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The four Hunter brothers, Albert, John, Kenneth ("Beans")
and Walter, visited the Davis-Monthan Airfield on July 20,
1930. They had completed at Chicago a record air-to-air refueled
endurance record on July 4th of 553 hours, 41 minutes, 30
seconds (that's 23 DAYS aloft!).
There is considerable information about the Hunter brothers
on this website, which won't be repeated here. See this link for
access to other images of the brothers and their airplanes;
see these links for information about their pair of endurance
airplanes, Stinson Detroiters NR5189,
"The City of Chicago" and NR5326,
"Big Ben".
This image from the New York Times, below, shows what it
was like to maintain the engine of "The City of Chicago" during
the endurance flight. A special catwalk was built with handholds
around the nose of the airplane to allow access to key lubrication
sites. The casual stance of Kenneth Hunter (John is in the
cockpit looking at us) belies the fact that this airplane
is aloft and at speed. Compare this image with the image
link above.
Kenneth on Catwalk During Flight
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I have had a conversation with Hershel Hunter, the son of
Albert. He provides information about his father and uncles
as follows. His father, after the endurance flight, worked
in trucking, farming and moving houses and heavy equipment.
Uncle Walter went with American Airways. Uncle Kenneth
won a WWII contract to fly aircraft to England, but instead
went to work for Lockheed as a test pilot, where he knew
Tony LeVier, another
Davis-Monthan Register record setter. Uncle Kenneth was badly
burned in an accident at Lockheed, then went with Kerr-McGee
as a corporate pilot. He was killed in a Saberliner crash
in 1975 when the engine suffered a flameout during landing
approach.
Uncle John had a mail run between Evansville, IN and Chicago,
IL. He was killed at age 26 on June 28,1932 at Rosedale,
MS by a prop strike while attempting to untie an amphibian
plane from the dock.
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Dossier 2.1.102
UPLOADED: 01/05/07 REVISED: 02/12/07
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