Beacon Field Airport®

March 19, 2022 – Historic Beacon Field

Sadly this past week, Mt. Erin, one of the most iconic brick historic homes and estates in the Beacon area was unceremoniously demolished after standing for more than 200 years.  Listed on the Fairfax County History Commission's Inventory of Historic Sites, the Mt Erin estate included 74 acres of which became Beacon Field Airport.

Mt Erin touts one of the most colorful, turbulent, and vibrant history of any estate in the area.   The 19^th century recorded suspected murder, arsenic poisoning, fraud, arson, neighbor disputes, timber theft, vociferous litigation, cyclone, and a tragic 1864 US Army cannon misfire that killed two children on the estate.     

Thomas Tracy, a respected master music teacher at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, bought the 362 acres in 1811 from James Irwin who operated a ropewalk on the property.   Tracy held Mt. Erin to his death in 1821, whereupon passed to his nephew on the condition he became a US citizen.   The nephew died eight years later leaving his estate to wife and family.   The Mt Erin property ownership was contested and turmoil ensued.  

Mt Erin was home to the 50 acre Mount Vernon race track that operated in the mid-1800’s complete with club house for eating and drinking.  Considerable activity was reported in the local newspapers but the racetrack did not prevail.

Ultimately the Tracy estate was formally divided into sizeable parcels, the largest of which was bought 1855 by Samuel Pulman who set the example according to the Alexandria Gazette, as “the best cultivated farm in the county….where all of the best labor saving machinery is used” to run the fifty cow dairy farm.  The Pulman’s hosted evening dinners and “sewing bees” attended by local well known families to benefit the church.    

Mount Comfort Cemetery, Virginia Hills Subdivision, and Beacon Centre are just a few of the modern day sites that occupy what was historic Mount Erin.

Mount Erin had many owners and its’ history is rich with intrigue, mystery, and grand prominence that seems worthy of a ten-part mini-series “Moonlight at Mount Erin”….

Airmail Pilots: The Bravest of the Brave!

Part 2

The Army flies the mail of Scandal !

Historic Beacon Field, 28 May 2019 ---      

U.S. Army pilots flew the first official airmail-carrying flights from the Washington, D.C. polo field to New York city as well as the return flights in their "Jenny" biplanes.  This was May 15,1918, and the U. S. Army Air Corps flew the mail for about 3 months as the USPO had not yet finalized their pilot teams and airplanes.  Beginning August 12, 1918, the USPO took over the entire airmail service with their civilian pilots (salary $4,000 per year) & mechanics using six Standard Aircraft Corp. JR-1B biplanes (300 lbs. of mail & 60 gallons of avgas!).  Later, the Washington polo field was abandoned in favor of the larger airport at College Park, MD., from which the mail was flown to Philadelphia (Camden, NJ).

         A couple of years later, the "Roaring Twenties" brought a near decade of economic prosperity that was so great that many thought it would never end.  This period had increased development and use of cars, radio and movies, telephones, and electrification bringing appliances to American homes.  Aviation became big business and the demand for air mail greatly increased.

About this same time frame, the Congress realized that the U.S. aviation industry needed support to "catch-up" with advancing European technology and it passed several government Acts to achieve this end by providing funding to the aviation industry thru USPO contracts to carry the U.S. Air Mail.                  

         The first of several U.S. Government actions to promote air mail was the "Contract Air Mail Act of 1925", February 2,1925, aka "Kelly Act" named for Clyde Kelly(R-PA), authorized the Post Master General (PMG) to contract with private citizens or companies for the carriage of mail by aircraft.  This act provided bidding for smaller airmail routes where contractors were paid $3.00 per pound for the first 1000 miles flown.

The "Air Commerce Act of 1926",it's most important result was that the Army established the U.S. Army Air Corps in July, 1926. Civilian aviation went under the authority of the Commerce Department which became the regulator of the air carrier companies that were contracted under the "Kelly Act". 

Mr. Walter F. Brown (R-PA, PMG 1929-1933) requested Congress to provide him expanded authority for contracts with airmail carriers. The "Air Mail Act of 1930" provided him with near unlimited and stronger authority for the execution of air mail contracts.

General Brown now had the authority to grant a ten-year exclusive contract to carriers based upon their mail carrying-capacity rather than the actual amount of airmail carried!!  He was also empowered to change airmail contracts and mail routes at his whim. 

         Collusion? Almost immediately after the 1930 Act was approved, General Brown held meetings in Washington, DC., to discuss new air mail contracts and he selected his friend, Mr. William MacCracken, Jr. then Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aviation, to be chairman of these meetings.

