Legislative Acts

 Aviation legislative acts largely govern the way the aviation industry can act and what they can do. The earliest major legislative act passed that effected aviation was created by Congress in 1925 known as the Air Mail Act or the Kelly Act. The Air Mail Act "provided for transportation of mail on the basis of contracts between the Post Office Department and individual air carriers" thus creating the first privately contracted cargo "airlines" (FAA). The thought process behind this law was that "the act permits the expansion of the air mail service without burden upon the taxpayers" plus the added benefit of faster mail travel (AvStop). 

This was important because it helped create the commercial industry as we know it today by showing the public that aviation was a viable resource for transporting both passengers and cargo. Early on in the commercial aviation industry, it was difficult to get passengers to fly as aviation was still a new concept. However, the mail routes flown by the same planes showed people that air travel was a fast, safe alternative to travel by train which dominated the transportation industry at that time. Over time some airlines were able to stop doing mail routes entirely as they had built up a healthy client pool, while others continued to gain more mail contracts and had to buy bigger planes to compensate for the increase demand for air mail. These small private mail carriers would slowly grow and over time would develop into healthy cargo airlines such as UPS and FedEx are today.

References:

AvStop. (n.d.). The Air Mail Act of 1925 (Kelly Act). AvStop.  http://avstop.com/history/needregulations/act1925.htm

FAA. (n.d.). Timeline of FAA and aerospace history. Timeline of FAA and Aerospace History | Federal Aviation Administration. https://www.faa.gov/about/history/timeline