Aviation Meet post card
On November 6, 1911, US Postmaster General Frank H. Hitchcock telegraphed Atlanta Postmaster H. L. McKee. Hitchcock's message authorized McKee to "collect and deliver mail by aeroplane at aviation meet on November sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth, and to establish temporary station at aviation grounds in accordance with plan proposed by Managing Director A. W. Davis, with whom you should immediately confer."
Officials planned the Atlanta Speedway Aviation Meet for those dates (November 16-18, 1911). Lincoln Beachey (1887-1915), Charles Witmer (1882-1929), and Thornwall Andrews, all of the Curtiss Flying School, each carried mail on one or more of these dates. They flew from the postal sub-station at the Speedway to Stewart Avenue, a distance of three miles.
The postmark on this card is a proof strike. The card was not flown.
