DH vs HP for USPSTwo Americans go to war over differing plans to utilize two types of surplus British bombers! Scores of American-made D.H.4 light bombers were sold by the United States Army following the Armistice of November 1918. One-hundred were acquired by the US Postal service and retrofitted for airmail delivery, "
...denominating them as the DH.4B. In 1919, the DH-4B was standardised by the US Post Office, being modified to be flown from the rear cockpit with a 400 lb (180 kg) watertight mail compartment replacing the forward cockpit. The airmail DH-4B were later modified with revised landing gear and an enlarged rudder. DH-4s were used to establish a coast-to-coast, transcontinental airmail service, between San Francisco and New York, a distance of 2,680 mi (4,310 km), involving night flight, the first services starting on 21 August 1924. The DH-4 continued in Post Office service until 1927, when the last airmail routes were passed to private contractors." (via wikipedia)
Meanwhile, the much larger Handley Page O/400, also produced in America, was also being entertained as a mail machine. "
Benjamin B. Lipsner was the driving force behind day-to-day procedure in the early days of Airmail service. He was the primary organizer of the Army service and he established the daily routines that lead to the Washington-New York route being, for the most part, reliable... Lipsner rejoiced when, at the conclusion of the war, the army promised the Post Office Department twelve Handley Page bombers. (via postalmuseum.si.edu)
(from the Brecon Country Times, 30 January 1919):
(image: 'deHavilland DH-4 at the Omaha, Nebraska, airfield', via postalmuseum.si.edu)
(image: 'Lipsner... hands Max Miller the mail he was assigned to fly to Chicago on September 5, 1918.', via postalmuseum.si.edu)
Apparently the fate of these Handley Pages did not go as suggested in today's news, as Lipsner's plans were blocked by Otto Praeger, who "
was the Washington, D.C., postmaster from 1913 to 1915 and was the Second Assistant United States Postmaster General from 1915 to 1921. He was responsible for implementing airmail from 1918 to 1927" (via wikipedia). "
Praeger, however, decided that there was no place in the service for aircraft of such size. Parts from the Handley Pages were used to modify the DH-4s for service. This incensed Lipsner, and he cited it as one of the reasons that he parted company with the Airmail Service." (via postalmuseum.si.edu)
(image "Otto Praeger circa 1920", via wikipedia)
Six months following the publication of today's report, "
...angered by Praeger's insistence that they fly their routes on time even in zero visibility weather or be fired – a policy that had resulted in 15 crashes and two fatalities in the previous two weeks alone – U.S. Airmail Service pilots begin a spontaneous strike. After Praeger and the United States Post Office Department received much negative comment in the press, the strike ended in less than a week when the Post Office Department agreed that officials in Washington, D.C., would no longer insist on pilots flying in dangerous weather conditions". (via wikipedia)
To watch archival film footage of these rival American-made British designs being built and flying, let's revisit Rookie's post from last year:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13247.msg246666#msg246666
