Air Mail Service Boeing 40 Airplane Heading East over the Rocky Mountains, 1928
Add to SetSummary
Passenger accommodations were sparse on a Boeing 40, but the airplane primarily was designed to carry mail. Early in its production, the airplane's original water-cooled Liberty V-12 engine was replaced with an air-cooled Pratt & Whitney radial engine. The air-cooled motor eliminated the need -- and excess weight -- of a radiator and water, increasing the airplane's payload and profitability.
Passenger accommodations were sparse on a Boeing 40, but the airplane primarily was designed to carry mail. Early in its production, the airplane's original water-cooled Liberty V-12 engine was replaced with an air-cooled Pratt & Whitney radial engine. The air-cooled motor eliminated the need -- and excess weight -- of a radiator and water, increasing the airplane's payload and profitability.
Artifact
Photographic print
Subject Date
1928
Creators
Keywords
Collection Title
On Exhibit
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Object ID
2016.0.32.1
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
Material
Paper (Fiber product)
Technique
Gelatin silver process
Printing (Process)
Color
Black-and-white (Colors)
Dimensions
Height: 8.25 in
Width: 6.063 in
Inscriptions
on press release: [...] IT SURMOUNTS ALL OBSTACLES. / The planes of the air mail service maintain their schedules, in the face of all untoward manifestations of the elements, and despite the natural obstacles which beset their paths. Contrasted with the 8 h.p. motor that supplied power for the first Wright "motored" plane, 25 years ago, is the present-day air mail plane that derives its motive force from a 550 h.p. motor, to travel, with a ton or more of mail, at an average speed of 100 miles an hour. The air mail planes traverse the continent, from San Francisco, to New York, in 32 hours. / PHOTO SHOWS:--An "Eagle" of the Air Mail Service winging its sure course over the rugged peaks of the Rockies, on the Eastward trek, from San Francisco.
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