Timeline of Air Cargo

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File:World's first air cargo freight flight arriving at Columbus Driving Park on November 7, 1910 photograph - DPLA - 937251bc47d6a1ba8cbb5c8eb9fee664 (page 1).jpg
World's first air cargo freight flight arriving at Columbus, Ohio, United States, on November 7, 1910
File:Stamp of India - 2011 - Colnect 567276 - Centenary of World s First Airmail Flight.jpeg
Stamp of India - 2011 - Centenary of World s First Airmail Flight in 1911
File:Stamp Italy 1917airmailC1.png
World’s first official airmail stamp, Italy, 1917

This is a specific timeline of Air Cargo and Airmail history, and a list of more detailed air cargo and airmail timelines. The timelines are also based on (and of course partly overlapping with) the timeline of aviation, but focus specifically on the transport of cargo or freight within air transport as an overall mode of transport. All texts in the diagram are clickable links to other Wikipedia articles, where further information and references can be found.

A few historical developments are reflected in the timeline:

Airmail vs Air cargo

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Although airmail has a special legal and regulatory status under postal frameworks[1][2] - governed by Universal Postal Union (UPU) regulations for postal operators and designated postal carriers - it is typically treated today as a subset of air cargo, which refers to all property transported by aircraft (excluding baggage).[3][4] In the early decades of aviation, the carriage of mail was one of the primary drivers of air transport infrastructure, aircraft development, and contracted air services.[5][6] However, from the late 1960's, growth in non-postal freight (parcels, industrial goods, supplies) increased rapidly, aided by larger aircraft and extended route networks, reducing the dominance of mail in overall air freight volumes and value.[7][8] In the early 21st century, the boom in e-commerce and express parcel delivery has driven strong growth in small parcels and mail-like shipments, which has further blurred the distinction between traditional postal mail and commercial air freight parcels.[9][10][11]

Civil vs Military

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Civil and military air cargo operations have historically influenced one another in a reciprocal manner. Technological advancements and innovations originating in military contexts—particularly during periods of conflict—have frequently been adapted for civilian use. Conversely, developments in civil aviation and logistics often serve as foundational technologies for subsequent military applications. This is also applicable for the domains of aviation, logistics and air cargo, where shared infrastructure, dual-use technologies, and evolving operational practices reflect the ongoing exchange between civil and military sectors.[12][13][14]

Growing towards maturity

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Being relatively young interconnected industries, the aviation, airline, airmail and air cargo industries needed the largest part of the 20th century time to land in a more mature legal and business representation structure after pioneering through successes but also through a number of incidents, scandals and failures.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21] The main milestones of this development can be found in the timeline.

Timeline

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<timeline>

ImageSize = width:500 height:2000 PlotArea = left:50 right:0 bottom:10 top:10 DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1780 till:2025 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical order:reverse ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1880 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:5 start:1880

PlotData= 

 Color:red mark:(line,blue) align:left fontsize:S 
 shift:(15,-3) # shift text to right side of bar

 # there is no automatic collision detection, fontsize:XS 
 # so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap shift:(25,-10)

