginning in seventh grade, Michael T. Stowe began excavating World War II artifacts from around Millville Municipal Airport. Seeking a place to display his collection, Stowe founded the Millville Municipal Airport Museum in 1984. It opened in May of the following year in Building 35 following renovations. The museum moved to the larger Building 1 in 1985 and was incorporated three years later. A year prior, Stowe recovered aircraft parts of

186-457: A Douglas C-29 Dolphin took off from Floyd Bennett Field , New York on a flight to Langley Field to ferry a mail aircraft and ditched when both engines failed a mile off of Rockaway Beach . Waiting for a rescue attempt in heavy seas, the passenger on the amphibian drowned. President Roosevelt, publicly embarrassed, ordered a meeting with Foulois that resulted in a reduction of routes and schedules (which were already only 60% of that flown by

279-602: A P-47 from the bottom of the nearby Union Lake. After being forced to close for a year due to building problems, the museum reopened in 1989 with a new name, the Millville Army Air Field Museum and a plan to build a half-scale replica of a P-47. The museum acquired the collections of the Philadelphia Seaplane Base Museum in 2000. Following the demolition of three historic structures at the airport in early 2004 and

372-477: A Senate investigation. The investigation resulted in a citation of contempt of Congress on February 5, 1934, against attorney William P. MacCracken Jr. , who helped draft the law while working for the government and brokered the meeting of the airlines. It was the only action taken against any former Hoover Administration official for the scandal. Two days later, Hoover's successor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt , cancelled all existing air mail contracts with

465-410: A 150-pound passenger $ 450 per ticket (equal to $ 7985 in 2024 dollars) in lieu of carrying an equivalent amount of mail. William P. MacCracken Jr. became the first federal regulator of commercial aviation when then- Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover named him the first Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics in 1926. During World War I he had served as a flight instructor, had served on

558-421: A base. Inside the cockpit is a single pilot's seat, primary and secondary aircraft controls, and a full suite of flight instruments. The base contains several complicated sets of air-driven bellows to create movement, a vacuum pump that both drives the bellows and provides input to a number of aircraft instruments, a device known as a Telegon oscillator that supplies an 85 VAC 800 Hz sinusoidal reference signal to

651-684: A cabinet meeting on the morning of February 9, 1934, assured President Roosevelt that the Air Corps could deliver the mail. That same morning, shortly after conclusion of the cabinet meeting, second assistant postmaster general Harllee Branch called Foulois to his office. A conference between members of the Air Corps, the Post Office, and the Aeronautics Branch of the Commerce Department ensued in which Foulois, asked if

744-422: A cost per mile of $ 1.10. Most were small, under-capitalized companies flying short routes and old equipment. Subsidies for carrying mail exceeded the cost of the mail itself, and some carriers abused their contracts by flooding the system with junk mail at 100% profit or hauling heavy freight as air mail. Historian Oliver E. Allen, in his book The Airline Builders , estimated that airlines would have had to charge

837-710: A daily run between Washington, D.C. , and New York City with an intermediate stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . The operation was put together in ten days by Major Reuben H. Fleet , the executive officer for flying training of the Division of Military Aeronautics , and managed by Captain Benjamin B. Lipsner , a non-flyer. Starting with six converted Curtiss JN-4HM "Jennies" , two of which were destroyed in crashes, and later using Curtiss R-4LMs , in 76 days of operations Air Service pilots moved 20 tons of mail without

930-900: A frivolous luxury for the few remaining affluent, had doubled following restructuring. Much of this if not all was the result of the postal subsidies, funded by taxpayers. The air mail scandal began when an officer of the New York Philadelphia and Washington Airway Corporation, known as the Ludington Airline , was having a drink with friend and Hearst newspaper reporter Fulton Lewis Jr. Ludington Airline, established and owned by brothers Townsend and Nicholas Ludington , began offering an hourly daytime passenger shuttle on September 1, 1930, just two weeks after Eastern Air Transport (EAT) began its first passenger operations between New York City and Richmond, Virginia . Using seven Stinson SM-6000B tri-motors , Ludington Airline became

1023-513: A greater number of miles and making three extra stops in just an hour's more time. Only two additional Army pilots were killed flying the mail after the resumption of operations, on March 30 and April 5. By May 17 all but one mail route, CAM 9 (Chicago to Fargo, North Dakota ), had been restored to civil carriers. AACMO relinquished this last route on June 1, 1934. In all, 66 major accidents, ten of them with fatalities, resulted in 13 crew deaths, creating an intense public furor. Only five of

