Bryan's Air Mail Field began operations on September 6, 1918, as one of Ohio's first official airfields when a survey flight arrived to establish air mail service between New York and Chicago. Scheduled service began on July 1, 1919, and extended west to San Francisco on September 8, 1920, completing the 2,666 mile U.S. transcontinental air mail route. Flying the Curtiss JN-4H "Jenny," R-4, Standard JR-1B, and later the De Havilland DH-4, aviators pioneered cross-continental flight in open cockpit biplanes without radios or electronic navigational aids and reduced coast-to-coast mail delivery from 87 hours by rail to 33 hours by air. The field was relocated 1.5 miles north of this site on July 1, 1924, in preparation for overnight mail service and the first scheduled night flights through Bryan on July 1, 1925. By May 1926, more efficient air mail planes began to overfly Bryan, and the field was reduced to serving as an emergency landing site. On September 1, 1927, the Post Office Department relinquished control of the transcontinental route to private contractors, and Bryan's role in air mail service officially ended. The field and the aeropost flights became part of aviation's heritage for their vital roles in advancing air commerce and charting a course for the future of global air transportation.