During 1928-1929, the Travel Air Company’s Walter H. Beech had earned national acclaim for corporate leadership and technical innovation that further increased the reputation of Wichita, Kansas, as the “Air Capital of the World.”
By 1928 it had become obvious to Walter Beech that the company he led was in need of a new product – one that was aimed directly at the businessman who embraced aviation as a viable means of transportation. The Type 5000 had proven itself with the regional carrier National Air Transport on its routes in the Midwestern United States, and airlines were flying large and powerful Ford- and Fokker-built monoplanes with enclosed cabins.
The aviation-minded businessman represented a new market for America’s airframe manufacturers. To find out if developing a new Travel Air tailored specifically to meet the needs of busy executives would be worthwhile, Beech and sales manager O.G. Harned conducted a detailed survey of hundreds of prospects. The results clearly indicated a preference for enclosed cabins, with the airplane serving as a “flying office” where work could be accomplished in flight. Walter already had chief engineer Horace Weihmiller and his staff working on a preliminary design powered by the reliable Wright J-5 static, air-cooled radial engine. Five months later, a prototype was completed and rolled out into the Kansas sunshine.
Designated Type 6000, the ship featured a cabin with six seats for the pilot and five passengers that could be accessed by two doors on the right side of the fuselage – a forward door for cockpit entry/egress and an aft door for passengers. The interior was heated and automobile-style crank mechanisms allowed occupants to raise or lower each plate glass window. The seats could be removed quickly to transport cargo, and the cabin was designed to accommodate an optional desk, typewriter and other office equipment. The new ship was flown by chief pilot Clarence Clark April 15, 1928, and attained a maximum speed of 128 mph at full throttle.
Billed by Beech as the “Limousine of the Air,” he flew the ship on the Kansas Air Tour in June when an estimated 100,000 people saw the monoplane, and a large number of prospects participated in demonstration flights with either Beech or Harned officiating in the cockpit. Later that month, Beech flew the new Travel Air out east, where his sales skills led to firm orders and deposits for 14 airplanes.
These orders, however, were obtained with the understanding that the company would build a larger version of the prototype, which some prospects complained was too small for conducting business in flight. The prototype was never certificated, but production airplanes were larger externally and internally per Beech’s directives to engineering. His decision to build and sell a “businessman’s Travel Air” soon began to reap financial benefits for the company. Beech was careful to study his staff’s marketing analyses that indicated a production ratio of open cockpit biplanes to enclosed cabin monoplanes would be 60% biplanes and 40% monoplanes. That ratio held steady through 1928, but by 1929 orders for the modern Type 6000 series were beginning to outpace deposits for open-cockpit ships. Thanks to Walter Beech’s foresight and market savvy, sales at Travel Air hit a high of more than $93,000 during one week in October 1928, and growing demand for the Type 6000-series dominated the order books.
Late in 1928, the company’s success led to an invitation by Hayden, Stone, and Company that had business connections with the powerful Wright Aeronautical Group to meet with Walter Beech in New York City. He was accompanied on the trip by Earl Hutton – a close friend and an early investor in Wichita’s emerging aviation industry. According to Walter’s comments to the Wichita press following his return, Wright Aeronautical wanted to purchase 50% of the Travel Air Company, but no decision had been made whether to accept or decline the offer.
However, two months later, a deal was finalized that would allow Hayden, Stone and Company to acquire a 50% stake in the Kansas company. Beech once again traveled east by train to complete the transaction. He not only played a key role in the negotiations, but his remaining as president was deemed essential by Hayden, Stone officials. Basically, the agreement dissolved the original Travel Air Manufacturing Company, Inc., and reorganized it under Delaware law as the “Travel Air Company.” Beech and the board of directors believed they had made a good business decision that would prove beneficial for the reborn company and its growing number of stockholders. The eastern financiers were pleased to have succeeded where other suitors had failed to buy into one of the largest commercial airplane manufacturers in the United States. Richard F. Hoyt, a senior official with Wright Aeronautical, was quick to point out that they wanted to see Travel Air grow, and plans were underway to expand the East Central factory complex that would significantly increase production.
In the wake of the reorganization, as of January 1929, the company’s board of directors had a few new faces and names that hailed chiefly from the East Coast. Hoyt became Chairman of the Board and Captain F.T. Courtney, Harold Fowler, S.R. Reed and Chandler Hovey were elected members. Wichita men retained on the board included Thad Carver, Jack Turner, C.G. Yankey, and G.A. Stearns.
The new board quickly authorized construction of a third building to be designated “Factory “C” and voted to buy the entire East Central flying field as soon as the city’s lease expired. Although the city had paid $17,000 for the property in 1928, plans called for developing Wichita’s municipal airport a few miles to the south in what was known locally as the “California Section.”
In March 1929, the Travel Air Company set an all-time high for sales in a single month – $300,000. By June, the order books for new airplanes were bursting at the seams, and the busy factory complex 5 miles east of downtown Wichita, Kansas, was struggling to deliver 25 aircraft per week.
