1-3 | Wright & Erie Air Express, Mississippi Central Lines | Lockheed Vega | 1928 - 1934, 1932 - 1938

Geoffreys Kirkpatrick's Wright & Erie would find good success in the contract air mail business, managing to acquire contracts for both CAM 6: Cleveland to Detroit, and CAM 16: Cleveland to Louisville. Come 1928, his aging Junkers F 13 would be in need of replacement after a series of continued issues. Ultimately, he would approach Lockheed and show interest in the newly developed Vega. Within a 5-year period, Geoffreys would purchase a total of 3 Vegas before an accident would lead to his retirement from the business and its subsequent sale to Indianapolis native J.D. Barnham and his own Barnham Air Lines.

Mississippi Central Lines would be founded in 1928 by St. Louis native Theophile Guidry along with a consortium of investors with the hopes of acquiring an air mail contract from the US Post Office Department. They would succeed in being awarded CAM 28: St. Louis to Omaha. Aside from running CAM 28, Mississippi Central would fly the so called "Mississippi Milk Run" route from St. Louis down to New Orleans. The Vega would be a later addition to the fleet, only making an appearance in 1932. Following the cancellation of all contract air mail routes by the FDR administration in 1934, the airline would continue to expand its network up and down the Mississippi and throughout the Midwest until internal turmoil regarding higher leadership and investors would lead J.D. Barnham to purchase a majority stake in the airline in 1938, with Mississppi Central being transformed into Barnham Air Lines' western division.