Mush

This aircraft is a Travel Air S-6000-B, S/N 987. The Travel Air Manufacturing Co., Wichita, KS, built it on March 30, 1929. It was fitted with a Wright J-6 R-975A engine of 300 HP, S/N 10285. It weighed 4,230 pounds as a six-place airplane.

It was sold on March 30, 1929 to Hobi Airways Company, Eugene, OR, then, on May 18,1929, to Herman H. Hobi, “for aerial taxi and sales.” We find NC8849 at Tucson on April 11, 1929 piloted by Elmer C. McLeod carrying H.H. Hobi and Ross Smith as passengers. They arrived from Wichita, KS, stayed overnight, and on Apil 12th departed at 7:30AM headed west for Seattle, WA. This was the ferry flight from the factory of this brand new airplane.

NC8849 stayed with Hobi for seven years, selling on May 19, 1936 to Edward C. Dorrance of Chicken, AK. It had accumulated 965:20 flight hours. On November 16,1936 the airplane, with 1009:00 flight hours, was “completely washed out” at Jack Wade, AK. Pilot Dorrance was fatally injured. The registration was cancelled as of November 16, 1936.

---o0o---

At the Elmer C. McLeod Collection on this site you will find pilot McLeod's complete pilot log book for 1929. His flights with NC8849 began with testing the new airplane on April 1, 1929 at the factory in Wichita, KS, followed by several flight legs back to Seattle. He flew the airplane consistently through July that year. Please direct your browser to his Collection for further details.

A photograph of this airplane is posted online at the link with no guarantee of ongoing availability (please let me KNOW if the link doesn't work). The description given for the photo is as follows: "Mapping plane, used by Brubaker Aerial Surveys, at the Great Falls airport. October 4, 1935." The NASM information (cited, left sidebar) is not clear about how the airplane transitioned from Hobi to Brubaker and thence to Dorrance in Alaska.

---o0o---

THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 08/08/05 REVISED: 08/16/11