Service Begins in Miami

On December 1, 1928, after winning the contract for the CAM 25 Air Mail route, Pitcairn inaugurated regular service from Miami Municipal Airport north through Jacksonville to Atlanta and onward to New York. Two planes were needed to carry the northbound air mail out of Miami. The regular ship, flown by Fred J. Schwaemmle, was joined by a second plane piloted by A. P. Kerr, which had arrived from Jacksonville at 10:50 a.m. With more than 45,000 pieces of mail, three boxes of Florida flowers, and the good wishes of over 1,000 spectators, Schwaemmle taxied out and lifted off at exactly 11:05 a.m., the time set by the postal department. Kerr refueled, loaded additional mail sacks, and departed ten minutes later. Letters posted in Miami before 9 a.m. reached Jacksonville by 2:50 p.m. and Atlanta by 5:50 p.m., where they connected at 8 p.m. with flights bound north, east, and west.

Expansion to Central Florida

Three months later, Pitcairn expanded the service to other Florida cities. Daytona Beach, which had just completed a municipal airport, was selected as the key junction for mail from Jacksonville and Miami to be carried to Orlando and Tampa.

On March 1, 1929, hundreds of spectators lined the new airport at Bethune Point in Daytona to await the arrival of the Pitcairn fleet.

At 11:31 a.m., four planes emerged from a heavy northern overcast, flying in a spread‑cagle pattern. Leading the group was the Super‑Mailwing piloted by Daytona native son Ervin Ballough, accompanied by J. G. Ray, operations manager for the Pitcairn company. Behind them came two additional aircraft flown by C. J. Faulkner, who managed Pitcairn’s Philadelphia airport, and Fred C. Camm. Close on their heels was a fourth ship piloted by Lt. Holger Hoiriis, associate editor of American Aviation Magazine, with two passengers.

As the crowd watched, the aircraft landed, unloaded sacks of mail, refueled, and departed. Or, at least, tried to. Shortly after lifting off from the runway, pilot C. J. Faulkner’s engine stalled, sending his aircraft into eight feet of water in the Halifax River. Spectators rushed to the waterfront as a nearby launch sped toward the wreck. After freeing himself from the cockpit and struggling clear of his parachute, Faulkner was pulled safely aboard with nothing more serious than a cut above one eye. Shivering but smiling, the veteran aviator brushed aside concern, declaring, “Why, I’m all right—what’s the excitement about?”

Faulkner escaped with only a minor cut, but the aircraft was badly damaged.

The mail must go on

True to air mail tradition, the water‑soaked mail was quickly salvaged, transferred to another Pitcairn plane, and delivered to Tampa that same afternoon.

In Tampa, officials gathered at the municipal airport to send off the inaugural departure carrying 243 pounds of mail.

In Orlando, thousands turned out to greet the first official mail plane. The outbound load was so heavy that the pilot reportedly left his parachute behind and sat on mailbags to make room.

More than 1,000 pounds left Florida cities that day — a new state record.

St. Pete Joins the Network

On December 14, 1929, St. Petersburg entered the system with record‑setting enthusiasm. Pilot Elmer G. Cross departed Piper‑Fuller Airport carrying 29,660 letters and sixteen mail pouches weighing 564 pounds — breaking inaugural flight records in seven Southeastern states. In a dramatic publicity stunt, the Goodyear blimp Vigilant lifted a satchel of mail from the rooftop of the eleven‑story West Coast Title Building and rushed it to the airfield — only the second time such a feat had been performed in the United States.

Florida Enters the Air Mail Age

By the end of 1929, all of Florida’s major cities were linked by air, offering Air Mail delivery to New York in as little as sixteen hours.

Pitcairn Becomes Eastern Air Lines

In June 1929, aviation financier Clement M. Keys acquired Pitcairn and folded it into North American Aviation. The airline was renamed Eastern Air Transport in January 1930, and in 1934 it became Eastern Air Lines.