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1116-549: A low bid of 25 cents a mile. Ludington's general manager, former Air Service aviator Eugene L. Vidal , eager to curtail Ludington's growing losses with a lucrative mail subsidy, had offered the extremely low bid to Brown in order to demonstrate Ludington's commitment to the route extension plan "at or below cost." Lewis did not think much about the conversation until he later read the Post Office Department's announcement that had awarded Ludington's arch-rival

1209-457: A memo that Brittin claimed was personal and unrelated to the investigation. Brittin later tore up the memo and discarded it. Black charged MacCracken with Contempt of Congress on February 5 and ordered him arrested. During a five-day trial the Senate deemed him a lobbyist not protected by lawyer-client privilege and voted to convict him. Disregarding as Black did the fact that all but two of

1302-581: A partial squadron in the Central Zone. On February 22 a young pilot departing Chicago in an O-39 flew into a snow storm over Deshler, Ohio , and became lost after his navigational radio failed. Fifty miles off course, he bailed out but his parachute caught on the tail section of his airplane and he was killed. That same day in Denison, Texas , another pilot attempting a forced landing was killed when his P-26A flipped over on soft turf. The next day,

1395-405: A passenger list of airlines officials and news reporters, they flew from Douglas Aviation's plant at Burbank, California , to Newark, New Jersey. Bypassing several regular stops to stay ahead of a blizzard , the stunt established a new cross-country time record of just over 13 hours, breaking the old record by more than five hours. The DC-1 arrived on the morning of February 19 only two hours before

1488-465: A passion for flying in his boyhood years, but was not able to afford the high cost of flying lessons. So, upon leaving school in 1927, he started developing a simulator. The project took him 18 months. His first pilot trainer, which debuted in 1929, resembled an overgrown toy airplane from the outside, with short wooden wings and fuselage mounted on a universal joint. Organ bellows from the Link organ factory,

1581-481: A period ranging from 1934 through to the late 1950s. These trainers kept pace with the increased instrumentation and flight dynamics of aircraft of their period, but retained the electrical and pneumatic design fundamentals pioneered in the first Link. Trainers built from 1934 up to the early 1940s had a color scheme that featured a bright blue fuselage and yellow wings and tail sections. These wings and tail sections had control surfaces that actually moved in response to

1674-406: A proposal to tear down a fourth, plans for a historic district were introduced. In the meantime, the museum had expanded its focus to include the post-World War II-era and grown to include a total of three buildings. The city proposed reducing the size of the historic district and demolishing derelict buildings in 2016. Two years later, the museum began renovating Building 31, which originally housed

1767-632: A single fatality or serious injury, achieving a 74% completion rate of flights during the summer thunderstorm season. Air mail operations by the U.S. Post Office began in August 1918 under Lipsner, who resigned from the Army on July 13 to take the post. Lipsner procured Standard JR-1B biplanes specially modified to carry the mail with twice the range of the military mailplanes, the first civil aircraft built to U.S. government specifications. For nine years, using mostly war-surplus de Havilland DH.4 biplanes,

1860-414: A vice president of North American Aviation (Eastern Air Transport's parent holding company ) and Jack Frye of Transcontinental and Western Air, both of which had lost their mail contracts, flew T&WA's prototype Douglas DC-1 airliner "City of Los Angeles," which was still in flight test , across the country on the last evening before the Air Corps operation began. Carrying a partial load of mail and

1953-501: A well-established system of maintenance facilities along their routes. Initial plans were made for coverage of 18 mail routes totalling nearly 12,000 miles (19,000 km); and 62 flights daily, 38 by night. On February 14, five days before the Air Corps was to begin, General Foulois appeared before the House of Representatives Post Office Committee outlining the steps taken by the Air Corps in preparation. In his testimony he assured

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2046-533: A “route certificate” giving it the right to haul mail for 10 additional years. The third and most controversial provision gave Brown authority to "extend or consolidate" routes in effect according to his own judgment. Within days of its passage, United Aircraft and Transport Company (UATC) acquired the controlling interest of National Air Transport after a brisk but brief struggle between UATC and Clement M. Keys of NAT. The merger, begun in February 1930 to plug

2139-476: Is commonly used to refer to a series of flight simulators produced between the early 1930s and early 1950s by Link Aviation Devices , founded and headed by Ed Link , based on technology he pioneered in 1929 at his family's business in Binghamton, New York . During World War II , they were used as a key pilot training aid by almost every combatant nation. The original Link Trainer was created in 1929 out of

