Wesley Smith Dies. Set Mail Flight Record. Lodi, New Jersey, February 8, 1963 (Associated Press) Wesley L. Smith, who set a transcontinental record in 1924 when he became the first army pilot to fly a 500-pound mail load from New York to California, died yesterday. He was 69. Smith's exploits included flying with Jacqueline Cochran in the 1934 London-Australia air derby, and crash-landing successfully in a Chicago lot and saving 15 passengers and crew. Smith died in the veterans hospital at East Orange after a long illness. A native of Los Banos, California, he lived in Mountain Lakes before moving to Lodi. Smith planned a singing career but became interested in flying and joined the army air corps during World War I. He served in San Diego as a flying instructor during the war and later became one of the first army pilots to fly the mail.

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