 at:1783 text: [[]]1st untethered manned hot air balloon flight (France) 
 at:1784 text: [[]]1st steerable dirigible hot air balloon flight (France) 
 at:1785 text: 1st mail to be carried by an air vehicle (hot air balloon)
 at:1799 text: [[]]1st concept of the modern airplane as a fixed-wing flying machine (U.K.)
 at:1804 text: [[]]1st successful model hangglider flight (U.K.)
 at:1848 text: [[]]1st powered propeller driven unmanned airplane flight (U.K.)
 at:1853 text: [[]]1st towed, controlled, manned glider flight (U.K.)
 at:1859 text: 1st delivery of airmail in the United States (hot air balloon) 
 at:1874 text: [[]]General Postal Union (GPU) is established, later becoming Universal Postal Union (UPU)
 at:1884 text: [[]]1st powered, propeller driven, fully controllable flight of a non-rigid airship (France)
 at:1885 text: [[]]1st successful partly controllable manned glider flights (U.S.) 
 at:1889 text: [[]]large secured fixed wing aircraft with two powered propellers lifts from ground (U.K.)
 at:1890 text: [[]]fixed wing aircraft with powered propeller lifts from ground (France)
 at:1891 text: [[]]1st repeated controlled manned hangglider flights (Germany)
 at:1900 text: [[]]1st rigid airship flight (Zeppelin, Germany)
 at:1903 text: [[]]1st sustained flight by a manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled airplane (U.S.)
 at:1910 text: 1st commercial air cargo flight by airplane (U.S.)
 at:1911 text: 1st (scheduled) airmail flight  by airplane (India, U.K.); 1st cargo charter flight by airplane (U.K.) 
 from:1914 till: 1918 text: [[]]---> World War I 
 at:1915 text: 1st air supply operation in history (during the Siege of Kut, 1916) 
 at:1917 text: 1st airmail stamp (Italy)
 at:1918 text: 1st military and civilian scheduled international airmail services
 at:1920 text: 1st airmail service established officially by an airline (Colombia) 
 at:1921 text: [[]]1st air traffic control (ATC) at an airport (Croydon, U.K., 1920) 
 at:1922 text: [[]]1st airway beacon / lighthouse networks are built for visual navigation in Europe and U.S. 
 at:1925 text: U.S. Air Mail Act of 1925 (Kelly Act) 
 at:1926 text: [[]]International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) is founded 
 at:1927 text: [[]]U.S. Air Commerce Act (Watres Act, 1926) 
 at:1928 text: the Universal Postal Union adopts comprehensive rules for airmail (1929) 
 at:1929 text: Warsaw Convention 
 at:1930 text: U.S. Air Mail Act of 1930 (McNary-Watres Act) 
 at:1931 text: [[]]Low Frequency Radio Range system (LFR) begins to replace the visual Air Beacon system (as of 1929) 
 at:1933 text: British Empire Airmail Scheme is conceived (1934) 
 at:1934 text: airmail scandal in the U.S. ;    
 at:1935 text: U.S. Air Mail Act of 1934 (Black-McKellar bill) ; 1st air route traffic control center (U.S.) 
 at:1936 text: 1st large military supply airlift (Spain) 
 from:1940 till: 1945 text: [[]]---> World War II 
 at:1941 text: large military supply airlifts a.o. Demyansk pocket, Flying the Hump (1942) 
 at:1944 text: Air Transport Command is formed (1942) 
 at:1945 text: humanitarian airdrops in the Netherlands 
 at:1946 text: [[]]International Air Transport Association (IATA) is formed (1946) 
 at:1947 text: [[]]International Air Transport Association (ICAO) comes into force 
 at:1948 text: Berlin airlift from 26 June 1948 to 30 September 1949 
 from:1950 till:1954 text: [[]]---> Korean War 
 at:1950 text: Korean airlift (1950,1951) 
 at:1951 text: [[]]Start of the Jet Age for commercial aviation (1952) 
 from:1955 till:1975 text: [[]]---> Vietnam War 
 at:1967 text: Biafran humanitarian supply airlift from 1967 to 1970 
 at:1968 text: 1st commercial aircraft capable of transporting full pallets in the cargo hold (B747) 
 at:1973 text: U.S. military supply airlift to Israel in Yom Kippur War (Operation Nickel Grass) 
 at:1978 text: [[]]U.S. Airline Deregulation Act (preceded by cargo deregulation in 1977) 
 at:1986 text: 1st application of hand-held barcode scanners to captures package information (U.S.) 
 at:1989 text: U.S. strategic airlift for Operation Desert Storm (Gulf War, 1990) 
 from:1990 till:1991 text: [[]]---> Gulf War 
 at:1992 text: express parcel carriers disrupt and grow the industry (1990's) ; internet growth takes off 
 at:1993 text: 1st carrier-supplied b2b customer automation system to process packages (U.S.) 
 at:1994 text: 1st first transportation website to offer online package status tracking (U.S.) 
 at:1999 text: Montreal Convention 
 at:2001 text: [[]]September 11 attacks WTC New York, U.S. (9/11) 
 at:2002 text: [[]]U.S Homeland Security Act 
 from:2003 till:2011 text: [[]]---> Iraq War (Second Gulf War) 
 at:2010 text: IATA e-freight initiative takes off 
 from:2019 till:2024 text: [[]]---> COVID-19 coronovirus pandemic 
 at:2020 text: airlines introduce cargo-in-cabin / preighter flights in reaction to COVID-19 lockdowns

</timeline>

Further detailed information per decade can be found via the links below:

Details per decade

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See also

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References

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  2. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  3. ^ Allaz, Camille (2005): The History of Air Cargo and Airmail from the 18th Century, p. 8 Glossary: "Air cargo is any property (freight, mail or express) carried or to be carried in an aircraft."
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  6. ^ see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airmail
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  13. ^ see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_in_World_War_I
  14. ^ see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_in_World_War_II
  15. ^ see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Mail_Act_of_1925
  16. ^ see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Mail_scandal
  17. ^ see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Mail_scandal_accidents_and_incidents
  18. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  19. ^ see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Air_Transport_Association
  20. ^ see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Civil_Aviation_Organization
  21. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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