2232-532: The Air Mail fiasco , is the name that the American press gave to the political scandal resulting from a 1934 congressional investigation into the awarding of contracts to certain airlines to carry airmail and the subsequent disastrous use of the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC) to fly the mail after the contracts were revoked. During the administration of U.S. President Herbert Hoover , Congress passed

2325-615: The Kelly Act (also known as the Air Mail Act of 1925 ) authorized the Post Office Department to contract with private airlines for feeder routes into the main transcontinental system. The first commercial air mail flight was on the 487-mile (784 km) route CAM (Contract Air Mail) No. 5 from Pasco, Washington , to Elko, Nevada , on April 6, 1926. By 1927 the transition had been completed to entirely commercial transport of mail, and by 1929 45 airlines were involved in mail delivery at

2418-485: The McNary-Watres Act after its chief sponsors, Sen. Charles L. McNary of Oregon and Rep. Laurence H. Watres of Pennsylvania , authorized the postmaster general to enter into longer-term airmail contracts with rates based on space or volume, rather than weight. The Act gave Brown strong authority (some argued almost dictatorial powers) over the nationwide air transportation system. The main provision of

2511-682: The National Guard . In both the Western and Eastern zones, these became the aircraft of choice, modified to carry 160 pounds of mail in their rear cockpits, and in their nose (bombardier/navigator) compartments where those existed. Better-suited planes such as the new Martin YB-10 bomber and Curtiss A-12 Shrike ground attack aircraft were in insufficient numbers to be of practical use. Two YB-10s crashlanded when pilots forgot to lower its retractable landing gear, and there were only enough A-12s for

2604-762: The Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Air Force with a somewhat modified instrument panel, where its model designation was D2 . It was used by many countries for pilot training before and during the Second World War, especially in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan . The AN-T-18 featured rotation through all three axes, effectively simulated all flight instruments, and modeled common conditions such as pre- stall buffet, overspeed of

2697-723: The USSR . Following WWII, Air Marshal Robert Leckie (wartime RAF Chief of Staff) said "The Luftwaffe met its Waterloo on all the training fields of the free world where there was a battery of Link Trainers". The Link Flight Trainer has been designated as a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers . The Link Company, now the Link Simulation & Training division of CAE USA Defense & Security CAE Inc. , continues to make aerospace simulators. Edwin Link had developed

2790-557: The White House , asking them to fly only in completely safe conditions. Foulois replied that to ensure complete safety the Air Corps would have to end the flights, and Roosevelt suspended airmail service on March 11, 1934. Foulois wrote in his autobiography that he and MacArthur incurred "the worst tongue-lashing I ever received in all my military service". Norman E. Borden, in Air Mail Emergency of 1934 , wrote: "To lessen

2883-502: The 122 aircraft assigned to the task, but the instruments were not readily available and Air Corps mechanics unfamiliar with the equipment sometimes installed them incorrectly or without regard for standardization of cockpit layout. The project, termed AACMO (Army Air Corps Mail Operation), was placed under the supervision of Brigadier General Oscar Westover , assistant chief of the Air Corps. He created three geographic zones and appointed Lieutenant Colonel Henry H. Arnold to command

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2976-538: The 13 deaths actually occurred on flights carrying mail, but directly and indirectly the air mail operation caused accidental crash deaths in the Air Corps to rise by 15% to 54 in 1934, compared to 46 in 1933 and 47 in 1935. In 78 days of operations and over 13,000 hours of logged flight time, completing 65.8 percent of their scheduled flights, the Army Air Corps moved 777,389 pounds of mail over 1,590,155 miles (2,559,106 km). Aircraft employed in carrying

3069-623: The AN-T-18 Basic Instrument Trainer, known to tens of thousands of fledgling pilots as the "Blue Box" (although it was painted in different colors in other countries), was standard equipment at every air training school in the United States and Allied nations. During the war years, Link produced over 10,000 Blue Boxes, turning one out every 45 minutes. During World War II, Link trainers were sometimes run by women. Several models of Link Trainers were sold in

3162-574: The Air Corps could deliver the mail in winter, casually assured Branch that the Air Corps could be ready in a week or ten days. At 4 o'clock that afternoon President Roosevelt suspended the airmail contracts effective at midnight February 19. He issued Executive Order 6591 ordering the War Department to place at the disposal of the Postmaster General "such air airplanes, landing fields, pilots and other employees and equipment of

