Sometimes a simple ad can lead to a deep rabbit hole where you learn what used to be on the land under the Pentagon. Today is one of those days.

On August 12, 1926, the Washington Times ran a full ad for something genuinely new: a scheduled airline ticket. Philadelphia Rapid Transit, the company that ran the city's streetcars and buses, had launched passenger flights between Washington and Philadelphia, twice daily, tied to Philadelphia's Sesquicentennial celebration that summer.

Fifteen dollars one way, twenty-five for a round trip. A bus would collect you from the Hotel Washington and drive you straight to the airfield. "Only ordinary street clothing is required," the ad promised, as if flying were something you might otherwise feel underdressed for.

The ad called itself "the first regular passenger air service in America." It wasn't. But that didn’t stop them from over claiming.