By May of that year, however, the Travel Air Company had become the target of another major aviation consortium that would be formed by a proposed merger of the Wright Aeronautical Corporation with the famous Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (established in 1916 by pioneer aviator Glenn H. Curtiss) to create the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. To prepare for what appeared to be a future with unlimited potential, the company’s board of directors and its president, Walter H. Beech, chose to join forces with the new organization. East Coast-based Curtiss-Wright was poised to make millions of dollars in profits, as were other large aviation corporations at that time, thanks to a booming stock market that helped generate skyrocketing revenues as America’s new-found love affair with flying continued unabated.
Curtiss-Wright’s interest in acquiring the Wichita-based company was obvious: Travel Air was among the leading manufacturers of lightweight private, commercial and business airplanes in the United States. Throughout 1928 and well into 1929, sales had soared upward and production had nearly doubled in an attempt to meet escalating demand for aerial transportation. In addition, the company’s domestic dealer/distributor network was expanding, and export sales continued to increase. Throughout 1928-1929 Travel Air’s success had not gone unnoticed on Wall Street. Senior management at Curtiss-Wright targeted Travel Air because, under the leadership of Walter Beech, its dealer and distributor network was expanding both domestically and internationally.
When the merger was completed in August 1929, Beech had been appointed a vice president of Curtiss-Wright Corporation with his office located in New York City.
The acquisition made Walter a wealthy man – a single share of Travel Air stock in 1925 sold for $100, but four years later was worth $4,000. Wall Street financiers estimated that the Wichita airplane builder had been bought for $3.2 million – a phenomenal amount for the young but highly successful company.
Financiers Richard Hoyt and Clement Keys had created another new organization called the “Aviation Credit Corporation” that included Wright Aeronautical, Curtiss Flying Service, Keystone/Loening and Travel Air. Plans called for using the financial company to promote sales of all four subsidiary companies, with as much as $10 million in financing available. The arrangement greatly benefited Travel Air and its sales force because the customer did not have to look for money to buy an airplane. By mid-1929, Travel Air’s domestic and international salesforce held orders for new biplanes and monoplanes worth a stunning $2 million, with sales hitting $560,000 in June alone.
Seemingly overnight, Beech and other members of senior management became rich, even by exorbitant standards of the decadent “Roarin’ Twenties.” Walter’s cut was worth at least $1 million, although a majority of that was held in Curtiss-Wright stock. When asked by local reporters about his good fortune, he chose not to boast about it, but he was quick to defend it. One newspaper source quotes Walter as saying, “I’m just a country boy. Go get a photograph of me when I first came to Wichita. I’ve made good, and I’m not afraid to say so.”
Unfortunately, the “Roarin’ Twenties” came to an abrupt end in September 1929 and the aviation business was among the first victims of the deadly debacle on Wall Street. Within months airplane orders began to slump, and by December sales appeared to have entered an unrecoverable tailspin. One year later, in November 1930, it had become almost impossible for Wichita’s airframe manufacturers to sell a new airplane, even after drastic price reductions of as much as 50%.
As production slowly came to a complete halt at Travel Air, executives at the Curtiss-Wright Corporation decided to consolidate manufacturing at the Wichita factory to its facilities in St. Louis, Missouri. Walter Beech had the sad task of ordering the layoff of all remaining employees (many of whom were his close friends and loyal workers) at the East Central Avenue campus. By the end of 1932, the facility was closed and locked.
In 1934, however, Walter and Olive Ann Beech would acquire the facilities from Curtiss-Wright and, despite enormous risk and a shattered national economy, set up shop to build the “best business airplane money could buy” – the Beechcraft Model B17-series, in their new company Beech Aircraft Corporation.
During his 31-year career in aviation, Beech had distinguished himself as a skillful aviator, a talented salesman, and the leader of one of America’s major airframe manufacturers. He had logged more than 10,000 hours in the air and held Transport Pilot Certificate No. 534 as well as a commercial license with single-engine/land privileges. Although a majority of his employees knew him as Mr. Beech, Mrs. Beech often addressed her husband as “Popper.”
After his untimely death in November 1950, Mrs. Beech became president and chairman of the board at Beech Aircraft Corporation. In 1977 Walter H. Beech was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame, followed by the Kansas Aviation Hall of Fame in 1987. He was a member of the prestigious Quiet Birdmen, served on the Board of Governors of the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce, the National Aeronautic Association, and the Advisory Board of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences. Beech was also a member of the Sportsman Pilots Association and the Veterans Pilots Association and served on the Eastern Region Executive Committee of the Aircraft Industries Association’s Aircraft Manufacturer’s Council.
In 1949 he had established the Walter H. Beech Scholarship in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Wichita (Wichita State University) and in 1951 the university dedicated the Walter H. Beech Memorial Wind Tunnel in his honor. Beech Hall at Wichita’s McConnell Air Force Base was dedicated in November 1988, and in April 1985, the Walter H. Beech Elementary School was named in memory of one of the city’s highly respected aviation pioneers.