WIAE stands for the West Indian Aerial Express. It was an early airline that flew between Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands starting in July 1927 and ending in late 1928. Pan American Airways began in October 1927 flying from Florida to Cuba after successfully getting the US Mail contract for that route, rumored to be by nefarious smoke-filled back room business practices in Washington, thus cutting off WIAE from getting this essential high profit contract for the US mail. Pan Am took over the WIAE and their routes that added to their Florida to Cuba leg and the rest is history. Pan Am even took over the WIAE's owner and chief pilot, Basil Rowe, and made him their chief pilot since he knew the routes and the government officials in those other countries. WIAE covers are fun to collect and many were made by Basil Rowe himself. He autographed some of the ones he flew as well. The WIAE covers are listed in the American Air Mail Catalog, Volume 4, of the Fifth Edition. This includes the listings for all of the regular first flights, but there are additional test flights and route expansion survey flights that are not listed as these were not officially flown under the auspices of a specific post office. Also, Basil wrote an autobiography in 1956 shortly after he retired from Pan Am titled "Under My Wings". You can find this book on
ebay sometimes as it is not rare. They seem to sell in the $20 to $30 range for one in nice condition, or you can get it from a library (it might require an interlibrary loan from another library) to read for free.
If you enjoy collecting WIAE, you might also enjoy collectin NYRBA first flights. This was the New York, Rio, Buenos Aires airline that had airmail contracts from the Caribbean through eastern South America down to Argentina. Like the WIAE, it also was gobbled up by Pan Am early on given Pan Am's strangle-hold on the US mail international contracts for air mail. These flights are also listed in the same Volume and Edition as the WIAE first flights.
Posted 07/22/2020 06:35 am
