After landing his D.H.4 safely at a Midwestern airfield in the face of

a fast-brewing storm, a United States mail pilot clambers out of the

cockpit as ground crew unload his cargo. In this authentically de-

tailed scene of the airmail s early years by French aviation artist

Paul Lengelle, a postal clerk checks the mailbags and packages

against a manifest before they are loaded into the waiting truck.

Meanwhile, as lightning strikes over the hangar, a second pilot

circles to land the de Havilland he had taken up for an engine test.