CONCORD, CA — The United States Postal Service paid tribute to the beginning of airmail service when it issued the United States Air Mail Forever stamp earlier this year. To mark the 100th anniversary of that service, three vintage biplanes will retrace the pioneering west coast airmail route from San Diego to Seattle with a stop at Buchanan Field in Concord.

To commemorate the Concord stop, the Concord Post Office will have the Airmail Stamp on sale and a free postal cancellation from 9:00 a.m. to noon, Tuesday, May 15, 2018, at Buchanan Field.

On the morning of May 15, 1918, as President Wilson and members of congress watched, a young Army pilot eased a wood and fabric biplane from Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. bound for New York. The first government-operated air mail flight in America was underway. May 15, 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of that service and the Concord stop along the 1,200 mile West Coast airmail route will be historically commemorative.

The United States Post Office Department, the predecessor to the U.S. Postal Service, took charge of the U.S. Air Mail Service later that summer, operating it from Aug. 12, 1918, through Sept. 1, 1927. Airmail delivery, daily except on Sundays, became part of the fabric of the American economy and spurred growth of the nation’s aviation industry.

For airmail service to succeed in the early days of flight, the Post Office had to develop profitable routes, such as between New York and Chicago, and to establish the infrastructure for safely making night flights. It set up lighted airfields and erected hundreds of airmail guide beacons between New York and San Francisco so that by 1924 regularly scheduled, transcontinental flying was possible, day and night.

Airmail delivery, daily except on Sundays, became part of the fabric of the American economy and spurred the growth of the nation’s aviation industry.

The United States Air Mail stamp is being issued as a Forever stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal in value to the current First Class Mail one ounce price.

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