Flymall Wheels & Wings Newsletter August 2023

Tuesday, August 29th, 2023

Welcome to the Kraemer Aviation/Flymall.org Wheels & Wings Newsletter. This month our theme is “Overnight Delivery”. We have a little history on both UPS and Federal Express (FedEx).

You can view past newsletters here.

Interested in living at an airport?  Visit our Aviation Real Estate page here. You can view price data for airport property in our Market Watch section of the Flymall. Here is the data for all airport property. You can refine the search by “state” simply by searching for the desired state under “Model”.

Want to have your business highlighted on the Flymall???  We offer inexpensive rates to have your business featured on our Wheels & Wings page.  Contact us for more info.

History Trivia: We all know of UPS, how many know how this global company started? All the back to 1907, two teenage entrepreneurs had an idea that would become the world’s largest package delivery service. They started in a Seattle basement with a $100 loan. These two were Claude Ryan and Jim Casey. With this loan, they opened the American Messenger Company. They started by delivering telegrams and running errands for customers. They even walked dogs for their clients. By 1919, the company had expanded beyond Seattle to Oakland, California, where they started using the name United Parcel Service. That same year, the company painted the company’s vehicles its signature color brown, representing class, sophistication and professionalism. Brown was picked because it would not show the dirt and because the Pullman railroad cars were also brown, and they represented high class and elegance. By 1975, UPS became the first package delivery company to serve every address in the continental U.S. And by 1985, UPS Next Day Air service became the first air delivery network to reach every address in the 48-contiguous states, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. And in 1988, UPS won approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operate its own aircraft, launching UPS Airlines.

If you enjoy history we have a new aviation history fact each day at the bottom of our webpages.  Some days there may be more than one, just refresh the page.  And if you like Beatles history, checkout our Events Calendar and select the Beatles category.  This is a work in progress, we’re building the most comprehensive calendar of important dates in Beatle history.  For those that like to stick with current news, we have an aviation news ticker on our home page.  This is updated daily to show the current aviation news.

Was an August 1901 flight by Connecticut aviation pioneer Gustave Whitehead (pictured below) the first successful powered flight in history? It was in the summer of 1901 that Whitehead flew his airplane, which he called the Condor. In the early hours of 14 August 1901, the Condor propelled itself along the darkened streets of Bridgeport, Connecticut, with Whitehead, his staff and an invited guest in attendance. In the still air of dawn, the Condor’s wings were unfolded and it took off from open land at Fairfield, 15 miles from the city, and performed two demonstration sorties. The second was estimated as having covered 1½ miles at a height of 50 feet, during which slight turns in both directions were demonstrated.

Achievements & Special Recognition: This month we’re giving some special recognition to Harry’s friend Nir Blumenfeld whom passed his flight instructor checkride earlier this month. Nir is going to make an outstanding flight instructor.

Instructors, what to highlight your students first solo or other achievement here?  Just send us a short write-up and a picture or two and we’ll post it here for you.  Click here for our contact info.

Aviation/Aviators in the news: Last month was the annual EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh Wisconsin. Here’s some stats from this year’s event.

The aviation section of the Flymall is full of aviation news, training info, and much more for the aviator.

Let’s go way back to August 18, 1984, Harry received his first flight (logged flight lesson). He had been flying in general aviation aircraft since the 1960s. It was on this day, that he received his first flight lesson, and the rest is history. His first lesson was in N2346V, a Piper Tomahawk (pictured below).

Air show season is always just around the corner.  Want to travel to air shows in your own aircraft?  Visit our used aircraft page on the Flymall to view our inventory.

Car/Motorcycle Show News:   The Laytonsville Cruise In is the place to be on a Friday night in Montgomery County.  The Laytonsville Cruise In was started by Harry in 2010. It has become one of the most popular cruise ins in the area. You can follow Harry on Facebook for daily updates during the many shows and events he attends.

August 18 was an award night at the Laytonsville Cruise In. Click here for pictures of our award winners.

Our Events Calendar has the most current info regarding local and national car shows, air shows, and more.  With nearly 30 categories, there is something for everyone.  The Day Tripper section of the Flymall has dozens of day trip ideas and interesting places to visit.  Check it out here.

August 26 1967: On this day in 1967, at the age of 68 and on a 47-year-old bike, Burt Munro set a new World Record in the Flying One Mile Class S-A 1000cc! His average speed of 183.586mph remains unbroken.

Barn Finds/Hangar Finds:  Need an appraisal on your barn find?  Visit our Appraisal Page for information on our appraisals. 

While not exactly a barn find, here is the original (the plane which had carried the first Federal Express package) Federal Express Falcon 20 Jet. It now resides at the Udvar-Hazy Center.

When aviation businessman Frederick W. Smith was seeking an ideal aircraft with which to launch his new business, Federal Express; Smith soon identified the Falcon 20 as showing promise for his purposes, noting the availability of unsold aircraft due to an economic downturn and its atypically strong fuselage, the latter factor lending itself well to cargo operations.

