Fred Wiseman sputtered aloft from Petaluma on February 18th, 1911 only to land with a busted magneto after just 4 miles. The next day he flew a second leg landing just a mile short of his goal of the Santa Rosa fairgrounds. Since he carried authorized US Mail, his became the first official air mail flight. A full-size replica of Wiseman’s plane resides in the US Postal Museum in DC. Our own delightful historical museum has a scaled down replica on display as well. There’ll be a program about the historic flight at the Petaluma Airport on Saturday beginning at 11am. Weather permitting, there will be some sort of reenactment.

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