3255-418: The Air Corps to look at a number of solutions, including Link's pilot trainer. The Air Corps was given a stark demonstration of the potential of instrument training when, in 1934, Link flew in to a meeting in conditions of fog that the Air Corps evaluation team regarded as unflyable. As a result, the Air Corps ordered the first six pilot trainers on 23 June 1934 for $ 3,500 each. In 1936, the more advanced Model C

3348-502: The Air Corps was forced by the winter weather to cancel the startup of AACMO. On February 19, the blizzard disrupted the initial day's operations east of the Rocky Mountains , where the scheduled first flight of the operation from Newark was cancelled. AACMO's actual first effort left from Kansas City, Missouri , carrying 39 pounds of mail to St. Louis . Kenneth Werrell noted of the first flight out of Cleveland: "The pilot on

3441-506: The Air Mail Act changed the manner in which payments were calculated. Air mail carriers would be paid for having sufficient cargo capacity on their planes, whether the planes carried mail or flew empty, a disincentive to carry mail since the carrier received a set fee for a plane of a certain size whether or not it carried mail. The purpose of the provision was to discourage the carrying of bulk junk mail to boost profits, particularly by

3534-428: The Air Mail Act of 1930. Using its provisions, Postmaster General Walter Folger Brown held a meeting with the executives of the top airlines, later dubbed the "Spoils Conference", in which the airlines effectively divided among themselves the air mail routes. Acting on those agreements, Brown awarded contracts to the participants through a process that effectively prevented smaller carriers from bidding, resulting in

3627-518: The Army of the United States needed or required for the transportation of mail during the present emergency, by air over routes and schedules prescribed by the Postmaster General." In 1933 the airlines carried several million pounds of mail on 26 routes covering almost 25,000 miles (40,000 km) of airways. Transported mostly by night, the mail was carried in modern passenger planes equipped with modern flight instruments and radios, using ground-based beam transmitters as navigation aids. The airlines had

3720-455: The CAM 25 air mail route contract at 89 cents a mile as measured against Ludington's extremely low bid. By February 1933 Ludington was virtually bankrupt and sold out to EAT for a "bottom basement price of $ 260,000." Lewis sensed there was a story to be written. He brought the story to the attention of William Randolph Hearst and, although Hearst would not print it, was given approval to investigate

3813-655: The Chicago Aeronautical Commission, and was a member of the board of governors of the National Aeronautical Association when selected by Hoover. MacCracken left the Commerce Department in 1929 and returned to his private law practice, where he continued to be involved in the growth of commercial aviation by representing many major airlines . Postmaster General Walter Folger Brown sought to improve

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3906-467: The Great Depression, hampered by pay cuts and a reduction of flight time, operated almost entirely in daylight and good weather. Duty hours were limited and relaxed, usually with four hours or less of flight operations a day, and none on weekends. Experience levels were also limited by obsolete aircraft, most of them single-engine and open cockpit planes. Because of a high turnover-rate policy in

3999-628: The Pilot Maker were also sold to amusement parks. In fact, his patent (US1825462 A) for the Pilot Maker was titled Combination Training Device for Student Aviators and Entertainment Apparatus . The most prolific version of the Link Trainer was the AN-T-18 (Army Navy Trainer model 18), which was a slightly enhanced version of Link's C3 model. This model was also produced in Canada for both

4092-501: The Post Office built and flew a nationwide network. In the beginning the work was extremely dangerous; of the initial 40 pilots, three died in crashes in 1919 and nine more in 1920. It was 1922 before an entire year ensued without a fatal crash. As safety and capability grew, daytime-only operations gave way to flying at night, assisted by airway beacons and lighted emergency landing fields. Regular transcontinental air mail delivery began in 1924. In 1925, to encourage commercial aviation,

4185-620: The Roosevelt administration's handling of the crisis. Aviation icon and former air mail pilot Charles A. Lindbergh stated in a telegram to Secretary of War Dern that using the Air Corps to carry mail was "unwarranted and contrary to American principles." Even though both had close ties to the airline industry, their criticisms seriously stung the Roosevelt Administration. On March 10, President Roosevelt called Foulois and Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur to

4278-470: The Second World War. The government had little choice but to return service to the commercial airlines, but did so with several new conditions. The Air Mail Act of June 12, 1934, drafted at the height of the crisis by Black (and known as the "Black- McKellar bill"), restored competitive bidding, closely regulated airmail labor operations, dissolved the holding companies that brought together airlines and aircraft manufacturers, and prevented companies that held

