Travel Air 4000 captured by Nikon Z 9 / Z180-600f6.3
Early flight was in large part financed by moving mail around the country. Something we take for granted today, airmail took the lives of many, many pilots in the beginning. They had no maps, no navigational aids so they flew during daylight hours only. You can see on this Travel Air 4000 two large fixtures on the upper wing. Those were early landing lights. Not even as bright as our headlights on cars today, it was an advance. The dirt fields they landed on (if they had a strip), though, had no landing lights. Those early pilots persevered and got the mail through and pioneered the skies for us today. Gotta love the style!