Our initial puzzlement over this cover was the 12¢ franking. What was it for?
The dispatcher did not intend that this cover get through air mail service NYC to Youngstown.
The endorsement is an imaginative one - It says: 'By Air Mail [in big red printed letters],
Via Cleveland, Ohio [typed], first trip to Youngstown [written in pencil].'
The franking includes two 5¢ Ericsson stamps which were canceled FDOI, May 29, 1926.
Seeing more than the required 10¢ postage, a New York postal clerk applied the 'Night Air Mail' rubber
stamp and presumably pouched the cover for overnight air mail service to Cleveland.
No postmark was applied on arrival at Cleveland.
Examination of the cover showed that it was endorsed ' first trip to Youngstown, '
and the cover was put in a bin where it was held for the CAM- 11 inaugural - until April 1927.
There obviously were serious delays in getting CAM- 11 started. It had been advertised in Jan 1926.
We haven't found any information yet on why the inauguration was delayed, but it may have been due
to an airfield problem or problems at Youngstown. Immediately after the inauguration Youngstown was
dropped from the schedule due to an unsatisfactory airfield for five months. And then, a few years later,
Youngstown was deleted from the route and replaced by Akron.
In spite of all, there's a warm spot for Youngstown in the 1926 confusion studies.
This cover extended one version of confusion to April 1927.
