Letter from W. B. Mayo to A. B. Pease regarding the First Contract Air Mail Flight (CAM-6), February 15, 1926

After operating air mail flights itself for eight years, the U.S. Post Office Department contracted with commercial air carriers in 1926. The first two contract routes, connecting Detroit with Cleveland and Chicago, were awarded to Ford Air Transport, Ford Motor Company's airline subsidiary. Ford planes carried more than 32,000 pounds of mail before the contract ended in July 1928.