(no sound) - America, even though we started aviation with the Wright brothers, we fell behind the curve pretty quickly.

- Aviation public's view was somewhere between a circus and a rich man sport.

- With what was happening in Europe, technology advanced so fast, we didn't even keep up.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Coming out of World War I, Army General Billy Mitchell saw foreign powers beginning to utilize aviation as an essential part of a holistic military approach, so he began to explore ways for the US military to do the same.

He was rebuffed by a Congress who didn't see the benefit in funding such grandiose plans.

- [Michael] There is somebody back east who was paying a great deal of attention.

Otto Prager, who was the assistant postmaster general for the United States Post Office.

- Well, I think Otto Prager was also a forward thinker and saw aviation as something that could be later utilized in a more effective fashion, which the Airmail certainly did.

- Once he saw that it was possible to fly aircraft safely across the United States, they decided that this is an opportunity that they just couldn't pass up.

- [Narrator] Otto Prager developed a route based on the available aircraft, terrain and weather.

He then solicited communities along the route to build airports to help facilitate his vision.

- [Steven] Post office didn't have any money, so he relied on the goodwill of local municipalities to establish airports.

- [Narrator] Prager targeted Cheyenne as an essential part of his proposed route.

Its surrounding topography had proven favorable for the Union Pacific Railroad route, and for similar reasons, it was ideal for the Airmail route as well.

- The city fathers, the Union Pacific Railroad, Laramie County, and others, decided to use an airfield that was approximately one mile out in the middle of nowhere north of the Capitol building that was owned by the city that should be used for an airfield.

And that's the location of the airfield that we have today, and that's where it was originated.

- [Narrator] Once the route was established, Prager and the post office were able to measure their success by the time it took to deliver mail from one coast to the other.

Their main competition, the railroad, was the standard they were racing.

- It took a train almost three and a half days to go from New York to San Francisco.

When the mail service finally got established on a regular basis, you could go from San Francisco to New York in 29 hours.

- [Michael] And of course, that was extremely valuable for businesses, banks, other people that had had priority mail packets that needed to be transported.

- [Narrator] With the limitations in technology during the early days of the Transcontinental Airmail System, Congress was convinced that using the railroad to transport mail was more reliable than the Airmail.

In early 1921, they threatened to cut funding for the Airmail, but Prager wasn't ready to give up just yet.

He planned a demonstration of the time advantage airplanes offered by flying mail from coast to coast on a cold night in February.

In 1921, pilots still used landmarks to find their way.

Flying at night was extremely hazardous.

- So they came up with this idea.

All along the route, they got the post office to try and find employees, volunteers, farmers, ranchers, what have you.

And what they would do on this night of February 22nd, they convinced these people to take their automobiles, leave their headlights on, pointing in the direction of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, or east and west, so that a pilot up in the sky would be able to see these things.

(airplane engine roaring) (tense music) - [Narrator] The test proved to be a difficult one.

Storms all along the route threatened the brave pilots and their mission.

Frank Yager flew the section from Salt Lake City to North Platte, Nebraska, testing his skills as he battled the rugged storm filled skies of Wyoming.

- And Frank Yager lands at North Platte, and here is Jack Knight waiting, and the storm is brewing and getting worse all the time.

And they trade off the mail.

And true to his word, without missing a beat, Jack Knight takes off to finish the last leg of his day to fly from North Platte all the way to Omaha, Nebraska.

Well, when he gets to Omaha, Nebraska, about eight o'clock at night, the weather is giving a little bit of a break there, but it's so bad all around Omaha that the pilot that was waiting for the Airmail at Omaha refused to go any further.

He thought it was far, far too dangerous.

- So everybody looks at Jack Knight.

He says, "Well, I think I'll do it.

"I'll give it a try."

And he says, "I need a coffee and cigarette.

"And you got any map around here?"

- [Narrator] Jack Knight bravely struck out towards Iowa City in the midst of horrendous storms on a portion of the Airmail route he had never flown before, all under the cover of a dark storm-laden night.

- Well, people in their thousands were coming out to see what would happen.

And sure enough, at six o'clock in the morning, they heard an engine (airplane engine roaring) of Jack Knight's mail plane coming out of the darkness from the swirling fog after the storms.

Just as the sun broke over the horizons, Jack Knight circles the Chicago airfield and then brings his plane in for an almost perfect landing on an ice covered landing field.

And then they had to cut Jack Knight out of his plane.

His flight suit had frozen solid inside the aircraft.

- [Narrator] Prager's demonstration proved successful.

Congress agreed to continue funding for the Airmail service, but the dangers Jack Knight and others faced that night showed the post office that they needed to push the boundaries of technology to make flying safer for their pilots, especially at night.

They worked with many private contractors to develop lighting and navigation technology.

- So in July of 1923, the airway was lit from Cheyenne to Chicago, but it developed a whole new technology specifically for airways because the pilots had to operate in three dimensions.

So it's one of those rare times where technology and opportunity and vision all came together and made history.

- [Narrator] One aspect of the Airmail system was the intermediate airfields all along the Airmail route.

In Wyoming, 14 emergency airfields allowed pilots refuge when they had mechanical problems or the weather prohibited them from flying.

These sites included remote places like Knight, Granger, Bitter Creek, and Medicine Bow.

- Congress eventually had it in for the Airmail service anyway.

They just bided their time.

Realizing that the Airmail service had been so successful, it wasn't something that Congress wanted to quite eliminate.

And they passed the Kelly Airmail Act in 1925, which basically stated that the Airmail service would eventually be phased out in favor of privatized companies that would then be contracted to fly the Airmails instead.

- [Narrator] This privatized Airmail service quickly evolved into what we know now as commercial passenger airline service with companies like Boeing, United and others, starting with commercial Airmail routes and seeing the potential for carrying passengers as well.

- When we talk about the Airmail, it seems like this archaic old thing where you have guys flying around, but technologically, it was probably one of the most meaningful things that happened in aviation history.

When we think of aviation history and progress, we think of NASA and the military.

It was the post office that started a lot of things with the Airmail.

Without the Airmail, we're talking about innovations like radio stations at every airport.

We're talking about lighted runways, we're talking about night landings, multi-engine aircraft, long range service.

All of those things came into being because of the Airmail service.

And so, even though the Airmail only existed for less than a decade, the technological advances were phenomenal.

The early pilots of the Airmail were some of the bravest souls ever known to mankind.

When we talk about cowboys of the sky, these guys didn't ride horses.

They flew airplanes that crashed a lot.

- [Steven] The early pilots got about $4,000 annually, which is really big money in the '20s.

- [Mike] It was not unusual for an Airmail pilot on one flight to land four times to make adjustments to his own engine just so he could finish the flight out.

- [Michael] They all had a certain panache.

They all had a certain very strong developed sense of adventure and rugged individualism, very daring aviation pioneers.

These guys are the epitome of a modern version of the rugged individual that Americans seem to hold in such very high regard.

So yes, I think that having the same spirit, cowboy attitude about trying to get it done is exactly the way they flew.

(epic music)