The pioneering airframe manufacturer began operations in 1925 and its legacy has greatly outlived its six-year lifespan.
During a cold December in 1924, Walter H. Beech and Lloyd C. Stearman contemplated forming a new airplane company, but they needed help. They met with their friend Clyde V. Cessna, one of America’s true aviation pioneers, who agreed to join the two young men in their ambitious endeavor.
All three men were seasoned aviators. Beech learned to fly in the U.S. Army Signal Corps after the end of World War I. Stearman became a pilot in 1920, and Cessna had been flying monoplanes of his own design since 1912 and operated the Cessna Exhibition Company until 1917.
Beech and Stearman were employed by the Swallow Airplane Manufacturing Company in Wichita, Kansas, led by Jacob Melvin Moellendick. In the wake of a strong disagreement between Beech, Stearman and Moellendick that centered on Jake’s blunt refusal to upgrade the Swallow’s wood airframe to welded steel tubing, Walter and Lloyd bravely decided to strike out on their own and build a better biplane.
In February 1925, the new company known as Travel Air, Inc. received its charter of incorporation from the State of Kansas and began constructing the first Model A biplane in the Kansas Planing Mill Company in Wichita. Originally conceived by Stearman, the airplane was a three-place, open-cockpit design powered by the ubiquitous, war-surplus Curtiss OX-5 engine rated at 90 horsepower. The welded fuselage and empennage structures featured 1020-grade commercial steel tubing, but the wings were of conventional wood construction.
On March 13, the first Travel Air made a successful maiden flight, flown by local aviator Irl Beach, and later that month it was sold to O.E. Scott of St. Louis, Missouri. The company was soon overwhelmed by orders for the Model A, and it became clear that a secretary and office manager was desperately needed to handle paperwork. To fulfill that important position, Clyde Cessna hired 22-year-old Olive Ann Mellor, a native of Waverly, Kansas.
By November, the renamed Travel Air Airplane Manufacturing Company had relocated production across the Arkansas River from Downtown Wichita. Lloyd Stearman replaced the Model A with the Model B, and in January 1926, the Model BW made its debut. It was powered by the new Wright Aeronautical nine-cylinder, J4 static, air-cooled radial engine rated at 200 horsepower. The company sold 19 airplanes during its first year of operation, and Miss Mellor reported that the company expected to build 46 biplanes in 1926.
That year Travel Air entered a custom-built Model BW owned by the Pioneer Instrument Company in the second annual Edsel B. Ford Reliability Trophy competition. The biplane was equipped with the latest Pioneer navigation technology, including the new earth inductor compass that provided more precise directional information than the standard magnetic compass. Piloted by Walter Beech with Brice Goldsborough in the rear cockpit, the duo won the event and earned $3,850 in prize money. The company, however, lost its chief engineer in October when Lloyd Stearman was lured to California by businessmen to sell airplanes to Hollywood movie stars, some of whom were avid fans of aviation.1
Next to depart was then company president Clyde Cessna, who resigned in January 1927 and later that year formed the Cessna Aircraft Company in Wichita. Cessna designed and built a full-cantilever monoplane he called the Phantom, and it first flew that summer. Walter Beech was temporarily installed as Travel Air’s president and his title became official in February. After two years of operation, Travel Air had earned a profit of $25,003 on sales of $185,169.
That winter the company received its first major order for the new Type 5000 cabin monoplane from National Air Transport (NAT), which operated scheduled passenger and mail service from Chicago, Illinois, to Fort Worth, Texas. The monoplane evolved from an earlier, private design by Clyde Cessna that was reworked by Cessna and Stearman into the Type 5000. NAT ordered eight of the transports at a cost of $128,676, and all of the monoplanes were delivered in 120 days.
In February 1927, Travel Air officials received an important telegram from a young airmail pilot named Charles A. Lindbergh from St. Louis:
“New York-Paris flight under consideration. Requires ‘Whirlwind’ plane capable of 45 hours flight with pilot only. If you can deliver, state price and earliest delivery date.”
