Aviator Tracey Curtis-Taylor close to completing historic US airmail route

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (KABC) -- Charles Lindbergh helped pioneer the first airmail routes across America, and now a modern-day pilot plans to fly that same route.

Tracey Curtis-Taylor was on the ground at the Santa Monica Airport, but not for long. She turned her propeller as part of her pre-flight safety check before resuming her historic journey on board a 1942 vintage Boeing Stearman Bi-plane.

"In the old days you had the Pony Express, Wells Fargo and then you had the airmail," she said.

Curtis-Taylor is in the sixth leg of her trip, retracing the aerial route first surveyed by Lindbergh for the U.S. government. She will visit 16 major U.S. cities across America's heartland, finishing up in Boston.

The transcontinental flight is a celebration of The Boeing Company's "Century in the Sky" and a tribute commemorating the beginning of airmail in the states.

"This is very much a kind of journey into the past as well for me. So I'm just kind of intrigued and inspired by the aviators, the pioneers," she said.

As Curtis-Taylor travels, she is also celebrating women's achievement in aviation and looking to the future. When she finishes in Boston, it will complete her around the world trip that began in 2013. She will also have logged more than 26,000 miles.