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Keystone–Loening Commuter

1920s American flying boat

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 28, 2025
Entity authorityQ6398431
Source-derived summary

The Keystone–Loening K-84 Commuter was a single-engine closed-cabin 4-place biplane amphibious flying boat built by Keystone–Loening. It was powered by a 300 hp Wright Whirlwind engine mounted between the wings with the propeller just ahead of the windscreen. It was first produced in 1929.

This airplane was featured as a model/bank by Texaco, #8 in a series "Wings of Texaco", of historic aircraft used by the company.

Surviving aircraft

305 "Kruzof" – K-84 on display at the Golden Wings Flying Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

313 "The Old Patches" – K-84 on display at the Alaska Aviation Museum, in Anchorage, Alaska.

Specifications

Data from American airplanes: KeystoneGeneral characteristics

Crew: 1

Capacity: 3 passengers / 1,223 lb (555 kg)

Length: 32 ft 5 in (9.88 m)

Wingspan: 36 ft (11 m) (some sources 40 ft (12 m))

Powerplant: 1 × Wright J-6-7 7-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engine, 300 hp (220 kW) -330 hp (250 kW)

Performance

Maximum speed: 115 mph (185 km/h, 100 kn)

Cruise speed: 90 mph (140 km/h, 78 kn)

Stall speed: 50 mph (80 km/h, 43 kn)

Range: 510 mi (810 km, 440 nmi)

Service ceiling: 12,000 ft (3,700 m)

References

Bibliography

Elliot, Bryn (March–April 1997). "Bears in the Air: The US Air Police Perspective". Air Enthusiast.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Keystone–Loening Commuter” as 1920s American flying boat. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1929, 1997—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Keystone, Loening and Commuter can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as 1920s American flying boat. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 28, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q6398431. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1929 and 1997.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Keystone–Loening Commuter”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Keystone–Loening Commuter primary sources, Keystone–Loening Commuter archive and Keystone research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Keystone–Loening Commuter”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Keystone–Loening Commuter” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.