I’ve learned a little about the Railway Express Agency from books and magazines and such, but I never knew they had airplanes.
The National Air Tour came to Wichita and one biplane had an R.E.A logo on the side. The pilot wasn’t around for comment and the web site only gave technical data. Can anyone enlighten me on the role of airplanes with the REA?
Thanks for any help anyone can give
Hi Jeff
I sure didn’t know the REA had planes. Kind of an irony, since it was the airplane that took mail service from the trains and passengers too.
About your ad space for rent–my suggestion is
Ed for President
Thanks, Jim [:)]
Did anybody know that the 1st airmail had go by part way by train cause of bad weather!
Delivering “air mail” by rail due to poor flying weather was a very common happening was back when. Aircraft flew VFR and had little or no navigation equipment then. VFR is Visual Flight Rules which means if you can’t see where you’re going you can’t fly.
Roger
R.E.A. Did not have there own aircraft. They did buy space on the various airlines and for advertisiment they did have there log on some aircraft. This was similiar to having there logo on a combination coach, mail, express cars.
R.E.A. air service lasted until airline/air freight deregulations in the early 1970’s , the big killer for R.E.A was Federal Express not the airlines.
and he notes -
American Railway Express, (predecessor to Railway Express Agency), began offering air service between New York and Chicago in 1919 using a surplus Army bomber. As airlines and routes were established, REA booked cargo space on passenger planes as well as freighters.
They never owned airplanes but they did have a brisk business in air shipments. They had the advantage of offering door to door service, where other air parcel services could only offer airport to airport. In its heyday, REA employed nearly 50,000 people and had 23,000 offices. As rail service declined, they shifted their emphasis and by the end of operations in 1975, air traffic amounted to 50% of the company’s revenue.
After their demise in 1975, (bankruptcy), UPS took over most of it’s ground operations with Federal Express getting much of the air freight business.
Vic Roseman’s book “Railway Express” [Rocky Mountain Publishing ca. 1991] is an excellent source of information on that agency’s air as well as rail and truck operations.
I’ve learned a little about the Railway Express Agency from books and magazines and such, but I never knew they had airplanes.
The National Air Tour came to Wichita and one biplane had an R.E.A logo on the side. The pilot wasn’t around for comment and the web site only gave technical data. Can anyone enlighten me on the role of airplanes with the REA?
Thanks for any help anyone can give
Hi Jeff
I sure didn’t know the REA had planes. Kind of an irony, since it was the airplane that took mail service from the trains and passengers too.
About your ad space for rent–my suggestion is
Ed for President
Thanks, Jim [:)]
Did anybody know that the 1st airmail had go by part way by train cause of bad weather!
Delivering “air mail” by rail due to poor flying weather was a very common happening was back when. Aircraft flew VFR and had little or no navigation equipment then. VFR is Visual Flight Rules which means if you can’t see where you’re going you can’t fly.
Roger
R.E.A. Did not have there own aircraft. They did buy space on the various airlines and for advertisiment they did have there log on some aircraft. This was similiar to having there logo on a combination coach, mail, express cars.
R.E.A. air service lasted until airline/air freight deregulations in the early 1970’s , the big killer for R.E.A was Federal Express not the airlines.
and he notes -
American Railway Express, (predecessor to Railway Express Agency), began offering air service between New York and Chicago in 1919 using a surplus Army bomber. As airlines and routes were established, REA booked cargo space on passenger planes as well as freighters.
They never owned airplanes but they did have a brisk business in air shipments. They had the advantage of offering door to door service, where other air parcel services could only offer airport to airport. In its heyday, REA employed nearly 50,000 people and had 23,000 offices. As rail service declined, they shifted their emphasis and by the end of operations in 1975, air traffic amounted to 50% of the company’s revenue.
After their demise in 1975, (bankruptcy), UPS took over most of it’s ground operations with Federal Express getting much of the air freight business.
Vic Roseman’s book “Railway Express” [Rocky Mountain Publishing ca. 1991] is an excellent source of information on that agency’s air as well as rail and truck operations.