In 1928, the Travel Air Manufacturing Company introduced a series of enclosed cabin monoplanes aimed specifically at the emerging business aviation marketplace.
It is safe to state that the nonstop flight of Charles A. Lindbergh from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York, to Le Bourget Airport, Paris, France, in May 1927 ignited a massive wave of interest in the benefits of aviation. America’s surge of enthusiasm for flying was shared by many corporations, whose historically ground-bound executives began to realize the advantages of owning and operating a business airplane.
The Travel Air Manufacturing Company was founded late in 1924 in Wichita, Kansas, by local businessman Walter Innes, Jr., aviation pioneer Clyde V. Cessna, pilots Lloyd C. Stearman and Walter H. Beech. Lloyd left the company in 1926 to found the Stearman Aircraft Company in California, and in January 1927 Clyde resigned to form the Cessna Aircraft Company, leaving Walter in charge of Travel Air.
Early in 1927, Lindbergh had asked Walter if the Wichita-based company could build a single-engine monoplane capable of carrying 400 gallons of fuel for a nonstop flight from New York City to Paris. Walter replied in the affirmative but declined Lindbergh’s inquiry because the company had a large backlog of orders that took priority over any special projects. Instead, Lindy flew the Ryan NYP to Paris. His epic flight quickly infected America with a serious case of flying fever.
Walter Beech was also preoccupied with laying the groundwork for a new series of enclosed cabin monoplanes designed for the aviation-minded businessman. In addition to being a skilled pilot, Walter was an entrepreneur and an innovator. He had the ability to sense what the aviation industry wanted, and by 1927 he had concluded that the days of the open-cockpit biplane were waning. By contrast, the enclosed cabin monoplane was on the rise. Travel Air was not the first company to recognize the advantages of cabin aircraft (many designs had existed since the end of World War I), but Walter’s vision centered on developing a modern monoplane built to meet the specific requirements of the businessman/pilot.
In November 1927, Walter and chief engineer Horace E. Weihmiller discussed plans to design a new Travel Air – dubbed a sedan model by Walter – that would combine speed with a comfortable, four-place cabin for conducting business and provision for two pilots. The aviation-minded businessman was a new, untapped market that Walter believed could pay handsome dividends for Travel Air. Fortunately, 1927 ended on a strong financial note for the company, meaning money would be available to build a prototype monoplane.
Miss Olive Ann Mellor, the company’s multi-talented and indispensable office manager, reported that orders were on hand for every day of 1928! Since officially incorporating in February 1925, at least 200 airplanes had been built including 182 biplanes and 18 monoplanes sold to short-haul airlines. The factory worked double shifts day and night to keep pace with new orders from a nationwide network of dealers and distributors.
During the winter of 1928, the prototype slowly took shape in the factory on East Central Avenue, and in April the Travel Air Type 6000 cabin monoplane was ready for its first flight.
Advertised as a Limousine of the Air, the airplane featured a cabin accommodating up to six passengers with two doors on the right side of the fuselage for entry/egress from the cabin and cockpit. In addition, the plate glass cabin windows could be raised and lowered by automotive-type cranks. The wing employed a Gottingen 398 airfoil section and spanned 48 feet, 7 inches. Fuselage length was 30 feet, 10.5 inches and overall height was 8.5 feet. Powered by a Wright Aeronautical J-5C, static, air-cooled nine-cylinder radial engine rated at 200 horsepower, flight tests revealed a maximum speed of 128 mph and a cruise of 108 mph. The monoplane had a maximum gross weight of 3,800 pounds and a payload of 506 pounds.
To demonstrate the airplane to prospective customers, Walter Beech flew the limousine in the Kansas Air Tour in June, and a few months later he garnered 14 orders during a tour of the East Coast. In September, sales manager Owen G. Harned flew the airplane more than 3,200 miles and gave demonstration flights to 700 businessmen and pilots.
Walter reviewed his ongoing market analysis as interest in the Type 6000 continued to increase. Surveys mailed to prospects clearly indicated strong interest in a corporate aircraft designed specifically for executive travel. Walter also noticed that respondents favored a monoplane over the ubiquitous biplane. Travel Air’s manufacturing plans for 1929 indicated that biplanes would account for 60% of total production while cabin monoplanes would make up the remaining 40%. Actual sales, however, would almost reverse those estimates as it became clear the Type 6000 would be an excellent product for Travel Air.
The innovative airplane justified Walter Beech’s belief that businessmen would buy a cabin monoplane. Feedback from flight demonstrations indicated that prospects wanted an aircraft with a larger cabin, more horsepower and a higher cruise speed. As a result, a major redesign began in earnest, creating the Type 6000B that cost $14,000 for a standard-equipped airplane. Project leadership shifted to veteran company engineer Herbert Rawdon. He was ably assisted by fellow engineers Walter Burnham, Cecil Barlow and Howard Baccus. Weihmiller had resigned late in 1928 to design the Corman Trimotor airliner.
