Pigeon On A Plane

[Albertina Drybread]

TheCurtiss Carrier Pigeon was an American mail plane of the 1920s. A single-engined biplane designed and built to replace World War I surplus aircraft such as the DH-4, the Carrier Pigeon was one of the first aircraft designed specifically for U.S. Airmail service.

In 1925 the U.S. Postal Service felt they had excellent operational service with converted Airco D.H.4 biplanes. The eight-year-old designs were considered antiquated by this time, however, and a modern purpose-built machine was desired. While most manufacturers started to build new generation passenger aircraft with mail cargo capability, the Curtiss Carrier Pigeon was the first clean-sheet design specifically made for U.S. air-mail service. The aircraft was intended to be sold directly to the Postal Service, but new legislation that opened up outside contracts brought on a slew of competing models.

The Carrier Pigeon was drawn up to meet or exceed the original postal specifications. Strength, serviceability, and ease of maintenance were the three core design criteria. It was intended to provide service on the nighttime runs between Chicago and New York, with only one stop. The plane was built to take advantage of the powerful and plentiful 400 hp Liberty L-12 engine to meet Postal specifications. Up to 40,000 airmail letters could be carried in the 1,000 lb capacity cargo hold.

The fuselage was a welded steel tube frame covered in fabric. The upper and lower wings were interchangeable and used solid, unspliced spruce spars. The rudder, ailerons, and elevators were also interchangeable, which reduced spares counts.[1] The hinges used heavy replaceable bronze pins to reduce wear.

The watertight cargo hold was at the center of gravity so the aircraft could accommodate a range of loads without affecting the balance. The landing gear used rubber doughnut suspension. The fuel tank could be jettisoned in case of an emergency. A seven quart fire extinguisher was plumbed to the engine compartment for suppression of inflight fires. The pilot could choose between wheel or stick control based on his preference.[2]

A prototype Curtiss Carrier Pigeon flown by Charles S. (Casey) Jones placed 7th in the 1925 Edsel B. Ford Reliability Tour. Out of 17 starters, 11 aircraft including the Carrier Pigeon completed with a perfect score, netting a $350 prize.[3][4] Henry Ford waited at the finish line to greet the winners of the 1,900 mile endurance test.[5]

The Carrier Pigeon was used by National Air Transport Inc. At the time, both Curtiss and NAT were owned and controlled by Clement Keys. Ten Carrier Pigeons were put into service with 35 surplus Liberty engine spares. NAT used the Carrier Pigeon for the Contract Air Mail CAM-3 (Chicago-Dallas) route. The first recorded service was on May 12, 1926 with The route between Chicago, Illinois and Dallas, Texas. Stops were scheduled in Moline, Illinois, Saint Joseph, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri, Wichita, Kansas, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Fort Worth, Texas. The maiden flight was piloted by D A Askew, R L Dobie, R H Fatt, Lawrence H Garrison, P E Johnson, H L Kindred and Edmund Matucha. These pilots logged 776,351 miles of flight in the first year without an accident or loss of any mail.

NAT invested $10 million competing for the nighttime Chicago to New York route (CAM 17). NAT started service on September 1, 1927 using Carrier Pigeons from CAM-3.[6] These planes flew the early lighted airway from Cheyenne to Chicago, and recently extended to New York. The path over the Allegheny Mountains was referred to as the "Hell Stretch".[7] Early in 1929, NAT acquired seven 625 hp Curtiss Falcons, these replaced the smaller Carrier Pigeons. D. A. Askew flew the final Carrier Pigeon flight. He had flown this same aircraft on the inaugural CAM No. 3 flight.[8] On February 9, 1934, the Post Office cancelled all airmail contracts on suspicion that the mail carrying contracts had been awarded through collusion during the previous administration.[9]

On November 27, 1929, Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout and Elinor Smith took off from Metropolitan Airport in a Commercial Sunbeam biplane in an attempt to set an official record for a refueled endurance flight by women. A Carrier Pigeon was used as the tanker aircraft, which refueled the Sunbeam 3 1/2 times.[11] The Sunbeam was to be refueled in early morning and before sunset. Refueling went well. With shifts of four hours each, two days passed. By Thanksgiving Day, they had been up for 39 hours. While refueling, the Carrier Pigeon began trailing black smoke. Trout quickly tossed the fueling hose over the side as Smith maneuvered away from the ailing Carrier Pigeon. It landed, and the fliers emerged safely.[12]

His well-practiced answer rolled off of his thoughts so smoothly, it was clear he had explained his pigeon following antics many times before, but the excitement that accompanied his explanation and the chuckles that interspersed the following stories made it feel like I was sitting in the plane right next to him.

