On May 15, 1918, the United States launched its first official airmail service between Washington, D.C. and New York City. President Woodrow Wilson attended the launch ceremony. The chosen pilot, Lieutenant George Boyle, climbed into his Jenny biplane, started the engine, and promptly flew south instead of north. He had followed railroad tracks heading the wrong direction. He ran out of fuel and crash-landed in a Maryland field about 25 miles from where he started. It was not the impressive debut the Post Office had hoped for. Other pilots completed the route successfully that same day. The experiment proved that airplanes could carry mail faster than trains. A letter that took 22 hours by rail could arrive in about 3 hours by air. Within two years, the Post Office established a transcontinental airmail route stretching from New York to San Francisco. Pilots flew the mail during the day and loaded it onto trains at night. By 1924, they were flying around the clock, guided by huge bonfires and rotating beacon lights placed every ten miles across the country. These early airmail routes became the foundation for commercial passenger airlines. The pilots who flew the mail -- often in open-cockpit planes through storms and over mountains -- were among the most skilled and daring aviators of their era.