The Hunter Brothers

John and Kenneth Hunter, pilots of record for the world record flight.

The roles of the brothers were defined as follows: John and Kenneth were the pilots of record for the "City of Chicago", while Albert and Walter worked as the refuelling crew in the Big Ben.

Together, they remained airborne for 553h 41m 30s, on a distance equivalent to one and a half times around the world.

The flight itself was anything but smooth. Many repairs had to be undertaken, from the oiling of engine parts to the replacement of aircraft pieces.

Foreseeing the difficulties that might arise inflight, the brothers had attached an external catwalk on both sides of the plane.

This special equipment allowed Kenneth, the youngest brother, to get out of the cabin and access – at great personal risk – both the engine or the tail, in order to perform checks and repairs. 

A considerable crowd of about 75,000 was present to welcome the courageous pilots back to the ground, while media from all over the country reported the achievement.

The flight and all the proceedings were checked by the National Aeronautic Association of the USA, allowing the record to be subsequently ratified by FAI.

Letter to the National Aeronautic Association of USA confirming the ratification of the record by the FAI.

The record-breaking flight brought immediate fame and attention to the brothers, who were often reluctant to publicize their efforts. During their 1929 attempt, the press didn’t even learn John and Kenneth’s names until after the flight had ended.

In 1930, the four hired a press manager to help with the business and publicity aspects of the flight. And they needed it.

Will Rogers, the famous actor, writer, and aviation enthusiast, brought national attention when he flew in the supply plane during the attempt. He also hosted a banquet for the brothers in Chicago after the flight had ended.

Will Rogers and Wiley Post in Alaska while surveying a mail-and-passenger route to Russia.

Newspapers and radio programs from around the world interviewed the family, and they appeared multiple times on stage at the Palace Theater in Chicago to tell tales about their feat.

Hollywood came calling, too: the brothers signed a contract with United Artists for a film produced by Howard Hughes (who made several important aviation pictures) and Sid Grauman, although the picture was not ultimately made.

However, footage of the real flight was captured by newsreel cameras and screened around the country. Sparta residents got a chance to see the filmed footage for the first time a few weeks after the flight had ended.

Endurance Flyers Break World Mark in 553 Hours, 41 minutes!

A week after setting the endurance flight record, John Hunter had another surprise for his family: he had secretly married a fellow Sparta native, Laura McCarey, more than a year earlier.

(Laura was teaching school at the time of their wedding and could have been asked to resign if her marriage had become public knowledge.)

Albert Hunter also started a family of his own; he and his wife, Pearl Alexander Hunter, had four children: Elizabeth, Pauline, Eileen, and Herschel.

John Hunter was also involved in one other marital adventure. In December 1930, he flew a plane over Sparta carrying four passengers: a bride (Ruth Rankin), a groom (Miller Stephenson), a best man (Stephenson’s cousin), and a minister (Rev. James C. Murdock of First Presbyterian in Sparta).

The couple were married in mid-air, and as Hunter flew over downtown Sparta, they dropped wedding announcements to the public below.

The brothers’ passion for aviation led them to campaign for a permanent airfield to be built in Sparta. Without a dedicated landing field, they had been landing planes in empty pastures and fields.

In May 1931, Hunter Field was officially opened north of Sparta. It remains the primary airfield in Randolph County today.

The airport’s opening was celebrated with a “rodeo” of air stunts and performances, as well as a display of three of the Hunters’ most famous planes, including the “City of Chicago.”

Although their endurance flight record did not stand the test of time – it was broken in July 1935 by the Key Brothers of Meridian, Mississippi – the airport stands today as a monument to the important early aviation careers of the four brothers from Sparta.

The Hunter Brothers’ celebrity didn’t diminish the danger involved with their flying careers, and two of them eventually lost their lives in aviation incidents.

In June 1932, John Hunter won a contract to fly airmail from New Orleans, to Pilot Town Louisiana. John purchased several amphibious planes to fly the mail.

On Sunday, June 29, 1932, John Walter and Kenneth Hunter left Chester in three of the amphibious planes en route to New Orleans. John was flying an Ireland N-1B Neptune powered by a 220 hp Curtiss Wright J-5 engine with a pusher propeller (propeller behind the engine).

Ireland N-1B Neptune Aeroplane in December 1928.

Kenneth was flying an Eastman E-2 Sea Rover powered by a 185 hp Curtiss Challenger engine with a tractor propeller (propeller in front of the engine).

