Ole Miss

The first time Brothers Fred and Algene ("Al") Key of Meridian, Miss, attempted to break the world's airplane refueling endurance record, a broken cylinder head forced them down after 123 hr. The second time, a storm balked them after 169 hr. On June 4 the two brothers, who operate a flying school at Meridian, went up for a third try in their Wright-powered Curtiss Robin monoplane Ole Miss.

Nothing particular happened until June 21 when Brother Al got a toothache. He stood the pain for four days, then lanced the abscessed tooth himself with the aid of radio instructions from a local dentist. The Key Brothers' next difficulty came on June 25 when they were warned that the right-hand landing wheel had gradually deflated, making an eventual landing precarious.

On June 27 after 23 days aloft they broke the official record of 553 1/2 hr. set by Brothers John & Kenneth Hunter at Chicago five years ago, some 25,000 people jammed Meridian Municipal Airport to cheer them on. In carnival spirit, the crowd danced at the airport all night, whooped at the announcement that the field would henceforth be known as Key Airport. Ablaze with civic pride, the Chamber of Commerce promised the Brothers Key $100 for each & every day they stayed aloft after breaking the record, and the Junior Chamber of Commerce presented their children with Shetland ponies.

On June 28 the brothers got caught in a thunderstorm, fought it out for two hours, broke a stabilizer brace wire. Ole Miss droned on. Next day Ole Miss got into a serious jam when a radio short circuit set the instrument board afire. Al shut off the motor, put out the fire in three minutes with a hand extinguisher. Red-eyed and unshaven, aching all over, the brothers were stained with grease and carbon. Al, 28, had lost 20 Ib. Fred, 25, had gained ten. By this time all Mississippi was basking in their achievement, and Governor Conner made them honorary colonels in the State National Guard.

Still droning on, Ole Miss eclipsed the record of 647 hr. set by Dale Jackson and Forest O'Brine at St. Louis in 1930--unofficial because their instruments failed to satisfy the National Aeronautical Association. When the Colonels Key finally landed July 1 with two records in the bag, they had made some 75 refueling contacts, flown more than 50,000 mi.

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