Unprocessed Manuscript Collection

Collection Title: Key Brothers Endurance Flight Film

Accession Number: AM 92-31

Inclusive Dates: 1935

Volume: 1 item

Given By: Donated by Mr. Josepoh S. McClanny.

Copyright: This collection may be protected from unauthorized copying by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code).

Form of Material:

Negative 16mm. film of scenes from the Key Brothers world record endurance flight above Meridian, Mississippi in 1935. Includes newspaper clipping about the event.

From the Smithsonian Magazine:

They Flew & Flew & Flew

How two brothers in an old Curtiss Robin set a record that's stood for 62 years.

It was the heart of the Great Depression, and in Meridian, Mississippi, the future of the new airport seemed uncertain. The Key brothers, Al, 30, and Fred, 26, were co-managers of the field. They were also crazy about flying and had learned their business first as barnstormers, then instructors.

So to earn the airport some valuable publicity, they decided to make aviation history by setting a record for endurance. They didn't own a plane, but they borrowed a Curtiss Robin, a high-winged monoplane, with a 165-horsepower Wright Whirlwind engine. Aided by friends, they fitted it with a 150-gallon gas tank and a catwalk that Fred climbed around on to service the Whirlwind in midair. They also pioneered a spill-free air-to-air refueling nozzle that would be the forerunner of those used by U.S. bombers in World War II. Four times a day, fellow pilot James Keeton flew up in another Curtiss Robin to refuel the plane and transfer down meals, cooked at the airport by the Key brothers' wives, Louise and Evelyn. As the flight hours wore on into days, then weeks, people in Meridian joked that the wives were going to divorce Fred and Al for desertion.

When they came down, at last, on July 1, 1935, they were filthy and exhausted, their eyes covered with sties. During their 27 days (653 hours, 34 minutes) aloft they had repeated brushes with death and disaster, including a fire aboard and a near midair collision. They had flown 52,320 miles, more than twice the distance around the earth.

Abstract of an article by Edwards Park, originally published in the October 1997 issue of Smithsonian Magazine. All rights reserved. Copyright 1997 Smithsonian Magazine


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Now back in the 1950's (I think) a radio station in Dallas sponsered an extended flight for some time in a Cessna. It is a vague memory, and I think they refueled by picking up fuel from a fast moving car or truck.