First helicopter airmail
This Saturday, 1 June, marks 76 years since the first attempted delivery of mail by helicopter.
Watch this fantastic British Pathé film showing the flight.
At the start of 1948 (only months after the first aerial demonstration by British European Airways), BEA started dummy mail-run services in Dorset and Somerset. The Sikosrsky S-51s travelled a 115-mile route in just under two hours including stops. These trials achieved timekeeping within the five-minute tolerance demanded by the General Post Office (GPO).
The story then moves to the east of England. The success of the dummy mail-runs led to BEA inaugurating the first helicopter-operated public mail service in the UK. On 1 June 1948 Captain John Theilmann with a Royal Mail pennant flew a S-51 from Peterborough to King’s Lynn, Wells, Sheringham, Cromer, Norwich, Thetford, Diss, Harleston, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Beccles, Norwich again, and East Dereham before returning to Peterborough. 140lb of mail was transported.
These flights clearly prompted interest along the route. In a report from 15 June the pilot requests: ‘Policemen or some such other authority required to exercise some control over the overconfident casualness of increasing hordes of children at Norwich’.
Flights continued until 25 September 1948 by which time 38,046 lb of mail had been carried and 95% of the flights rostered had been completed.
A letter from Midland Region Assistant Postal Controller, W K Mackenzie gives a flavour of what a flight was like: ‘Probably the most important point about the run was the effect on the pilot. We have, of course, heard that helicopters are unstable and not easy to fly’.
On 17 October 1949 the night helicopter service first carried real mail between Peterborough and Norwich, continuing until 15 March 1950. Dr G S Hislop writing in Flight in January 1953 commented: ‘It really was a night operation, as anyone who know East Anglia will appreciate. There are precious few ground lights about in that area in the small hours of the morning’.
These flights were the first time in the world when a helicopter was approved for instrument flight. The challenge of flying at night reduced punctuality – a problem given that night was the main time for moving mail.
Although purely postal helicopters didn’t continue beyond 1950 we can now imagine a future of parcel delivery by drone, as Royal Mail has been trialling, of course.
Admission to The Postal Museum for Royal Mail colleagues, family members and friends is just £1 and includes all exhibitions, activities and a ride on Mail Rail. Email bookings@postalmuseum.org to reserve your place and visit postalmuseum.org for more details.
