The First Air Mail Flight from the roof of 30th Street Station in Philadelphia PA to Camden NJ.
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Uploaded by PFFCO on Oct 13, 2009
This short film was made possible from some Film archives from my Grandfather. He was present during one of the flights and filmed the flight that day. The first air mail flight from Philadelphia to Camden NJ. The plane was an Kellett KD-1B Auto Gyro. The film starts out with a DC-3 airplane landing and taxiing up to the Auto-gyro to deliver the mail.
It was used to ferry mail from the two points, 10 times a day, for 6 days a week and ended just as World War II had started. In 2007 I had transferred a number of 16mm films to DVD and found this marvelous footage as well as others. I tracked down the pilot by way of the tail number and reached Mr. Miller by phone in 2007. He was 100 years old at the time I believe and still flying.
A phone call and a couple of emails later, I sent him a copy of the footage you see here. It was great to get a chance to talk to him about the event and his flight.
A great website with information and additional photos of Capt. John Miller can be see here at http://www.dmairfield.com/people/miller_jm/index.htm
An additional site with information about the Captain can be found here: http://www.historynet.com/captain-john-miller-test-pilot-of-the-autogiro-and-...
The footage came from these 16mm films my Grand Father had shot. He did the editing and title work back then. Some of his other footage includes the 1939 NY Worlds Fair and some other Famous landmarks in the US.
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Uploader Comments (PFFCO)
All Comments (17)
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The DC-3 must have been landing at Central Airport in Pennsauken, where the Autogiro was heading from 30th St... You can see the Tacony-Palmyra bridge sign in the background late in the clip. Great stuff!!!
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I got to meet Captain Miller at the Oshkosh airshow one year. He came by our booth in hanger c and needed to set down for a bit. He was 98 when I met him, got my picture took with him as well. Thanks for the outstanding video post !
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Beautiful classic autogyro, pure joy to watch.
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It is a DC-3. Both American and Eastern pre-war DC-3's had Wright 1820 radial engines without cowl flaps. While this made the cowling look something like a DC-2 this ship is a DC-3. One can tell by the position of the landing lights (in the nose of a DC-2) and the large size of the vertical stabilizer (smaller on the DC-2).
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I was about to ask if that was a dc2 instead of a DC 3.. great footage..Who today would even wonder why they call that circle the airport circle ?? Love the auto gyro..thanks for sharing this rare footage...
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That is actually a Douglas DC-2 at the beginning of the film, not a DC-3. Note the engine cowling that tells tthe difference... Great Film!
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Fantastic footage! I always heard that the main post office at 30th street was able to accommodate trains, boats and air planes! This was so well done, and the color. Thank goodness it sat in a very well maintained environment out of harms way! This belongs in the Smithsonian!
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That is stunning!!! WOW !!!! Thank you for sharing!!!
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Great job. I just happened to find your copy mentioned in a Cessna170 forum about John. Sorry I missed the mention of Gary's site at the end.
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I'll check out the video. I had only spoken to John and sent him copies of the DVD at the time. I was surprised to be getting email from someone over 100!. My video here came from several 16mm film cans that I had transferred a few years ago. I had no idea of what I had sitting on those reels.
PFFCO 1 year ago
This film was also made available online several years ago along with a lot of information about John.
I knew John for many years and enjoyed hangar-talking with (or mostly listening to) him.
You can also hear my 1 hr. 40 min. recording of his stories from 2007.
Apparently, YouTube does not allow links here. But you can find my recording page which includes a link to the history pages if you Google for 'dutchess pilots john miller'
robbif 1 year ago 2
@robbif I met Gary from DMairfield by way of this video. i started out on google to find out the pilot based on the tail number of the autogyro at the time.
PFFCO 1 year ago