4371-448: The Senate, he was found in contempt of Congress . Hoover appointed Brown as postmaster general in 1929. In 1930, with the nation's airlines apparently headed for extinction in the face of a severe economic downturn and citing inefficient, expensive subsidized air mail delivery, Brown requested supplementary legislation to the 1925 act granting him authority to change postal policy. The Air Mail Act of 1930, passed on April 29 and known as

4464-498: The War Department, most pilots were Reserve officers who were unfamiliar with the civilian airmail routes. Regarding equipment, the Air Corps had in its inventory 274 Directional gyros and 460 Artificial horizons , but very few of these were mounted in aircraft. It possessed 172 radio transceivers, almost all with a range of 30 miles (48 km) or less. Foulois eventually ordered the available equipment to be installed in

4557-582: The Western Zone, Lieutenant Colonel Horace M. Hickam the Central Zone, and Major Byron Q. Jones the Eastern Zone. Personnel and planes were immediately deployed, but problems began immediately with a lack of proper facilities (and in some instances, no facilities at all) for maintenance of aircraft and quartering of enlisted men, and a failure of tools to arrive where needed. Sixty Air Corps pilots took oaths as postal employees in preparation for

4650-551: The World War II-era fire department at the base. Also located outside is a monument dedicated on the 75th anniversary of the airport. The museum holds an annual Veterans Appreciation Day event and an annual Millville Wheels & Wings Airshow. The museum takes part in the Veterans History Project . Link Trainer The term Link Trainer , also known as the "Blue box" and "Pilot Trainer"

4743-582: The administrations of both presidents, the scandal resulted in the restructuring of the airline industry, leading to technological improvements and a new emphasis on passenger operations, and the modernization of the USAAC. The first scheduled airmail service in the United States was conducted during World War I by the Air Service of the United States Army between May 15 and August 10, 1918,

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4836-525: The airlines and ordered the USAAC to deliver the mail until new contracts could be awarded. The USAAC was ill prepared to conduct a mail operation, particularly at night, and from its outset on February 19 encountered severe winter weather. The operation suffered numerous plane crashes, resulting in the deaths of thirteen airmen and severe public criticism of the Roosevelt Administration . Temporary contracts were put into effect on May 8 by

4929-411: The airlines), and strict flight safety rules. Among the new rules were restrictions on night flying: forbidding pilots with less than two years' experience from being scheduled except under clear conditions, prohibiting takeoffs in inclement weather, and requiring fully functional instruments and radio to continue on in poor conditions. Control officers on the ground were made responsible for enforcement of

5022-476: The attacks on Roosevelt and Farley, Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress and Post Office officials placed the blame for all that had gone wrong on the shoulders of Foulois." Other supporters of the president outside of the government muted criticism of the administration by focusing on and excoriating Lindbergh, who had also made headlines by publicly protesting the cancellation of the contracts two days after they were announced, "as if his telegram had caused

5115-570: The business his family owned and operated in Binghamton, New York, driven by an electric pump, made the trainer pitch and roll as the pilot worked the controls. Link's first military sales came as a result of the Air Mail scandal , when the Army Air Corps took over carriage of U.S. Air Mail . Twelve pilots were killed in a 78-day period due to their unfamiliarity with Instrument Flying Conditions . The large scale loss of life prompted

5208-551: The cancellation of all domestic air mail contracts. However, not stated to the public was that the decision had overridden Farley's recommendation that it be delayed until June 1, by which time new bids could have been received and processed for continued civilian mail transport. Without consulting either Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur or Chief of the Air Corps Major General Benjamin Foulois , Secretary of War George H. Dern at

5301-697: The committee that the Air Corps had selected its most experienced pilots and that it had the requisite experience at flying at night and in bad weather. In actuality, of the 262 pilots eventually used, 140 were Reserve junior officers with less than two years flying experience. Most were second lieutenants and only one held a rank higher than first lieutenant . The Air Corps had made a decision not to draw from its training schools, where most of its experienced pilots were assigned. Only 48 of those selected had logged at least 25 hours of flight time in bad weather, only 31 had 50 hours or more of night flying, and only 2 had 50 hours of instrument time . The Air Corps during

5394-524: The deaths." Despite an 11th fatality from a training crash in Wyoming on March 17, the Army resumed the program again on March 19, 1934, in better weather, using only nine routes, limited schedules, and hurried improvements in instrument flying. The O-38E, which had been involved in two fatal accidents at Cheyenne, Wyoming , was withdrawn completely from the operation despite its enclosed cockpit because of its propensity to go into an unrecoverable spin in

