The Air Mail Mystery (1932 Serial)

With the advent of the telephone, it is hard to appreciate the importance of posted letters. People were writing letters to one another from the time writing was first developed, but for centuries the delivery of letters was rather hit-or-miss.

Many kingdoms and nation-states established postal services for internal use, but these services were rarely reliable. Great Britain's Royal Mail Service underwent a major reformation in the nineteenth century which included the Uniform Penny Post. For a small fee, paid by the sender, mail could be sent between any two locations in the British Isles and the Government assumed responsibility for the safety of the mail. In the United States, President George Washington signed the law which established the United States Postal Department in 1792.

Even with these government actions, mail could only be delivered as fast as a sailing ship, animal, or a man's two legs could carry it. Mail became more reliable when the industrial revolution brought steamships and railroads, but getting information from one side of the ocean to the other, or across the country, was a long process.

Wilbur and Orville Wright's experiments with heavier-than-air craft were little more than a mechanical curiosity until Air Mail Services were established less than a decade after their first flight. The early years of aviation were hampered by the dare-devil reputation of pilots, and airplanes were still too small for practical passenger service.

Carrying the mail in an airplane was fraught with risks. Not only were there the normal dangers of flying in all weather conditions, but the sacred trust of carrying the mail set standards almost impossibly high. Not to mention the incredible profits that a flyer or a nascent airline could realize by landing a lucrative government mail contract.

Any fan of hard-boiled detective stories can tell you that wherever there are big profits, a bad element is bound to show up to try to take advantage. That is just the situation that Bruce Ells and Associates Syndicators needed to the serial of The Airmail Mystery. The action begins in the offices of TransAmerican Airlines at Metropolitan Airport where the general manager Ernest Powers is understandably upset over the company's third wrecked airplane in as many weeks. Trying to get to the bottom of the mystery, Powers fires Fitzgerald, the newly hired night mechanic who is responsible for checking the ships before they take off with the mail. Pilot Andy Andrews reports over the radio before parachuting to safety that his motor cut out over Devil's Canyon, the location of the other crashes

Girl operative Irene Delroy from the US Justice Department comes into the office to begin her investigation, along with roving reporter Jimmy Gifford. Miss Delroy reveals that in addition to the mailbags, each of the wrecked ships was carrying valuable and untraceable United States Treasury documents, all of which are missing from the wreckage.

Over the course of the investigation, we discover that pilot Andrews was the pilot in the other wrecks, mechanic Fitzgerald is actually Miss DelRoy's assistant working undercover, and that newspaperman Gifford is in love with Irene!

For other aviation adventure series, see also: Air Adventures of Jimmy Allen, Airplanes and Pilots in Old Time Radio, Anne of the Airlines, Air Stories of the World War, Captain Midnight,Hop Harrigan, Howie Wing, A Saga of Aviation, Rare Aviation Old Time Radio Shows, Sky King, Speed Gibson, Tailspin Tommy, Terry & the Pirates, Sky King, Sky Blazers , Charles Lindbergh Recordings, Amelia Earhart,  and Smilin' Jack.

See also: Mail Carriers in Old Time Radio Compilation