We had developed a little radio transmitter to put on homing pigeons, and we were going to follow a pigeon with an antenna in the airplane for the first time from the airport back to its loft at Harvard University.

After about a half-hour or so the pigeon takes off and flies away. So we drive to the airport, get the airplane and follow it for a while and then it stops again in a big patch of woods with some buildings. And it stops we can tell on one of the buildings. So once again we put the airplane away, get the car, and go and locate the pigeon.

This was actually a subconscious application of the pigeonhole principle, one of the most intuitive theorems that mathematicians use. It states that if you have objects to put in boxes then one of those boxes must contain at least two of the objects.

You can go still further: if you have infinitely many objects and only finitely many holes, one of those holes must have infinitely many objects. For instance, in the non-repeating decimal expansion of any irrational number such as or , at least one of the 10 digits must occur infinitely often. I think It is unknown whether each digit from 0 to 9 repeats infinitely often in those two. , but that would probably require a harder proof.

Page 5 of US Army Air Forces technical manual, "Handling and Releasing Homing Pigeons from Aircraft In Flight," T.O. 01-1-120, August 1, 1943. Figure 8: Securing Holder to Leg. Figure 9: Holder Properly Attached to Leg. Figure 10: Alternative Method of Securing Holder to Leg before Removing Pigeon from Container. (NASM-9A16685-009)

These message-carrying pigeons served bravely during times of war. This technical manual helps to remind the reader of the contributions our feathered friends made under, at times, dangerous and harsh conditions.

In the last year of World War I, naval aviation recognized carrier pigeons for service and were used to send messages when radio use was impossible. These birds were carried with aviators and dispatched when a pilot splashed (crashed). From November 1917 to October 1918, the pigeons flew 10,995 flights and there were 2,500 birds in U.S. Navy flock in the states and 900 in Europe. An example of "pigeons coming to the rescue" occurred on November 22, 1917. Ensign Kenneth R. Smith and his crew departed U.S. Naval Station, Le Croisic, France, in foggy weather and subsequently crashed. Releasing the pigeons on board, the birds flew back to base, causing a search crew to be dispatched to rescue Smith and his crew.

The boarding was great. With all the delays I was grateful to get on the plane and headed for home. There was no in flight entertainment. Seats were very uncomfortable! Unfortunately we were seated next to an exit row so there was no recline in our seat. Other than that it was a smooth ride.

My flight was cancelled twice and the third time I tried to rebook it online I cancelled the flight because it looked like I would get a refund to my credit card. Instead I now have a credit. I was also on hold for three hours waiting for a representative and then disconnected. I will never fly delta again.

I know it was not in Deltas fault. But numerous delays and cancelations. I requested a hotel voucher and was told they weren't available. The lady on my hotel shuttle did receive one from American. Why the difference?

Flight was delayed. Had to get rebooked. Diamond medallion but stuck in a crappy seat. Rebooked flight then got delayed again. Then when we finally boarded, we waited another hour for a new crew. Then landed in JFK and sat for another 40 minutes waiting for a crew to come to the gate to be able to deplane. Hot mess all around, which unfortunately is becoming the norm for Delta

I didn't even take this flight. My plans changed and I couldn't get ahold of customer service and the website kept breaking down during the attempt to change the flight. I wound up taking another airline entirely and eating the cost.

Every Allegiant Air flight I've ever taken has been delayed. This flight was delayed a full 2 hours. It was excuse after excuse after excuse. It was a flight from southern Florida. They made us board the plane on time, but made us wait for 2 hours on the tarmac. Because the engines were kept shut off, so was the air conditioning. One can only imagine how hot the air was in the cabin over those 2 hours on the tarmac, while in the hot Florida sun. Just terrible.

Actually, for the price, I'm willing to put up with a little discomfort (upright chairs) and at times inconveniences (like any airline), lack of entertainment (I can bring my own). My flight was non stop and smooth. I would fly this route again.

There were issues with the first segment but what really bothered me overall is that you rebooked me and put me in a seat away from my wife and then put her in another booking or boarding group. I don't like having to monitor every little thing you guys do in order to get what I paid for in the first place.

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