By Bill and Barbara deCreeft
Photography by Jim Oltersdorf
Not all antiques get to rest in hangars with polished floors. Some of them still have to work for a living! 16 JULY 2000
long with the beauty and nostalgia of a vintage air craft, this 1929 Travel Air 6000B, NC9084, has its own unique history. Phillips Petroleum of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, originally owned NC9084 (SIN 865). In August 1930, this plane was known as the "City of Wichita" and pi loted by Charles Lander and Roger Rudd, who com pleted the first of three attempts at the refueled endurance record in this Travel Air. That flight lasted 11 hours and 20 minutes, ending due to a fuel leak. Several days later, the duo was back in the air in NC9084, again try ing for a successfu l flight to break the existing refueled endurance record. But the plane only remained
A
aloft for 13 hours and 55 minutes. Less than a month passed before NC9084, now known as the "Cen tury 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 dur ing a dust storm. Soon after, records place NC9084 in Pampa, Texas, belonging to Keenan Brothers Flying Service, who used it for barnstorming and charter flights. In 1936 Monte Keenan flew it to California for use in the Bakers field area. By 1938, this plane was in Oakland, California, in service by Duck Airlines for charter and aerial photography flights. Then it went to A.A. Bennett in Salmon, Idaho, who