During 1939 the Post Office Department established experimental service utilizing small planes equipped with a patented pick-up and delivery device, thus permitting the smallest cities to dispatch and receive local air mail service.

The experiment proved successful, and a regular contract was granted at the end of the year. Accordingly, many additional cities were authorized to receive service. The regular service was designated as Air Mail Route 49.

The pick-up service proved too costly for the benefits obtained and in January 1949 its discontinuance was authorized by the Civil Aeronautics Board. It was replaced, at the larger Air Mail Route 49 cities, by regular airline service over Air Mail Route 97, provided by the same carrier. Air Mail Route 49 service was gradually discontinued as Air Mail Route 97 service was inaugurated, beginning with the initial segment on March 7, 1949. The carrier provided unofficial cachets for “last flight” covers on the various pick-up services.

This cover was carried on the June 30, 1949 Air Mail Route 49 last flight from  Grove City, Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The cover is from the collection of David L. Miller.   David L. Miller was an aviation pioneer who was instrumental in developing early airmail pickup techniques that gave rise to All American Aviation.  Allegheny Airlines became the new name of All American Airways on January 1, 1953.

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 world's largest airline. The combined airlines carry the American Airlines name.