US Postal Service DH-4B over New York (c1925)

Описание: The U.S. Post Office adopted the Airco DH-4 to carry air mail.

The Service acquired 100 of them from the army in 1918, and retrofitted them to make them safer, denominating them as the DH.4B. In 1919, the DH-4B was standardised by the US Post Office, being modified to be flown from the rear cockpit with a 400 lb (180 kg) watertight mail compartment replacing the forward cockpit. The airmail DH-4B were later modified with revised landing gear and an enlarged rudder.

DH-4s were used to establish a coast-to-coast, transcontinental airmail service, between San Francisco and New York, a distance of 2,680 mi (4,310 km), involving night flight, the first services starting on 21 August 1924. The DH-4 continued in Post Office service until 1927, when the last airmail routes were passed to private contractors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airco_DH.4

From the archives of the San Diego Air and Space Museum