Wings: The Air Mail Game

This old game from Parker Brothers has mechanics similar to Touring, which is about 25 years older. Lindy, the New Flying Game was a straightforward re-theme of Touring to airplanes delivering airmail. Wings is more of a twist since it has 2 decks of cards--a red deck of Mail Cards, and a blue deck of Delay/Release cards. The Mail cards each depict a city on the players routes. These cities are all numbered and must be played in the correct sequence. For example, #1 Boston must be played before #2 New York, which must be played before #3 Philadelphia and so on until reaching #12 San Francisco. Delay/Release cards either help or hinder the player, or his opponents.

Players are dealt 5 Mail Cards. A player starts his turn by drawing a Mail Card and playing as many cities in sequence as possible. He then draws cards to refill his hand and may play new cards drawn if they continue his city sequence. When he can no longer play red cards he draws 1 card from the blue deck and follows its instructions. These range from High Speed Cards which allow him an extra turn, to Delay Cards which he plays on an opponent; the opponent must play a Release Card before he can add to his city sequence.

The first player to deliver the mail to San Francisco finishes his route and wins.

The plane with registration number N-X-211 pictured on the cards was Charles Lindberg's plane The Spirit of St. Louis. Linderberg did fly for the air mail Service, but not in the The Spirit of St. Louis. The plane was also never marked with "Air Mail" on the tail.