Eastman E-2 Sea Rover at the dockside

They stopped at Rosedale, Mississippi, on the Mississippi River, for fuel. A storm came up and they were forced to stay overnight in Rosedale. About six o’clock on Monday morning, they prepared to resume their trip to New Orleans.

After starting the engine on his plane, John climbed from the cockpit to untie the tail of the plane from the dock. John was struck in the head by the pusher propeller and he fell into the river. John’s body was recovered from the river some time later.

John’s remains were prepared for burial and arrived back in Sparta on Tuesday afternoon. His body was taken to his mother’s home and remained there until after a short service at 2:15 pm on Wednesday.

The body was then moved next door to the First Presbyterian Church in Sparta where Rev. James Murdock conducted the funeral service at 2:30 pm. John’s funeral was one of the largest funerals held to date in Sparta.

John was 29 years of age at his death. Following the funeral, John was buried in Sparta’s Caledonia Cemetery.

Walter Hunter, who was now a night airmail pilot for Universal Airways, purchased a Travel Air racing plane that had been flown in the Cleveland Air Races in 1929 by Doug Davis, an Atlanta, Georgia Travel Air dealer.

Travel Air Model R Mystery Ship purchased by Walter Hunter.

The plane later won a race at Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Curtiss-Wright had purchased the plane in January 1930.

On August 28, 1930, the wing and a landing gear were damaged in an accident in Des Moines, Iowa. Walter purchased the racing plane, a Travel Air “Mystery Ship”, R614K, from Curtiss-Wright in June 1931.

Walter moved the racing plane to Curtiss-Steinberg airfield in East St. Louis where repairs and modifications were made. Two more fuel tanks were installed and the engine was replaced with a new Curtiss-Wright radial engine rated at 600 hp.

A new, larger cowling was fabricated by Travel Air engineers and installed around the larger engine.

Walter entered and flew the plane in the Bendix Transcontinental Air Race starting from Burbank California, but lost out when the plane was forced down south of Terra Haute, Indiana.

Walter continued with the plane to Cleveland, Ohio where he entered the Thompson Trophy Race.

After making some adjustments to the racing plane, on September 6 Walter took off in the plane to fly the racing course for familiarization.

As the plane lifted off, the engine sputtered, Walter switched to another fuel tank, suddenly, flames shot back into the cockpit from the engine. The plane was less than 400 feet in altitude, Walter bailed out, his parachute opened just as he reached the ground, landing about 20 feet from the crashed wreckage of his plane.

Walter suffered burns on his hands, neck and face. The accident ended Walter’s participation in the 1931 Cleveland Air Races.

John and Kenneth Hunter flew to Cleveland to watch Walter in the race, arriving just after the accident. The wreckage of Walter’s racing plane is now located at the Beech Heritage Museum in Tullahoma, Tennessee. 

The September 18, 1936 edition of the Sparta News-Plaindealer reported that thousands of people from around the area were visiting a temporary flying field on a tract of land on the Miller Burns farm north of Sparta.

The attraction was a Keystone Patrician tri-motor airplane owned and flown by Kenneth Hunter. Kenneth was carrying passengers in the big plane for a dollar each.

The plane could haul 24 passengers. Kenneth reported that he had carried five-thousand passengers in this plane up to September 18. Between May 25 and November 11, 1936, Kenneth logged nearly 60 hours in the Patrician hauling passengers in numerous cities through Illinois and Missouri. When not flying passengers, Kenneth continued to give flight instructions.

Keystone Patrician tri-motor airplane owned by Kenneth Hunter.

In late 1936, Kenneth explored that possibility that he and Albert Hunter might attempt another endurance flight record. By April 1937, a decision was made not to attempt another flight endurance record.

Albert turned his attention to operating his farm and moving houses and heavy equipment, flying only for pleasure. On Tuesday, March 3, 1942, Albert was removing metal roofing from an old steel castings plant near Murphysboro, Illinois.

His son Herschel was working beside him on the roof of the plant. Albert sat down on a sheet of the metal roofing; it folded, causing him to fall through the roof to the ground below, a distance of about 30 feet.

When Herschel and others reached Albert, he was alive. Albert was loaded onto the bed of a truck and taken to a hospital.

