Happy Holidays from the team at Early Days Biplanes! Whatever religion you subscribe to, if you subscribe to one, we hope that it proved to be a fulfilling and very merry time. That was certainly the case on our end, with lots of exciting adventures that were born out of a visit to our home state of Georgia. Although the state may lack certain attractions such as Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. or the Golden Age Air Museum in Pennsylvania, its rich aviation history and rolling mountains that are interlaced with patches of rolling fields tend to grip our hearts with a strength that is incomparable. The story of an Air Mail arrow atop a Cartersville mountain was of particular interest on this trip, not to mention the wonderful selection of books that were added to our ever-growing library.
Contract Air Mail route #30 was issued to Interstate Airlines on August 9th, 1928 and was from Atlanta, Georgia to Chicago, Illinois with numerous stops along the way. With its tip still pointing the way to Nashville, this exhausted concrete arrow rests stoically atop a Cartersville mountain while refusing to resign its duty of guiding pilots to a safe landing at their next stop along the way. Regardless of the brutal weather conditions that sweep through the southeastern United States, this arrow has remained on station for almost a century for pilots and visitors alike to tell the story of the United States Air Mail service. It has been kept in remarkable condition with no cracks in the concrete and metal brackets still sticking out of it from where the beacon tower used to stand. If you are in the area, I highly suggest you visit it. It is contained within a gated community off I-75 but the gate was open so we drove right through to the site and spent as much time as we pleased there. It was an absolute pleasure to walk around this historical site and absorb every minute of its history. For some time before we left, we even played the recognizable sounds of Wright J5s at takeoff and in cruise from our phones to get the full effect. It was quite a special time and one that I will remember forever.
As mentioned above, the library also boasted some new additions that were very welcome to the Early Days Biplanes home base. These new additions were, “Airpower” by Major Al Williams, “Hollywood Pilot” by Don Dwiggins, another Don Dwiggins piece titled “They Flew The Bendix Race”, a softcover book by the EAA titled “The Golden Age of Air Racing- Pre 1940”, “A Flying Fighter” by Royal Flying Corps Lieutenant E. M. Roberts, “The Flying Poilu” by Marcel Nadaud, and “En l’Air!” by famous Lafayette Escadrille aviator Bert Hall. Quite the selection if you ask me! I am very thankful to add these books to the shelves of the library, especially because the last three are original copies from the late 1910’s and Airpower is actually signed by Al Williams himself. Some pieces! Expect photos of these books and glimpses of their contents to be posted to the website under our ‘Research ‘Library’ tab alongside our numerous other wonderful aviation books. I don’t have a timeline on when these will be uploaded but it should be soon. There are a great many photos that still need to be added to our website’s Research Library so keep an eye out for these as well.
In news unrelated to holidays, general work for the EDB project will be picking back up soon to include book reviews, photo uploading, website updates, Blog posts, and numerous other tasks to stay involved with vintage aviation and accomplish the mission and goals we have outlined under our ‘About’ tab. Believe me.. there is enough to stay busy! As it stands at the time of writing this, there are 25 books (not including the ones mentioned above!) that need to be photographed and added to the Research Library! In addition to this, I just finished another book about the first monoplane aviator in Georgia and intend to write a review of that book within the next month or two. Add that to a post about the story of the Cartersville air mail arrow and I think I have my work cut out for me! All lovely things and all things and I am beyond grateful to do every single day.
Well, that’s our holiday update! Yes, we know it was more than a little late, but we have been extremely busy on the homefront doing all the behind the scenes work for this project. We hope you enjoyed this small glimpse into our wonderful holiday season and hope you had just as jolly of a time this Christmas and New Year season. Thank you for reading and visiting our website!
Rear of the arrow. This is where the shack that housed essentials for keeping the beacon and arrow functional was constructed.
The tip of the entire arrow. It is in remarkable condition.
Yours truly, removing himself from the strife of the modern world and placing himself in the cockpit of a Stearman Speedmail at 1am.
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