FIRST AIRMAIL ISSUES On its inaugural flight of May 15, 1918, the world’s first airmail stamp, the 24¢ Curtiss Jenny biplane, was bedeviled with mishaps, beginning with an empty gas tank! With President Woodrow Wilson and other dignitaries watching, the pilot flew 25 miles in the wrong direction and crash-landed. Eventually, the 3,600 pieces of mail on board were loaded onto a truck and delivered -- two days late!
