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Feb
09

The First Air Mail Flight from the roof of the Post Office @ 30th Street in Phila PA to Camden NJ.

This short film was made possible from some Film archives from my Grandfather. He was present during one of the flights and filmed the flight that day. The f…

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  1. Rich Eaton says:

    That was fantastic! The best vintage gyro footage I’ve ever seen. 

  2. Joseph Tricarico says:

    Cool video, but it’s not 30th St. Station. This was the Post Office, which
    now belongs to the IRS.

  3. AnonaMousetookmaname says:

    I can’t thank you enough for sharing this marvelous piece of history. Thank
    you for your diligence. Amazing to look this far into the past and glimpse
    the promise of the future.

  4. RealWorldDesign says:

    Fantastic to see. I am here courtesy of James Chiles’ great book The God
    Machine which I’m reading. He describes how he met Miller at his house in
    Poughkeepsie when Miller was aged 99 and quoting from p85 of the book
    “Miller showed me a home movie of the rooftop comings and goings taken by a
    friend” I figured I might find that footage on YT and luckily I was right !
    PFFCO. it seems quite clear that Miller played Chiles the very DVD you sent
    him about a year before Chiles arrived. – Dean

  5. Curt Hudson says:

    The DC-3 must have been landing at Central Airport in Pennsauken, where the
    Autogiro was heading from 30th St… You can see the Tacony-Palmyra bridge
    sign in the background late in the clip. Great stuff!!!

  6. PFFCO says:

    I’ll check out the video. I had only spoken to John and sent him copies of
    the DVD at the time. I was surprised to be getting email from someone over
    100!. My video here came from several 16mm film cans that I had transferred
    a few years ago. I had no idea of what I had sitting on those reels.

  7. edlizard says:

    This is too cool. Thanks for sharing!

  8. erelprivat says:

    I was about to ask if that was a dc2 instead of a DC 3.. great footage..Who
    today would even wonder why they call that circle the airport circle ??
    Love the auto gyro..thanks for sharing this rare footage…

  9. Aprilmarcloud says:

    Beautiful classic autogyro, pure joy to watch.

  10. VanHustler says:

    My father-in-law used to work at the 30th Street Station as a postman for
    yrs. He told me there was a time when planes used to land on the roof. I
    didn’t believe him until I saw this footage. Great video….thanks!

  11. rivetguru says:

    Excellent quality. Thank you for posting.

  12. Fred Robbins says:

    This film was also made available online several years ago along with a lot
    of information about John. I knew John for many years and enjoyed
    hangar-talking with (or mostly listening to) him. You can also hear my 1
    hr. 40 min. recording of his stories from 2007. Apparently, YouTube does
    not allow links here. But you can find my recording page which includes a
    link to the history pages if you Google for ‘dutchess pilots john miller’

  13. Fred Robbins says:

    Great job. I just happened to find your copy mentioned in a Cessna170 forum
    about John. Sorry I missed the mention of Gary’s site at the end.

  14. David Vanderhoof says:

    That is stunning!!! WOW !!!! Thank you for sharing!!!

  15. Don Dugas says:

    @rivetguru I enjoyed watching this video very much. Thanks for posting it.
    I was born in 1939 so the video was made the same year. Memories!!

  16. BushPilot444 says:

    Great. Only way it could possibly be better would be if the original sound
    had been preserved.

  17. ntesla66 says:

    I got to meet Captain Miller at the Oshkosh airshow one year. He came by
    our booth in hanger c and needed to set down for a bit. He was 98 when I
    met him, got my picture took with him as well. Thanks for the outstanding
    video post !

  18. oldgafirefighter says:

    That is actually a Douglas DC-2 at the beginning of the film, not a DC-3.
    Note the engine cowling that tells tthe difference… Great Film!

  19. Mark Conti says:

    Fantastic footage! I always heard that the main post office at 30th street
    was able to accommodate trains, boats and air planes! This was so well
    done, and the color. Thank goodness it sat in a very well maintained
    environment out of harms way! This belongs in the Smithsonian!

  20. Giovanniram22 says:

    Great video and also the first landing! The second one maybe because of the
    video operator wasnt good :-)

  21. DC9727737757 says:

    AWESOME !!!!!!!!!

  22. PFFCO says:

    @robbif I met Gary from DMairfield by way of this video. i started out on
    google to find out the pilot based on the tail number of the autogyro at
    the time.

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