On June 20, 1949 Segment 7, the Pittsburgh to Newark / New York portion of Air Mail Route 97, was inaugurated. Bellefonte received service through the State College Airport; New York was served through the Newark Municipal Airport. Scranton and Wilkes-Barre jointly used the Scranton / Wilkes-Barre Airport.

This cover was carried on the inaugural Air Mail Route 97 flight from New York, New York to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (where it was backstamped) and is listed in the Contract Air Mail Flights (CAM) Section of The American Air Mail Catalogue as 97W49.

The cover is from the collection of David L. Miller.  David L. Miller was an aviation pioneer who was instrumental in the development of the early air mail pick-up techniques that gave birth to All American Aviation.  Allegheny Airlines became the new name of All American Airways on January 1, 1953.

A Civil Aeronautics Board order, effective June 11, 1979, authorized the corporate title “Allegheny Airlines” to be changed to “USAir, Inc.” The name change reflected the carrier’s geographic expansion and increased airline status.

In early 1997 USAir changed its name to US Airways and introduced a new corporate identity. 

On February 14, 2013, US Airways Group and AMR Corporation announced that the two companies would merge to form the largest airline in the world. The combined airline carries the American Airlines name.