Smokejumper: “After dozens of takeoffs, my first landing”

 

NC9084 has been a workhorse in continuous service since 1929, with a stint at Missoula-based Johnson Flying Service, a United States Forest Service-contracted smokejumping operator, from 1955 to 1969.

 

At the 75-year anniversary of Johnson Flying Service, which NC9084 attended, it had a familiar passenger from its past. During a flight given to anniversary attendees, one of the passengers, a former smokejumper, quipped to the pilot “I’ve taken off in this plane dozens of time, but this will be my first landing in it.”

 

NC9084 was a part of a fleet of Travel Air 6000Bs operated by Johnson Flying Service in the mountains of Montana and Idaho. Many say this region was the birthplace of mountain flying.

 

Setting records over Oklahoma 

 

In 1930, two pilots set out to break a record in NC9084, just one-year-old at the time. They wanted to break the endurance record of staying in the air continuously without landing for fuel and required engine tune-ups.

 

In August of that year, over Oklahoma, they made their first attempt in a flight that lasted 11 hours and 20 minutes and ended due to a fuel leak. Several days later, they were at it again, but only remained flying for 13 hours and 55 minutes.

 

Less than a month passed before NC9084 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. While they were unable to break the record, this flight and others taking place at the time confirmed the airworthiness of monoplanes and the reliability of radial, air-cooled, engines — giving the public more confidence to fly in the early days of aviation.

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NC9084 has flown continuously since 1929 and was piloted by legendary bush pilot (Bill de Creeft).

 

The Travel Air S6000B is a seven-seat aircraft built by the Travel Air Manufacturing Company in 1929. It was an early adopter of enclosed cabins for both pilot and passengers, lending a feeling of security, protection from the elements and a connection with the pilots. Marketed as the Limousine of the Skies, the Travel Air served airlines, government agencies, and businesses.

 

The Travel Air Manufacturing Company was an aircraft manufacturer established in Wichita, Kansas in January 1925 by Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, and Lloyd Stearman. Following the Great Depression, Cessna, Beech and Stearman went on to establish their own aviation businesses. 

 

The Travel Air 6000B is a high-wing braced monoplane with a fuselage constructed of steel tube and covered in fabric. In keeping with its intended luxury market, the fully enclosed cabin is insulated and soundproofed and included wind-down windows. The basic model was priced at $12,000, but numerous options were offered that could nearly double that price. Actor Wallace Beery’s aircraft cost him $20,000 and was the most expensive model 6000B built.

 

Travel Air in the Movies

 

A Travel Air 6000B was a “star” in the Howard Hawks 1939 film Only Angels Have Wings which was a fictional depiction of the early mail service in South America whose early days mirrored the aircraft and issues of US civilian mail service.

 

A Travel Air 6000B also appeared in the 1959 movie, Edge of Eternity.

 

A Travel Air 6000B appeared in and performed stunts in the 1939 Laurel and Hardy classic movie,  The Flying Deuces.