         Only select larger companies were invited to these secretive gatherings where Brown directed that he wanted 3 coast-to-coast routes with only one company operating each route.  "Spoils Conference" was the name later given to these meetings by the press as only three airline companies were awarded the majority of the airmail routes.  Having an air mail contract was necessary for an airline company to turn a profit, as it wasn't until the 1936 introduction of the DC-3 airliner that selling passenger seats would provide adequate profit for the airlines. 

For his contempt of Congress, the Senate sentenced MacCracken to 10 days in the Washington, D.C. jail which he finally served after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his plea.  MacCracken later became a lawyer for the airlines.

         Senator Black's hearings (September, 1933) called public attention to the illegality of General Brown's actions and contracts with pre-selected airlines for carriage of U.S. mails.  From 1929 thru early 1934 the USPO revenue from selling air mail stamps was $54,000,000 dollars while $82,000,000 dollars were paid to fourteen mail air transport companies. The difference of 28 million dollars was considered a gift to the industry for their improvement of the country's aviation infrastructure (they actually spent that money on stock dividends and high salaries).  Evidence was uncovered that pointed to criminality, collusion, and fraud by the airlines with the Hoover government (aka the "Air Mail Scandal" of 1934).  Following this revelation FDR issued Executive Order 6591, February 9, 1934, in which he declared an emergency and directed James Farley, the new PMG to annul the airmail contracts with the airlines. 

Adapting the Army airplanes to fly the mail brought about an unforeseen consequence as most Army airplanes required a two-man crew to safety operate it.  This meant there was a very high probability that both crew members would be killed in a crash.  History bore this out as most crashes took both lives.  The weather in February, 1934, could hardly be worst for flying with snow and ice storms both with an abundance of wind gusts, the last time an Army pilot flew a mail route was in fair weather back in 1918, and Army pilots were not accustomed to long flights as combat flights were much shorter. 

         Early in the Army pilot training for airmail flights three pilots were killed followed by another two pilots killed and six injured during the mail flights.  March 11, 1934, brought the news that the AACMO had 66 airplane crashes or forced landings with 12 deaths of Army pilots. Public outcry was fierce and FDR directed the Army flights of the U.S. Airmail to be halted.  The Army flew the mail again on March 19,1934, maintaining a reduced schedule thru May 8, 1934, with the last official Army mail flight on June 6, 1934.  To the Army's credit, 777,389 pieces of mail were carried over 1.5 million miles!

         The government moved quickly to return the airmail service to private contractors, mostly the airlines, by the "Airmail Act of 1934", June 12, 1934.  Payment rates for carrying the U.S. Mail were reduced and bidding returned to private contractors(airlines) with a new and fairer set of rules.  Bidding for the mail contracts was more competitive with former contractors not being allowed to submit bids.  Some air mail contractors restructured and others merely changed their names: American Airways became American Airlines, Boeing became United Airlines, and Eastern Air Transport became Eastern Air Lines.  On the government side this act divided regulation of air mail between the Post Office, the Commerce Department, and the Interstate Commerce Department.

From June, 1934, the U.S. Airmail was carried by airlines on both domestic and overseas routes to all parts of the world. The early airmail romance such as pilot's silk scarfs were replaced by pilot's brief cases and the risks were reduced ten-fold by flying multi-engine metal airplanes. Airmail met its demise when the USPO terminated the separate classification of "airmail", on October 11, 1975, and declared that ALL First Class mail was to be carried by air at the first class rate for United States destinations.

The saga of the U.S. government changing airmail carriers provided many opportunities for airmail stamp collectors (Aerophilately) who prized the many different covers (envelopes) that were produced as the carriage of airmail bounced between the Army and the airlines!

The end of "airmail" as we knew it!  

Piercing example of light trespass from parking lot light 300 ft into kitchen window

However, our casual observation in the Beacon Hill area reveals many non-compliant light fixtures producing abhorrent glare, rabid cases of light trespass beyond property lines into residences, missing fixture shields, and unnecessary “always on” artificial lighting (and we are not talking about holiday lights).    While it is highly improbable that the Beacon area will ever have a true “dark sky”, it is reasonable to expect that existing lighting standards and ordinances should be enforced.    

A wealth of information exists online on ways to curb the negative impacts of artificial lights in commercial as well as the home environment.   Sadly, many large cities have moved towards bright white LED lights to save money rather than the low pressure sodium technology that is preferred for dark sky protection.   To learn more, start with the National Optical Astronomy Observatory and check out the Quality Lighting Teaching Kit  videos and postcards by clicking here.  More of our favorite websites below.