5487-590: The efficiency of the air mail carriers in furtherance of a national transportation plan. Requiring an informed intermediary, Brown asked MacCracken to preside over what was later scandalized as the Spoils Conferences , to work out an agreement between the carriers and the Post Office to consolidate air mail routes into transcontinental networks operated by the best-equipped and financially stable companies. This relationship left both exposed to charges of favoritism. When MacCracken later refused to testify before

5580-437: The end of the hearings on the last day of January, MacCracken was subpoenaed to testify duces tecum "instanter" and appeared, but refused to produce files, citing attorney-client privilege unless the clients waived the privilege (which all did within a week of his appearance). However, the next day MacCracken's law partner gave Northwest Airways vice president Lewis H. Brittin permission to go into MacCracken's files to remove

5673-512: The existing contracts (the controversial transcontinental mail routes CAM 33 and CAM 34) had been awarded to the low bidder by Postmaster General Harry S. New during the Coolidge Administration , on February 7, 1934, Roosevelt's postmaster general, James A. Farley , announced that he and President Roosevelt were committed to protecting the public interest and that as a result of the investigation, President Roosevelt had ordered

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5766-476: The first U. S. airline in history to make a profit carrying nothing but passengers. However it began operating in the red when the novelty of cheap air travel wore off as the Great Depression deepened and competition with arch-rival EAT intensified. The Ludington officer mentioned to Lewis that in 1931 the carrier could not get a proposed "express service" air mail contract to extend CAM 25 (Miami to Washington via Atlanta) to Newark, New Jersey , not even by submitting

5859-471: The first air mail flight needed three tries and three aircraft to get aloft. Ten minutes later, he returned with a failed gyro compass and cockpit lights, and obtained a flashlight to read the instruments." Snow, rain, fog, and turbulent winds hampered flying operations for the remainder of the month over much of the United States. The route from Cleveland to Newark over the Allegheny Mountains

5952-482: The fixed base and the movable fuselage. The third set of bellows simulates vibration, such as stall buffet. Both the trainer and the instructor's station are powered from standard 110VAC/240VAC power outlets via a transformer , with the bulk of internal wiring being low voltage. Simulator logic is all analog and is based around vacuum tubes . As of 2022 , many Link Trainers survive and are exhibited. Air Mail scandal The Air Mail scandal , also known as

6045-419: The front of the fuselage controls movement about the yaw axis. This Turning Motor is a complex set of 10 bellows, two crank shafts and various gears and pulleys derived from early player piano motors. The Turning Motor can rotate the entire fuselage through 360-degree circles at variable rates of speed. A set of electrical slip ring contacts in the lower base compartment supplies electrical continuity between

6138-525: The mail carriers on September 28, 1933, and brought about public awareness of what became known as "the Black Committee". The special Senate committee investigated alleged improprieties and gaming of the rate structure, such as carriers padlocking individual pieces of mail to increase weight. Despite showing that Brown's administration of the air mail had increased the efficiency of the service and lowered its costs from $ 1.10 to $ 0.54 per mile, and

6231-855: The mail were the Curtiss B-2 Condor , Keystone B-4 , Keystone B-6 , Douglas Y1B-7 and YB-10 bombers; the Boeing P-12 and P-6E fighters; the Curtiss A-12 Shrike; Bellanca C-27C transport; and the Thomas-Morse O-19 , Douglas O-25 C, O-39, and two models of Douglas O-38 observation aircraft. Among the 262 Army pilots flying the mail were Ira C. Eaker , Frank A. Armstrong , Elwood R. Quesada , Robert L. Scott , Robert F. Travis , Harold H. George , Beirne Lay Jr. , Curtis E. LeMay , and John Waldron Egan, all of whom would play important roles in air operations during

6324-399: The major carriers present at the "Spoils Conference", all received new contracts for their old routes with the exception of United, "the one airline completely innocent of any possible charge of collusion." United's routes were awarded instead to regional independents Braniff Airways and Bowen Air Lines , which managed its routes so badly it soon sold out to Braniff. The biggest winner of

6417-430: The map table, plotting the pilot's track. The desk includes circuits for the pilot and instructor to communicate with each other via headphones and microphones, and controls for the instructor to alter wind direction and speed. The AN-T-18 has three main sets of bellows. One set of four bellows (fore and aft and both sides of the cockpit) controls movement about the pitch and roll axes. A very complicated set of bellows at

