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This fascinating 16mm silent home movie from 1929 was shot by either Truman Wadlow or his twin brother Newman Wadlow, who were both pilots from Wichita, Kansas. Both served as test pilots for the famed Travel Air Company, an airplane manufacturer. Truman also operated an airplane sales outlet in St. Joseph, Missouri during 1928. Newman Wadlow participated in the Ford Reliability Tour in 1929, and Truman flew in 1930. The brothers operated the Wadlow Bros. Flying Service Co. in Wichita in the early 1930s. This film includes aerial footage taken from the plane of the rural landscape below and typical 1920s fashion. This film and others featuring the Wadlow brothers were gifted to Periscope Film by Nancy Stoll and Betty Rugh, Truman Wadlow's twin daughters. There are actually two distinct movies on this reel -- the first is “Cross Country to Tulsa“ which runs up to about the (4:14) mark and features many intertitles. The second film is a home movie without title cards. Title page (0:09). Two men pose for camera wearing 20s-era wool suits and felt fedoras (0:13). The men get into Travel Air 6000 (later known as the Curtiss-Wright 6B) executive aircraft, tail NC9938, S/N 1085 (0:22). (Note: records indicate this plane was later owned by Philips Petroleum Co. and later Edward A Brennan who operated it in Alaska; it was stricken from records in 1948.) POV from cockpit of takeoff, airport below, water tower (0:28). Aerial view Travel Air Factory from the north, sun glare reflects off of small river, vast fields (0:41). Aerial view Douglas, Kansas - rural town, residential homes, vast farmland (1:12). Details of Travel Air 6000 cabin interior details (1:28). Aerial view of Bartlesville, Oklahoma in distance (1:45). Aerial view of Bartlesville Airport, rows of homes in city, smoke trail billows into sky from factory (1:53). Interior of cockpit, close-up portrait of one of the pilots (2:37). Aerial view of petroleum storage tank farm (2:47). Tulsa Municipal Airport, Spartan Aircraft Company logo and Safe Way Airlines seen on roof of airport buildings (3:17). Two men from beginning of film (probably Truman and Newman) pose in front of Travel Air in front of hangar at Tulsa Municipal Airport (3:53). Men in 20s-era wool suits and felt fedoras horse around in font of the camera at a large rural property, a woman with cropped hair cut, cap, and 20s-era women’s fashion (4:15). Camera pans property, bare bones of house or building being constructed on property (5:12). Crowd of men and women gather at airfield for test flights of what appear to be cable towed glider aircrafts, these appear to be Detroit G1 Gulls. The G1 is an American high wing, cable-braced primary glider that was manufactured by the Detroit Aircraft Corporation during the Great Depression. Another Travel Air 6000 is shown, tail NC483N, owned by Alton Walker of Missouri and later sold to Mexico (5:47). Travel Air Manufacturing Co. was an aircraft manufacturer established in Wichita, Kansas, United States in January 1925 by Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, and Lloyd Stearman. An early leader in single-engine, light-aircraft manufacturing, from 1925 to 1931, Travel Air was the largest-volume aircraft manufacturer in the United States in 1928 -- the principal contributor to Wichita becoming named the “Air Capital City“ by the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce. Travel Air produced the trend-setting Travel Air Mystery Ship racer, which forced radical changes in U.S. military aircraft. Travel Air also developed early small airliners, including Delta Airlines' first, and the first civilian plane to reach Hawaii by air. With Walter Beech as its last President, the company was acquired by Curtiss-Wright Corporation, and moved to St. Louis, Missouri, before production ceased in the Great Depression. However, Beech returned to Wichita in 1932, acquired the abandoned Travel Air factory, and resumed production under his own name, with the Beech Aircraft Corporation — producing what would have been the 17th Travel Air model, but as the Beech Model 17 “Staggerwing.“ We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example like: “01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.“ This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit
