James H. Knight

James Herbert "Jack" Knight (March 14, 1892 – February 24, 1945) was an American pilot who made the first overnight transcontinental air mail delivery. Knight was part of an airmail relay team that flew 2,629 miles across the United States on February 22–23, 1921 in an effort to show that the airmail service was much faster than the railroads. When all the other pilots were weathered-in or broken-down, Knight flew extra relay sections through the night in snow and fog and is credited with saving the airmail service from political decommission. "Jack Knight's Night Flight" made him the most famous pilot in America in the era prior to Charles Lindbergh.

Early life Knight was born March 14, 1892, in Lincoln Center, Kansas, as James Herbert Brockett. After his mother died in 1893, he and his sister were raised by their aunt and uncle in Buchanan, Michigan. Knight took on their last name, and also picked up the nick-name "Sky" as a child. He worked in Chicago as a mechanical engineer before joining the United States Army Air Service in 1917 to help fight in World War I. However, newly elected president, Warren Harding, and some Congressmen began to talk openly about ending federal airmail subsidies. Questions of safety of flying the mail were not without merit. In the prior three years 17 airmail service pilots had died in crashes traced to mechanical or weather-related causes.

Consequently, Postmaster General Burleson and his Chief of the Airmail Service Otto Praeger devised a plan to demonstrate airmail's potential. They would have mail flown across the country completely by air, without using the railroad, and chose George Washington's birthday February 22, 1921, for the all-air cross-country test. Fellow pilot Frank Yeager flew the leg from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to North Platte where Knight was waiting, but Knight was delayed while a damaged tailskid was repaired. Knight departed for Omaha, Nebraska, at 10:44pm not knowing that the relief pilot scheduled to meet him in Omaha was stuck in a snowstorm in Chicago. That same storm had also stopped the other westbound pilot, whose mail was being loaded onto a train. Knight was unaware that he was the only pilot left flying and that the future of airmail could depend on him.

Through the cold night he was able to see signal fires lit by post office employees, airfield managers, and even local farmers. "I felt as if I had a thousand friends on the ground, Lexington, Kearney, Grand Island, Columbus, Fremont slipped by, warm glows of well-wishers beneath the plane's wing. And then, I saw the lights of Omaha" he stated about that first leg.

Though Knight was a hero, the feat was a team victory as two other pilots continued on to New York. All together, seven pilots had taken part in the transcontinental flight, taking 33 hours 20 minutes to fly 2,629 miles (3,652 kilometers). Impressed by the feat and by the wide public acclaim, Congress at last appropriated the needed funds for the beleaguered airmail service.

Later life After becoming a household name, Knight worked with the Postal Service and local civic leaders to set up a system of navigational beacons and emergency landing strips. Knight ended up the top airmail pilot with over 417,000 miles flown in the airmail service when it was disbanded on September 1, 1927, and put out for bids to the private sector. Knight had a vacation cottage in Dune Acres, Indiana, on the shores of Lake Michigan.