Albert died, by the time they reached the hospital, from a broken neck. Albert, 45 years of age, was survived by his wife, Pearl, three daughters, Mrs. Elizabeth Hayer of Sparta, Pauline and Eileen and son Herschel at their home.

Two brothers, Walter of Memphis and Kenneth of Burbank, California, one sister, Irene, wife of James Hickerson of Rockport Indiana and his mother, Mrs. Ida Jane Hunter of Sparta.

Albert was preceded in death by his brother John Hunter his sister Mabel and his father, Alexander. Rev. L. T. Krebs, pastor, assisted by Rev. Daniel C. Campbell at the First Presbyterian Church in Sparta on Thursday, March 5, conducted Albert’s funeral. Albert was buried in Sparta’s Caledonia Cemetery.

About 1940, Kenneth started flying Army planes for Curtiss at Curtiss-Steinberg airfield in East St. Louis. Some of the planes he flew were plane designs that were never placed into production.

In February 1941, Kenneth started flying Lockheed Hudson Bombers from California to Canada for transfer to the Royal Air Force in England.

In early July 1941, Kenneth started working for Lockheed at Burbank as a test pilot. He continued in this role through-out World War II.

As a test pilot, Kenneth flew Lockheed P-38 fighters, Hudson Bombers, PV-1 Ventura patrol planes, Lodestar transports and B-17 Bombers as they came off the assembly line.

If deficiencies were identified, modifications were made on the planes and they were re-flown for evaluation.

On October 18, 1945, the right engine on a Gruman F7F Tigercat twin-engine fighter Kenneth was flying caught fire.

Kenneth managed to land the plane and allow his passenger to exit the plane, but Kenneth was burned exiting the cockpit.

After recovering from his injuries, Kenneth left Lockheed and secured a job as Chief Corporate Pilot for Kerr-McGee Oil Company in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The Kerr-McGee Corporation now owned the Deep Rock Oil Company that had provided the gasoline and oil for the endurance flight. Kerr was Governor of Oklahoma and later a U. S. Senator for Oklahoma.

The first corporate plane that Kenneth flew for Kerr-McGee, starting in August 1946, was a Douglas DC-3.

Kenneth continued flying as Chief Corporate Pilot for Kerr-McGee for nearly 20 years. At 6:00 am on January 15, 1974, the North American Saberliner, NA-265, Kenneth and his co-pilot, Jack Earnest Gardner, were flying from Corpus Christi, Texas to the Will Rogers Airport at Oklahoma City, crashed while making the final approach to the airport.

Both pilots were killed and the plane was destroyed. The NTSB report on the accident cited fog and lack of crew rest as the most likely cause of the accident.

North American Rockwell NA-265 Sabreliner

Kenneth was 65 years of age and had 21,500 hours of flying time with 2000 hours in the Saberliner. Graveside services for Kenneth were held on Friday, January 18 at Caledonia Cemetery in Sparta.

An article in the May 12, 1974 edition of the St. Louis Post Dispatch started by quoting one hanger-boasting pilot to say that the most famous aviator he knew was Walter Hunter.

Walter was the only aviator he knew who had performed on stage at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

In July 1980, a lavish weekend celebration was held at the Sparta airport, Hunter Field, to honor the fifty-year anniversary of the Hunter brothers World Record Endurance Flight.

Walter Hunter was the only Hunter brother that was able to attend the celebration. Walter retired from American Airlines in March 1966 as their most Senior Jet Captain.

Walter lived in Town and Country, Missouri until his death at St. John Mercy Hospital in St. Louis on Tuesday, October 18, 1983. Walter was buried in the Cutler Cemetery.

Walter’s career followed the same path as many of the early airmail pilots. As larger planes became available, passengers were added to the airmail flights. Eventually, passengers became the focus of the flights and airmail became secondary.

Nineteen Eighty-Three brought to a close the lives of the Hunter brothers of Sparta, Illinois.

The Hunter brothers were down-to-earth good honest people that helped pioneer the aviation industry to its place in today’s society.

They knew and flew with many famous aviators of the early Twentieth Century.

They were pilots, aviation mechanics and their adventures brought credit to themselves and their home town of Sparta.

They left their mark on aviation history and in doing so, raised the City of Sparta to International prominence.

It is only fitting that Sparta’s airport be named Hunter Field to honor their contribution.

Their story should and must live on!

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Until next time, keep your eyes safe and focused on what's ahead of you, Hersch!