It was in 1965 that Frederick W. Smith wrote a term paper at Yale University proposing a revolutionary way to accommodate time-sensitive shipments. Smith received an average grade on this term paper. On April 17, 1973: Federal Express began operations in Memphis, Tennessee, with 389 team members. That night, 14 aircraft delivered 186 packages to 25 U.S. cities.

Visit our online store to search for hard to find car parts, aircraft parts, and much more.  You can pay online in our secure store, just click on the Store button on our home page.

Visit the Test Drive section of the Flymall for reviews on automobiles, aircraft, motorcycles, and more. Read about it before you buy it.  You can also research price info on a wide variety of vehicles, collectibles, and more in the Market Watch section of the Flymall. 

If you’re restoring a fabric aircraft, Ira Walker of Walker Aviation is your resource.  Visit his page on the Flymall by clicking here. 

CFI / DPE Notes:  Visit Harry’s Practical Test page for information on his checkrides.  You will also find useful information there to help you prepare for your checkride.  You can also visit Harry’s Lesson Plan section of the Flymall for other flight training information.  Visit our Flight Training page for information on our aviation training classes.

Weather in the news: On August 7 of this month, the Mid-Atlantic region had a major storm system move through the area that brought heavy thunderstorms.

And there was 2 more lines of storms after the first one passed.

And as hurricane season is heading into it’s peak time, in late August we had 2 tropical systems affecting the states.

Three Wheel Association (TWA) & 3-Wheelers.com:  Harry started the Three Wheel Association in 2013 to promote/support the industry of three wheel vehicles of all types. Visit the Three Wheel Association page on the Flymall for more info on the association. The “NEW” 3-Wheelers.com site is up and running. Check it out here.

Here’s the latest addition to our collection of rare and unusual 3 wheelers. Its a pedal powered dragster. Click here for more information.

Want a reproduction vintage 3 wheeler.  Walker Aviation can scratch built from pictures or drawings.  Visit his page on the Flymall.  

Prototypes: Federal Express founder, Frederick W. Smith, was the son of James Frederick “Fred” Smith, the founder of the Toddle House restaurant chain and the Smith Motor Coach Company (renamed the Dixie Greyhound Lines after The Greyhound Corporation bought a controlling interest in 1931). The Dixie Greyhound Lines (GL) began in 1925 in Memphis (on the Mississippi River and in the southwest corner of Tennessee) as the Smith Motor Coach Company, when James Frederick Smith, a former (and successful) truck salesman, received a used truck as a gift from his previous employer (John Fisher, a dealer, who owned the Memphis Motor Company).

Here’s a 1954 GM Scenicruiser, designed by Raymond Loewy and manufactured exclusively for Greyhound. In our research for this newsletter, we tried to find a picture of the very first coach built by Fred Smith, however, we could not find one.

Nautical Notes: Earlier in August, the Flymall team was at the Annapolis Sailing School earning their American Sailing Association 101 Certification. The weather was perfect. Two days were spent on the Chesapeake Bay sailing a 24 foot keelboat.

Pictures from day 1 of sailing school.

Pictures from day 2 of sailing school.

Pictures from day 3 of sailing school.

The Flymall team also received a PADI scuba refresher course/certification this month. We have some exciting dive trips planned. Flying, boating, and diving!

The Flymall team did a quarry dive earlier (August 25-26) this month in Lake Phoenix in Rawlings VA. Click here for more pictures.

The Flymall team arrived in Blackstone on Friday August 25 and enjoyed a nice dinner at 101 on Main Eatery and Pub. The building was built in 1900. Here’s a picture of the bar.

The team stayed in an old college for girls that was built in 1890 and recently converted into an Inn. It is now known as the Inn at Blackstone. Click here for more pictures of the Inn at Blackstone and some other historic buildings in town.

The visibility in Lake Phoenix was excellent. Click here for pictures of the dive.

There were lots of fish in the lake and they were not shy of the divers. Click here for more pictures of some of the fish in the lake.

Here’s a topside overview of the lake. Click here for more pictures.

Click here for Harry’s YouTube video montage of the dive highlights.

Riding The Rails: Fast Mail (MILW train) was an overnight delivery train service. The Fast Mail was a train service operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (the “Milwaukee Road”) on an overnight schedule between Chicago, Illinois, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Native American Indian Transportation: Since were featuring overnight delivery this month and this section is about native American Indian transportation, here’s an American Indian owned transportation business. Tribe Transportation is owned by a female native American Indian. The company even created Tomahawk Truck Sales to help their drivers to become owner operator via another one of their companies called Cherokee National. This seems like an excellent company to work for.

Animals in the headlines: Long before we had overnight delivery via jets and state of the art trucks, America had a very famous delivery know as the 1925 serum run to Nome. One of the most famous dogs from the 1925 serum run was Balto. Balto (1919 – March 14, 1933) was an Alaskan husky and sled dog belonging to musher and breeder Leonhard Seppala. He achieved fame when he led a team of sled dogs driven by Gunnar Kaasen on the final leg of the 1925 serum run to Nome. Pictured below is Balto with Gunnar Kaasen, his musher in the 1925 Serum Run.

On August 26, we celebrated National Dog Day.

We close this newsletter with these words: Here are some words of wisdom from John Lennon. “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”