Walter Beech relished the opportunity but replied to Lindbergh that the company was committed to delivering the NAT monoplanes and had to decline his invitation. However, the Ryan company in California accepted the challenge and built the Spirit of St. Louis that Lindbergh flew nonstop to Paris on May 20-21.
Although Beech had to refuse Lindbergh’s request, he chose not to refuse offers from pilots who wanted to win a prize offered that summer by Hawaiian pineapple magnate James Dole. He offered $25,000 for the first nonstop flight made by a commercial aircraft from California to the U.S. Army’s Wheeler Field near Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii.2
By June 1927, Travel Air had received 17 requests for monoplanes, but only two were accepted. The first came from Arthur C. Goebel, a California-based pilot for National Pictures, Inc., and the second came from Benny H. Griffin and Al Henley. All three men were experienced pilots and plunked down $5,000 deposits for their airplanes. The timeframe was extremely tight – less than three months. Both airplanes were financed by Frank Phillips of the Phillips Petroleum Company based in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Goebel’s Type 5000 was named “Woolaroc” after the woods, lakes and rocks of Phillips’ ranch. Griffin and Henley’s airplane was dubbed “Oklahoma” in honor of the Sooner state.
Walter Beech realized that the company was taking a serious risk building two airplanes for the race. If one or both were lost amidst the vast Pacific Ocean, it would damage Travel Air’s hard-won reputation as a manufacturer of prestigious aircraft, but he and the board of directors believed it was worth the rewards that would come if a Travel Air landed first in Hawaii. Goebel’s navigator was Lt. William V. Davis, Jr., while Henley would serve that purpose in the Oklahoma. Of the nine entrants in the race, only two arrived in Hawaii – the Woolaroc landed first, followed two hours later by the Breese monoplane dubbed Aloha. Beech’s gamble had paid off handsomely.
On Dec. 31, 1927, Miss Mellor reported that Travel Air had received orders for one new airplane for every day of 1928! In addition, as of that date the company had produced 200 airplanes since 1925, including 162 Model B units, 16 Model BW, five Model BH biplanes and 18 Type 5000 monoplanes. To build the anticipated 365 new airplanes in 1928, Travel Air had built two new factories 5 miles east of downtown Wichita and could build two more if future demand warranted the expense. The workforce increased to 250 men and women with another 100 employees to be hired during the year.
As 1927 drew to a close, Beech and chief engineer Horace Weihmiller were mulling over the design of a new Travel Air – a cabin monoplane aimed directly at aviation-minded businessmen and corporations. It had become clear to Beech that the days of open-cockpit flying were in decline as an increasing number of pilots reported that they would buy an airplane featuring an enclosed cabin and cockpit. He based his plans for a sedan model on a series of surveys sent to Travel Air owners and operators in mid-1927. The response was clearly in favor of a cabin monoplane, and in April 1928 the Type 6000 took to the skies over Wichita.
Beech flew the airplane on the Kansas Air Tour in June and hundreds of prospective customers examined the aircraft and many signed up for demonstration flights. Another 700 took demo flights during a September tour through the Midwest and Eastern regions. Responding to complaints that the cabin was too small, Travel Air engineers created a larger airplane designated the Type 6000B, powered by a Wright Whirlwind radial engine rated at 300 horsepower. As for customers who wanted more power, the Type A6000A was available, featuring a 420-horsepower Pratt & Whitney radial engine.
A major change of a different kind occurred late in 1928 when the financial institution of Hayden, Stone and Company agreed to acquire 50% of Travel Air. The acquisition dissolved the original business and reorganized it under Delaware law as the Travel Air Company. Beech and the board of directors were confident they had made the right decision but realized the company was no longer a possession of Wichita alone.
In August 1929, the company was absorbed into the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, which would eventually include Wright Aeronautical, Curtiss Flying Service and Keystone-Loening airplane manufacturers. In the exchange of stock with Curtiss-Wright, the value of one share of Travel Air outstanding stock that sold for $100 in 1925 was suddenly worth $4,000.
