centennial
The first cargo flight
In late autumn 1910, an Ohio businessman approached Wilbur and Orville Wright with an idea to gain publicity for his store. The deal that was arranged between the brothers and the businessman led to the first known air cargo shipment – and that was 100 years ago on 7 November
K
een to generate publicity for his dry goods store, Ohio businessman Max Morehouse approached the Wright Company, formed by the aviation pioneers, with the proposition to fly 200lb (90.7kg) of silk cloth by air.
Morehouse knew that there would be a great deal of
media attention to be drawn from attaching his business to the new craze of flying in the air and, recognising themselves the value of their invention, the Wright Brothers reportedly charged him a fee of US$5,000 for the flight – a small fortune at the time, representing about $150,000 in today’s money. In the cold morning temperature of 7 November 2010, a
young aviator from Michigan named Phil Parmelee flew a Wright Model B aircraft at an altitude of some 2,000ft (600 metres), using the sun and railroad tracks to plot his path. The flight took off from the aircraft company’s testing
grounds at Huffman Prairie Flying Field, where the Wrights had experimented in 1904-05 after their initial powered flights at Kitty Hawk. The final destination was Columbus, about 60 miles (100km) away, with a landing planned at the Columbus Driving Park (now the site of Rickenbacker International airport). Air Logistics China is not aware of any earlier example of money changing hands for the transportation of goods by
44 AIR LOGISTICSCHINA Approaching Columbus with skyline in distance
air – the flight was therefore the world’s first commercial air cargo service, the birth of today’s business. Wilbur and Orville Wright “knew the speed of flying was
important in delivering certain types of cargo”, comments Wright family descendent Amanda Wright Lane on the National Aviation Heritage Alliance website that describes
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