Kelly Air Mail Act Essay

I. Summary

In 1925 congress introduced the first legislation that could change the aviation industry. The legislation was known as The Kelly Air Mail Act. The purpose of the act is to free airmail service from total control of the office department (smithsosian). In February 2, 1925 when the legislation was passed, five companies were awarded with four years of bidding period by the government. The companies that were initially contracted with the government are colonial air transportation, nation air transport, Robertson Aircraft Corporation, western air express, varney airlines, and they would get paid $3.00 a pound of mail for the first 1,000 miles, and additional $.30 a pound per additional mile. Unfortunately, the legislation didn’t offer the companies a good deal as they thought. The companies were making the same amount of money no matter how far or close they fly. Therefore, the companies prefer to fly in small route to save operation cost (Lawrence, 2015).

II. Problem

One of the biggest problems that the companies face was unreliable aircraft. The aircraft that was widely used for airmail services comes from World War One plane. Not to mentions, in 1918 through 1927 the post office spend $17 million to operate airmail service, while realizing a return of about one-third that amount, as well as, taking the life of 32 pilots (Lawrence,

Before the legislation was passed the military was managing the airmail program, as of result, the military shows that they are incapable of running the program and it was passed on to the private sector after the legislation. When the legislation was finally passes it was the first step toward the creation of a U.S. airline industry (Kelly Air Mail Act (1925)). However, with every new legislation created there always an unexpected outcome occurred, in this case, it was lack of technology and aircraft