1929’s record-setting endurance flights

The 1920s saw many records set for altitude, speed, endurance and range, but they were destined to be only fleeting. The records fell quickly due to the development of better aircraft and engines.

January 1929 began the year with an achievement that many thought would never be exceeded anytime in the near future — the epic six day flight of the Question Mark.

The Question Mark was a modified Fokker transport aircraft that was flown to a refueled endurance record by US Army aviators. The flight established new world records for sustained flight, refueled flight, and distance.

Taking off from Los Angeles Metropolitan Field on Jan. 1, 1929, the Question Mark stayed aloft for 150 hours and 40 minutes, landing back at Los Angeles nearly a week later.

Aero Digest reported that “in view of present design and construction of aircraft and power plants that the record represented the maximum number of hours a plane could remain in continuous flight.”

But the Question Mark record was not the end-all. There would be nearly 40 civilian attempts to set a new endurance record with refueling during the remainder of the year. Four of these attempts set new world’s records.

FORT WORTH

The flight of the Question Mark fired up fliers with enthusiasm for duration flights. In May two Texas pilots, James Kelly and Reginald Robbins, reconditioned a Ryan B-1 Brougham cabin monoplane named Fort Worth. This was an aircraft that had already flown 50,000 miles and had a second-hand Wright Whirlwind engine that had run 500 hours.

Both pilots were hardly more than amateurs, Kelly being a former cowboy and Robbins a former railroad mechanic. It was considered at the time a rather brash attempt to exceed the world’s record of the Question Mark, which had been piloted by experienced fliers backed by the resources of the US Army.

On May 19 the pilots departed Meacham Field in Fort Worth just before noon. They took off with 250 gallons of gas, planning to be refueled twice a day from another Brougham. Twice a day Kelley crawled out on an 8-inch catwalk to grease the rocker arms of the engine. During one of these times the buckle of his safety belt nicked the wooden propeller. This nick developed into a crack that enlarged during a rain storm.

After exceeding the Question Mark’s record, it was thought the pilots would land, but they kept at it until the vibration of the engine became so violent they decided to land rather than risk a crash.

On the morning of May 26 they had flown exactly for a week. The flight was concluded after establishing what was a remarkable world’s refueled record of 172 hours, 32 minutes, and one second. However, their record had but a short life — it was beaten the following month.

CITY OF CLEVELAND

In Cleveland at the end of June two pilots, Bryon Newcomb and Roy Mitchell, mounted an attempt to top the Fort Worth’s record. For their effort they used a Wright Whirlwind-powered Stinson Detroiter monoplane named City of Cleveland. They took off from the Cleveland airport on June 28, with their eyes set on the 172-hour record of the Texas fliers.

Few thought they would surpass the Fort Worth record, but as they continued in the air, day by day, public interest grew. At first they had discouraging weather conditions, but by July 2 the weather was clearing as they passed the half-way mark.

They had another problem as the refueling plane, called the “Flying Milk Wagon,” crashed, but a new plane was rigged up in time to fly more gasoline to the City of Cleveland.

On midnight of the eighth day, nerves frayed and bodies exhausted, Mitchell and Newcomb landed their Stinson at Cleveland Airport, bathed in brilliant floodlights, amid the acclaim of 75,000 spectators. The pilots, the newest conquerors of the air, had set a new world’s endurance record of 174 hours and 59 seconds.

ANGELINO

The next record was set in a Buhl Airsedan cabin biplane, known as the Angelino, which had already logged 17,000 miles before the flight began and was powered by a Wright Whirlwind that had already seen 450 hours of service.

The pilots, Loren Mendell of Los Angeles and Roland Reinhart of Salem, Ore., took off from the Culver City Airport in California on July 2. This was after the City of Cleveland had been in the air for five days.

On July 6 the pilots heard of the success of the Cleveland plane from a message from the refueling plane. The pilots kept their plane aloft completing one refueling contact after another. When the 174 hour record of the Cleveland had been broken, the men flew over the airport and were cheered wildly by the crowds below. They then dropped a message to tell the crowds at the airport to “wait another week” before their return to earth.

After their refueling plane had passed 4,085 gallons of gasoline and 105 gallons of oil, the flight finally ended when the planes’ tail was damaged by litter thrown from the plane. By the time they landed, the pilots had flown approximately 19,760 miles and had remained aloft for 246 hours, 43 minutes, and 2 seconds, more than 10 days, for a new world record.

But this record didn’t last long either — just about two weeks — because it would be bettered at the end of July.

ST. LOUIS ROBIN

By the end of July two men would remain aloft in the confines of their cabin for 17 and a half days, fly a distance greater than the circumference of the earth, and not be forced down due to weakening of man or machine.

While the pilots of the Angeleno were being feted on the day after their record flight, two pilots of the Curtiss-Robertson Airplane Company, Dale Jackson and Forest O Brine, took off from St. Louis to test the capabilities of the new Curtiss Challenger radial engine installed in a Curtiss Robin cabin monoplane named the St. Louis Robin.

Their flight was not announced as an endurance test for a new record, but rather as an experimental test flight with no goal set. Public interest in the feat grew as the hours and days piled up and officials of the Curtiss-Robertson company announced the fliers would try to break the formidable record set in the Angeleno.

Food, oil and mail were passed down to them in metal containers on a rope from the refueling plane. Gasoline was passed through a rubber hose 2 inches in diameter and 35 feet long. They slept on a pneumatic mattress on top of the gasoline tank in their cramped quarters. Jackson crawled out on a catwalk, 4 inches wide, twice a day, within 4 inches of the propeller to inspect the engine and make minor magneto and spark plug adjustments.

The fliers goal was set at 300 hours, then boosted to 400, and finally, with their expectations exceeded, they set their endurance mark at 500 hours. On the 18th day, William Robertson, president of the Curtiss-Robertson Company, sent up a message advising the fliers to land sometime during the day, which they did after 420 hours and 17 minutes aloft. This was a record that stood until the summer of 1930.

1929 would become a banner year for endurance flights, seeing a series of brilliant flights almost inconceivable at the time. In the course of the year nearly 40 attempts to set new endurance records with the aid of refueling were made. Nine planes surpassed the Question Mark’s record of 150 hours during the year. Four of them received national attention as they set world’s record for a time.

What these flights had done, beyond confirming pilot stamina and the skill and novel ideas of the in-flight fueling teams, was to attest to the airworthiness of monoplanes like the Robin.

Just as important was the confirmation beyond all doubt of the reliability of radial, air-cooled, engines. These new radial engines had set a new standard and provided the public with confidence in the performance and reliability of the new aircraft.