When you think about commercial flight today, it's easy to look past the fact that most of the airlines really began because of the need to send mail over long distances. The Airmail Act of 1925 made this possible by authorizing the Postmaster General to contract out the work to the private sector. Due to this act, by mid - 1927, an effective commercial airline system was providing reliable mail service by air (Smithsonian, 2007). This act added some efficiency to the lack-luster air transportation system (Smithsonian, 2007).
Then, later the Air Commerce Act of 1926 was developed, which started the Aeronautics branch of the Commerce Department. Today, the Aeronautics Branch is now referred to as the Federal Aviation Administration, and somewhere in the middle it was known as the Federal Aviation Agency. Either way, without these acts aviation as a whole, today, would be vastly different.
The Air Commerce Act also regulated the licensing and certification of all pilots, and ensured they were fit to fly passengers. This made sure if people were to put their lives in the hands of pilots, that the government would certify that they were fit to do so.
Today, without that legislation, i'm sure that many more people, to include pilots and passengers would have died in that timeframe. In the early 1900s the conditions were hazardous and the lawlessness was profound. These acts were the first step to shape the world of Aviation into what we see and know today.
References:
Airlines Take Over Carrying the Mail. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. (2007).
https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/america-by-air/online/early_years15.cfm
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