One of the greatest achievements in Travel Air’s existence came in the summer of 1929 when the Type R racing monoplane made its first flight. It was designed by engineers Herbert Rawdon and Walter Burnham. During initial test flights the airplane had achieved 185 mph, and after installation of a specially-designed NACA engine cowling, indicated airspeed increased to 225 mph. The Type R was built for one purpose: to beat the U.S. Army and Navy at September’s National Air Races. Walter Beech made certain that the Type R remained hidden from newspaper reporters until race day.
Flown by Travel Air distributor Doug Davis, the Type R – referred to as the Mystery Ship – defeated all entrants in the free-for-all race at an average speed of 196.96 mph. Shell Oil Company and The Texas Company ordered custom-built versions of the Type R, and the Italian government took delivery of the fifth and final monoplane in 1931.
While Travel Air airplane sales peaked at $2.1 million by June 1929, orders and sales entered an unrecoverable tailspin in the wake of Wall Street’s debacle in October. Many people in the commercial aviation industry lamented that the Lindbergh boom was finally over. Sales of new airplanes slowed to a trickle, and by 1930 Walter Beech could no longer retain 650 employees on the payroll. Layoffs began and continued unabated through that year and into 1931 when parent company Curtiss-Wright closed the Wichita factory. The days of autumn 1932 witnessed the departure of the few remaining workers, and the factory complex known in Wichita as “Travel Air City” ceased to exist.
Epilogue
During its six-year existence, the Travel Air Company earned worldwide respect for its aircraft and manufactured approximately 1,500 airplanes between 1925-1931. It led other airframe companies in the number of approved type certificates issued for new aircraft, helped to pioneer design and construction of small transports for the infant airline industry and quickly adapted installation of the static, air-cooled radial engines into the company’s product line.
Travel Air introduced the innovative Type 6000 in 1928. It was designed specifically to meet the businessman’s demand for enclosed cabin monoplanes for executive transport and the airborne conduct of day-to-day corporate operations. Dubbed the “Limousine of the Air,” Travel Air’s Type 6000 can be considered the predecessor of the Beechcraft King Air series that appeared nearly 40 years later.
Throughout the late 1920s and into the early 1930s, many pilots flew Travel Air biplanes in air races nationwide and often emerged victorious, including Louise von Thaden who won the 1929 National Women’s Air Derby flying a Travel Air D4000.
When it came to airplanes, Walter Beech craved speed. He enthusiastically supported development of the famous Type R racer of 1929. The monoplane’s unexpected victory over military biplanes at the 1929 National Air Races stunned the aviation world and accelerated the move away from military biplanes toward development of the monoplane fighter for the U.S. Army and Navy during the early 1930s.
In addition to these and other aeronautical achievements, it is important to realize that Travel Air was the launching pad for key personalities who would make their mark on American aviation. By 1928, Lloyd C. Stearman and Clyde Vernon Cessna were both respected airframe manufacturers. Eventually the Stearman Aircraft Company became a major subsidiary of Boeing, and the Cessna Aircraft Company was an important supplier of airplanes for the giant Curtiss Flying Service.
Perhaps Travel Air’s greatest legacy, however, is not only the airplanes it produced but the men and women who made the company a great success. Of these, Walter H. Beech and Olive Ann Beech later braved the depths of the worst economic disaster America had ever experienced to create the Beech Aircraft Company in 1932. Travel Air was their “classroom” that taught them the aviation business, and today there is a bit of Travel Air “DNA” in every Beechcraft King Air.
(Source: Edward H. Phillips Collection)
Notes:
The Stearman Aircraft Company, based in Venice, California, built only four biplanes before returning to Wichita. By 1941 it had become an important subsidiary of the Boeing Airplane Company, building thousands of primary trainers for the U.S. Army and Navy.
The first airplane to cross the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii was the U.S. Army’s Fokker C-2 monoplane that departed Oakland on June 28, 1927, and landed at Wheeler Field June 29. The first commercial airplane to make the flight from California to Hawaii was the Travel Air Type 5000 prototype but the flight was made before the official starting date for the Dole prize. On July 14-15, 1927, pilot Ernest Smith and navigator Emory Bronte arrived over the island of Molokai on their way to Oahu. The Travel Air ran out of fuel and Smith crashed the airplane in a wooded area on Molokai. It was dismantled and not rebuilt.