- The Flying Keys
Brothers Fred and Al Key became interested in aviation after WWI. They started doing some
barnstorming in the1920s and continued their interest as the managers of the Meridian Municipal Airport, in Meridian,Mississippi .With the onset of the
Great Depression , the city of Meridian began doing whatever it could to save money. The airport was considered unnecessary, given the economic conditions, and was slated to be closed.The Key brothers had no desire to see this happen, so they came up with a plan to draw attention to Meridian and its airport by breaking the standing
flight endurance record of 23 days.cite book|author=Stephen Owens|title=The Flying Key Brothers and Their Flight to Remember] At that time,air-to-air refueling was a dangerous affair. If gasoline was spilled, which often happened, if could be ignited by the hot engine exhaust.To solve this problem, the Key brothers, along with local inventor and
mechanic A. D. Hunter, invented a spill free fueling system that consisted of a valve on the end of the fuelnozzle which was opened by a probe in the neck of the fuel tank. The valve would not allow fuel to flow unless it was inserted into the fuel tank. During fueling, if the nozzle was removed from the tank, the fuel would automatically stop flowing. This nozzle was later adopted by theUS Army Air Corps , and is still in use today with some modifications.Refueling the plane wasn't their only concern. The engine needed regular maintenance during the flight in order to stay in good running order. To facilitate this, a catwalk was built so that Fred could walk out and work on the plane while it was airborn.
On
June 4 ,1935 , The Flying Keys, as the brothers later became known, lifted off in a borrowedCurtiss Robin monoplane named "Ole Miss" from Meridian, Mississippi's airport. For the next twenty-seven days, they flew over the Meridian vicinity. Several times each day, the crew of a similar plane would lower food and supplies to the brothers on the end of a rope, as well as supply fuel via a long flexible tube. They landed onJuly 1 after traveling an estimated 52,320mile s and used more than 6,000gallons ofgasoline .Their non-stop endurance flight lasted 653 hours, 34 minutes. The "Ole Miss" is permanently displayed in the
National Air and Space Museum inWashington, D.C. .After this historic flight, Meridian's public airport was renamed "Key Field" in the brothers honor.
According to Owens, the brother's flight boosted confidence in aviation nationally. People figured if the Key brothers made their flight safely in such a small plane, then the big commercial airplanes were definitely safe.
The Key brothers later served as
bomber pilots in thePacific Theater of Operations duringWorld War II . Fred was awarded theDistinguished Flying Cross (USA) , and Al earned aDistinguished Flying Cross (USA) , aDistinguished Service Cross (USA) , anAir Medal , aDistinguished Service Cross (UK) and seven Bronze Stars for participating in combat. They both had distinguished careers--Al remained in the Air Force until his retirement in1960 at the rank of fullColonel , after which he was electedMayor of Meridian, and Fred ran the Key Brothers Flying Service at Key Field until his death in1971 . The cutoff valve developed for the Keys by A.D. Hunter was an important innovation fornational defense , being the precursor of those used by modern tanker airplanes, such as theKC-135 Stratotanker , that keepbomber andfighter aircraft in the air. Today, with only slight modifications, U.S. Air Force andStrategic Air Command airplanes use the valve that Hunter invented.References
External links
* [http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/curtiss_j1.htm Information about this flight at the National Air and Space Museum Web Site]
* [http://www.msmeri.ang.af.mil/HTML/airrefueling.htm "Key Field: Birthplace of Air to Air Refueling" presented by the 186th Air Refueling Wing of the Air National Guard]
* [http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/aviation/old.htm The US National Park Service maintains this site documenting the brothers]
* [http://www.meridianairport.com/history.html Where it all started -- Meridian Regional Airport at Key Field]
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