1929 Travel Air 6000 B NC9084
"History At Its Flying Best"
NC9084 (serial number 865) was originally owned by Phillips Petroleum of Bartlesville, OK. In August 1930, this plane was known as the "City of Wichita" and piloted by Charles Lander and Roger Rudd, who completed the first of three attempts in this Travel Air at the refueled endurance record. This flight lasted 11 hours and 20 minutes and ended due to a fuel leak. Several days later, the duo were back in the air in NC9084, again trying for a successful flight to break the existing refueled endurance record, but only remained aloft for 13 hours and 55 minutes. Less than a month passed before 9084, by then known as the "Century of Oklahoma", was prepared for the third attempt at an endurance flight record. Pilots Bennett Griffin and Roy Hunt completed 13 days aloft before being forced to land during a dust storm.
Whoa! An in-flight tune-up. Yikes!
Records place NC9084 in Pampa, Texas, belonging to Keenan Brothers Flying Service barnstorming and flying charter flights. In 1936 it was flown to California by Monte Keenan for use in the Bakersfield area. By 1938, this plane was in Oakland,CA in service by Duck Airlines flying charters and aerial photography flights. Then it went to A. A. Bennett in Salmon, Idaho, who flew it out of his Flying B Ranch. Johnson Flying Service, Inc. of Missoula, MT purchased the plane in 1955 and put it into operation to service Forest Service contracts hauling smoke jumpers to fight forest fires and spray trees, along with passenger service to the back country.
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*Click here to see complete pictorial of the 2002 restoration.