6510-450: The mountainous terrain. In early April the Air Corps removed all pilots with less than two years' experience from the operation. The Air Corps began drawing down AACMO on May 8, 1934, when temporary contracts with private carriers were put into effect. On AACMO's last night of coast-to-coast service on May 7–8, YB-10s were used on four of the six legs from Oakland, California , to Newark to match Rickenbacker and Frye's DC-1 stunt, flying

6603-507: The need for a safe way to teach new pilots how to fly by instruments . Ed Link used his knowledge of pumps , valves and bellows gained at his father's Link Piano and Organ Company to create a flight simulator that responded to the pilot's controls and gave an accurate reading on the included instruments. More than 500,000 US pilots were trained on Link simulators, as were pilots of nations as diverse as Australia, Canada, Germany , New Zealand, United Kingdom, Israel, Japan, Pakistan , and

6696-498: The new postmaster general, James A. Farley , in a manner nearly identical to that of the "Spoils Conference" that started the scandal. Service was completely restored to the airlines by June 1, 1934. On June 12, Congress passed the Air Mail Act of 1934 cancelling the provisions of the 1930 law and enacting punitive measures against executives who were a part of the Spoils Conference. Although a public relations nightmare for

6789-765: The newly merged Transcontinental and Western Air over the central transcontinental route. After initial rejection of the Postmaster General's decision, final approval of the contract award to T&WA was approved by Comptroller General of the United States John R. McCarl on January 10, 1931, on the basis that United's puppet concern was not a "responsible bidder" by the definition of McNary-Watres, in effect validating Brown's restructuring. These three carriers later evolved into United Airlines (the northern airmail route, CAMs 17 and 18), Trans World Airlines (the mid-United States route, CAM 34) and American Airlines (the southern route, CAM 33). Brown also extended

6882-601: The obvious partisan politics involved in investigating what appeared to be a Republican scandal involving Herbert Hoover by a Democratic -controlled committee, the hearings raised serious questions regarding its legality and ethics. Black announced that he had found evidence of "fraud and collusion" between the Hoover Administration and the airlines and held public hearings in January 1934, although these allegations were later found to be without basis. Near

6975-793: The old contracts from obtaining new ones. The new rules were put into effect in March before formal passage of the bill with the announcement that temporary contracts for up to a year would be awarded by Farley. The industry's response, with the tacit consent of the government, was simply to reorganize and change names; for example, Northwest Airways became Northwest Airlines and Eastern Air Transport became Eastern Air Lines. The vertically integrated United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UATC) appeared to be its particular target and broke up on September 26, 1934, into three companies: United Air Lines Transportation Company , United Aircraft Manufacturing Company , and Boeing Aircraft Company . Ironically, of

7068-461: The only gap in UATC's cross-country network of airlines, had been amicable until three weeks before its finalization, when Keys reversed his initial approval. Ironically Brown was angered by the negotiations, worried that the specter of a potential monopoly would endanger the imminent passage of the Air Mail Act. The merger swiftly created the first transcontinental airline. On May 19, three weeks after

7161-613: The passage of McNary-Watres, at the first of the "Spoils Conferences", Brown invoked his authority under the third provision to consolidate the air mail routes to only three major companies independently competing with each other, with the goal of forcing the plethora of small, inefficient carriers to merge with the larger. Further meetings between the larger carriers, presided over by Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics William P. MacCracken Jr., continued into June that often developed into harsh wrangling over route distribution proposals and consequent animosity towards Brown. After what

7254-521: The pilot's movement of the rudder and stick. However, many trainers built during mid to late World War II did not have these wings and tail sections due to material shortages and critical manufacturing times. The Pilot Maker was Link's first model. It was an evolution of his 1929 prototype and was used in Mr. Link's Link Flying School and later by other flying schools. During the Depression years versions of

7347-401: The quartermaster's office, to use as a shop and collections storage in 2018. The Henry E. Wyble Historic Research Library & Education Center is located at the museum. Exhibits at the museum include a Link Trainer . The museum also features a series of five exterior murals depicting a various scenes related to the airport's history, such as a P-47 Thunderbolt on a gun boresight range and

7440-530: The remaining pilot and instructor instruments, and a wind drift analog computer. The second major component is an external instructor's desk, which consists of a large map table; a duplicate display of the pilot's main flight instruments; and the Automatic Recorder, a motorized ink marker also known as "the crab". The crab is driven by the Wind Drift computer and moves across the glass surface of

7533-410: The restrictions in their areas. On March 8 and 9, 1934, four more pilots died in crashes, totaling ten fatalities in less than one million miles of flying the mail. (Meanwhile, the crash of an American Airlines airliner on March 9, also killing four, went virtually unnoticed in the press.) Rickenbacker was quoted as calling the program "legalized murder", which became a catchphrase for criticism of

