One of the first displays someone sees when walking into Pearson Air Museum is a photo of Silas Christofferson piloting his 1912 Curtiss Pusher biplane, bringing some mail from Portland to Vancouver.
The historic flight was a one-time deal, but regular airmail service started at Pearson in 1926 and lasted until the late 1930s, according to Bob Cromwell, museum manager at Pearson. Airmail service made a one-day return to the airfield on Friday when three vintage biplanes stopped in Vancouver while re-creating the pioneering West Coast airmail route from San Diego to Seattle.
“It’s great to be included in the trip,” Cromwell said. “It’s part of our history here.”
Volunteers are looking to bring that history to the present by building a replica Curtiss Pusher biplane at the museum, which is expected to be finished and on display starting in June, Cromwell said.
The re-enactment flight was also about bringing some history to the present, as it was done in honor of the 100th anniversary of airmail service in the country. The 1,200-mile flight was done as a re-enactment of Contract Air Mail Route 8. Pacific Air Transport, an ancestor of present-day United Airlines, inaugurated its Seattle-to Los Angeles service on Sept. 26, 1926.
“A lot of today’s airlines started out back in the day as airmail carriers,” said Addison Pemberton, a pilot from Spokane who led the re-enactment. “These pilots made a huge contribution to air travel as we know it.”
Pemberton is a commercial pilot who volunteered to do the re-enactment flight out of respect for the history of airmail service.
“I can’t imagine ground crawling at night in this part of the country in January,” he said, referring to their aircraft’s low-altitude flight path. “But they did for years.”
Pemberton was one of three pilots flying their vintage Stearman planes on the trip, along with Ben Scott and Jeff Hamilton. They were joined on the trip by Larry Harmacinski, Ilse Harmacinski, Darryl Fisher, Katie LeFriec and Jay Pemberton. All three planes were built in the early 1930s.
The pilots and their planes arrived at Pearson Thursday night and they took off for their next stop, Olympia, shortly after noon Friday. The journey was expected to take about 12 hours of flying spread over six days, wrapping up in Everett on Friday.
At each of the 12 stops on the trip, there were special temporary stations for people to use commemorative envelopes and stamps to mail letters. The three pilots were sworn in as official air mail pilots by United States Postal Service for the six-day trip, and carried sacks of mail along with them.
“After (the trip), it’s back to being a working stiff for me,” Pemberton said.
At the conclusion of the trip, the letters will be sent home to the people who wrote them. Lisa Ebner, postmaster for Vancouver, said the pilots were carrying about 3,000 pieces of mail.
“It’s great to show people the connection from 100 years ago to present,” Ebner said. “We’re still connecting people today.”
