Lustlig Sky Train , USA

To highlight the postal item depicted above, I think its better to reproduce the Chicago times of August 4, 1034 news article on this , as below:

FIRST SKY TRAIN COMPLETES TRIP TO CAPITAL CITYAug 4, 1934
FIRST SKY TRAIN COMPLETES TRIP TO CAPITAL CITY

Cuts. Loose Last Glider

Near White House.

Washington, D. C.. Aug. 3.

The first sky train came through today a bit behind schedule but after ,what Jack O'Meara, who arranged the flight, called a " perfectly successful " one despite that two days were con- sumed in switching off gliders be- tween here and New York.

After a detail of park police, newspaper men, and a sizeable crowd of curious onlookers bad waited several hours yesterday and today, the single motored biplane with its one remaining glider in tow appeared high up over the. White House. It circled widely once and cut loose a mail-laden glider. O'Meara brought the glider to a smooth landing on the ellipse just south of the White Rouse grounds after circling half a dozen times to reduce his momentum.

Runs Into Storm.

Forty minutes before, the plane piloted by Elwood Keinm, had left Baltimore, where it had to refuel after dropping off glider No. 2 piloted by Stanley Smith, the 1933 glider champion. The nearly two hour flight to Baltimore was delayed when the sky train ran Into a storm yesterday south of Philadelphia, where it had cut loose the first of the three trailing gliders, piloted by Dr. R. E. Franklin, glider designer and professor of aeronautics at the University of Michigan.

Each glider carried approximately 4,000 letters bearing special cachets but not officially recognized by the postoffIce department. That is, the pilot of each glider had to take his sack of stamped but uncancelled mail to the where he landed and mail the philatelic packets. Had it been official mail, it would have borne New York postmarks, but the department ruled there was no law permit. ting it to authorize mail carrying by gliders.

Flight Called Success.

"The flight was a thorough success from every standpoint." said O'Meara as he chatted with Elias Lustig, president of the company that promoted the flight.

" Despite severe weather we en- countered, we dropped off the gliders at the three stations as planned. That was the important thing. as that is what we had set out to do.

" I think sky trains really now have a place in aviation, and from now on a expect to do a lot of development work along that line."

The gliders were coupled tandem or train fashion, by steel cables fed through reels on the nose of each glider. The gliders were kept around 200 feet apart with the first one 450 feet from the tow plane. O'Meara estimated the gross weight of each glider at 550 pounds.

The plane tomorrow will pick up the three gliders for a return trip to Floyd Bennett field."