7626-419: The retractable undercarriage , and spinning . It was fitted with a removable opaque canopy, which could be used to simulate blind flying, and was particularly useful for instrument and navigation training. The AN-T-18 consists of two main components: The first major component is the trainer, which consists of a wooden box approximating the shape of a fuselage and cockpit, connected via a universal joint to

7719-623: The scandal was American, owned by Roosevelt campaign contributor "E. L." Cord , who before he acquired American was owner of a small independent carrier and had not attended the spoils conference. American was United's competitor in Dallas, trying to obtain its Chicago-to-Dallas CAM 3 route, and not only retained its contracts but gained a parallel Chicago-to-New York route, a second route from Chicago-to-Dallas with different intermediate stops, and had its southern transcontinental route shortened to reduce its operating costs. The most punitive measure

7812-443: The service and began training. On February 16, three pilots on familiarization flights were killed in crashes attributed to bad weather. This presaged some of the worst and most persistent late winter weather in history. Further attention was drawn to the startup when the airlines delivered a "parting shot" in the form of a publicity stunt to remind the public of its efficiency in mail service. World War I legend Eddie Rickenbacker ,

7905-524: The smaller and inefficient carriers, and to encourage the carrying of passengers. Airlines using larger planes designed to carry passengers would increase their revenues by carrying more passengers and less mail. Awards would be made to the “lowest responsible bidder” that had owned an airline operated on a daily schedule of at least 250 miles (402 kilometers) for at least six months. A second provision allowed any airmail carrier with an existing contract of at least two years standing to exchange its contract for

7998-549: The southern route to the West Coast . He awarded bonuses for carrying more passengers and purchasing multi-engined aircraft equipped with radios and navigation aids. By the end of 1932, the airline industry was the one sector of the economy experiencing steady growth and profitability, described by one historian as "Depression-proof." Passenger miles, the numbers of passengers, and new airline employees had all tripled over 1929. Airmail itself, despite its image to many Americans as

8091-445: The story full-time. Lewis' investigation began to develop into an air mail contract scandal. Lewis was having difficulty impressing his findings on government officials until he approached Alabama Senator Hugo Black . Black was the chairman of a special committee established to investigate ocean mail contracts awarded by the federal government to the merchant marine. Interstate Commerce Commission investigators seized records from all

8184-486: Was compelled to leave his position as National Air Transport's general manager because he had attended the "spoils conferences," this despite offering damaging testimony against Brown to the Black Committee. The effect of the entire scandal was to guarantee that mail-carrying contracts remained unprofitable, and pushed the entire industry towards carrying passengers, which had been Brown's original goal as incentive for developing new technologies, increasing safety, and growth of

8277-460: Was described as a " shotgun marriage " between Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express in July to achieve the second of the three companies (UATC was the first), competitive bids were solicited by the Post Office on August 2, 1930, and opened August 25. A surprise competitive bidding struggle ensued between UATC, through a quickly formed skeleton company it called "United Aviation," and

8370-541: Was dubbed "Hell's Stretch" by airmail pilots. In the Western Zone, Arnold established his headquarters in Salt Lake City . In the winter of 1932–1933, he and many of his pilots had gained winter flying experience flying food-drop missions to aid Indian reservation settlements throughout the American Southwest isolated by blizzards. As a result of this experience and direct supervision, Arnold's zone

8463-427: Was introduced. American Airlines became the first commercial airline to purchase a Link trainer in 1937. Prior to World War II, Link trainers were also sold to the U.S. Navy, Civil Aeronautics Administration, Germany, Japan, England, Russia, France, and Canada. Link and his company had struggled through the Depression years, but after gaining Air Corps interest the business expanded rapidly and during World War II,

8556-521: Was the only one in which a pilot was not killed. The Western Zone's first flights were made using 18 Boeing P-12 fighters, but these could carry a maximum of only 50 pounds of mail each, and even that amount made them tail-heavy. After one week they were replaced by Douglas O-38 variants including the Douglas O-35 and its bomber version, the B-7, and Douglas O-25C observation biplanes borrowed from

8649-445: Was to ban all former airline executives alleged to have colluded from further contracts or working for airlines that obtained one. United Airlines ' president, Philip G. Johnson , chose to leave the United States and helped to form Trans-Canada Airlines . At the age of 52 William Boeing took early retirement as UATC's chairman of the board on September 18 rather than ever deal again with the federal government. Colonel Paul Henderson

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