PIA – A History: The “Air Mail Fiasco”
(Originally posted at peoriastation.com on September 18, 2015) Last time, we covered the development of the existing airfield, originally called “Peoria Airport Inc.” Next, we’ll explore how the Air Mail Act of 1930 prompted airlines to emphasize passenger business over air mail, but also led to the “Air Mail Fiasco.” Commercial aviation got its start through government air mail contracts, so one could cynically, yet truthfully, expect corruption. Air mail operations began with Army Air Corps flyers in August 1918, but then the Contract Air Mail Act of 1925 authorized the use of private carriers. Subsidies were based on weight, and some of the carriers exploited this by handling junk mail and heavy freight as “air mail” and at one hundred percent profit. By 1929, some 45 carriers were involved. Naturally, the federal government discovered its patriotic duty to regulate private air mail services. In 1926, then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover named William P. McCracken ...