As the next-generation monoplane took shape on the drawing boards, engineers prepared a voluminous amount of technical paperwork, including exhaustive airframe stress analysis, to secure an approved type certificate from the Department of Commerce. The airframe was enlarged and strengthened to allow installation of the nine-cylinder Wright J6-9 static, air-cooled radial engine that developed 300 horsepower. The cabin was widened and lengthened by 5 inches and the aft fuselage was 4 inches wider. In the cockpit, the throttle, mixture and spark advance/retard controls were relocated from the left cockpit sidewall and mounted in a quadrant at the center of the instrument panel (a small cockpit door was an option). The main cabin door was enlarged to better facilitate cabin entry and egress and the loading and unloading of cargo.
Cabin chairs featured steel frame and wicker construction and could be richly upholstered and padded to meet customer preferences. An optional divan was also offered, as was a lavatory in the aft cabin equipped with hot and cold running water and a non-flushing toilet (a $195 option). The standard cabin could be quickly reconfigured to carry cargo. The window cranks were improved to make raising and lowering the glass easier, and the size of the six cabin windows increased to 32 x 15 inches for improved visibility for the passengers. A full-swiveling (but non-steerable) tailwheel was mounted on a shock strut and greatly improved maneuverability on the ground compared to the fixed tailskid installed on the prototype airplane.
Meanwhile, the factory had been equipped with jigs and fixtures to manufacture the 6000B and its more powerful cousin, the mighty A6000A powered by a 420- to 450-horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-985 radial engine. The first production Type 6000B was constructor number 732, delivered to Flyers, Inc., followed by C/N 790, registered NC6469, delivered in November to Wilbur D. May. The next airplane was custom-built for Hollywood actor Wallace Beery, who arrived at the factory on Dec. 14, 1928, to take delivery of Type A6000A (C/N 816), registered NC9015. After flying the new monoplane, Beery informed Walter Beech that he was pleased with his purchase. The cabin featured custom installations with all chairs upholstered in special velour fabric, and the divan was finished with a special, mauve-colored velour. In addition, a folding card table completed the cabin options that cost Beery an additional $1,000.
The A6000A featured additional bracing in the wings and the wing area was increased by 60 square feet to allow installation of fuel tanks with a total capacity of 130 gallons to feed the thirsty Wasp Junior compared to 80 gallons for the more economical Whirlwind-powered 6000B. Before taking off for California, Beery paid Miss Mellor a visit to her office. The airplane cost $18,000 (an enormous sum for a small airplane at that time) and he still owed Travel Air $10,000. He reached into his overcoat and handed Olive Ann a wad of 10 $1,000 bills and demanded a receipt!
In addition to Hollywood elites like Beery who flew Travel Air monoplanes, so did Lindbergh, who by now was America’s favorite aviator. He and Walter knew each other well, and in 1929 when Lindy needed an airplane to fly down to Mexico to visit his future wife, Ann Morrow, daughter of United States Ambassador Dwight Morrow, Walter happily provided a Type 6000B. While in Mexico, the airplane was damaged (not Lindbergh’s fault), but it was repaired and flown back to Wichita. In 1931, the Wadlow brothers, Truman and Newman, renamed the monoplane the Romancer, offering in-flight weddings and airborne accommodation for “courting.”
Production and deliveries of the Type 6000B continued unabated during 1929 as more and more orders poured into the factory. FAA records indicate that by the end of 1931 at least 150 had been built compared with only 10 to 12 of the Type A6000A.
Monthly sales of Travel Air biplanes and monoplanes peaked in June 1929 at $560,000. In September, the renamed Travel Air Company was absorbed into the giant Curtiss-Wright organization. Some engineering changes were made to the Type 6000B and A6000A, including installation of a larger, more panoramic windshield that greatly improved visibility and provided a more comfortable cockpit for the pilot and front seat passenger. The designations of these airplanes were changed to Type 6B and Type A6A and a new constructor number system was implemented to identify the Curtiss-Wright Travel Airs from the original monoplanes. During the early 1930s, several Type 6000B/6B monoplanes were exported to Mexico, Peru, Paraguay and Panama. Some of these airplanes were built as Type S6000B floatplanes.
Realizing that many customers would not need an airplane as large as the Type 6000B, Travel Air offered the smaller, four-place (including the pilot) Type 10 monoplane. It was similar to its larger siblings, but the wing featured a Gottingen 593 airfoil section. The airplane was offered with a choice of three engines: a Curtiss Challenger 185-horsepower, six-cylinder radial; the Wright Aeronautical R-760 rated at 225 horsepower; and the Wright J6-9 with 300 horsepower. The standard production version was the Type 10D equipped with the Wright J6-7. Only 11 examples of the 10B and 10D were built. Initially, prices ranged from $12,000 for the 10B and $11,000 for the 10D. Eventually, as the Great Depression deepened, prices were slashed as low as $5,500 with few or no buyers.
In the wake of Wall Street’s debacle of October 1929, orders for new airplanes industry-wide had slowed to a trickle. The business pulse of America was barely detectable as demand for new cars, trucks, houses and airplanes slowly dried up. Companies such as Travel Air became early victims of America’s swift and stunning economic collapse. Curtiss-Wright officials decided to close the Wichita division of the company and move all production to its facilities in St. Louis, Missouri. As for Walter Beech, he was elected a vice president at Curtiss-Wright but resigned early in 1932 to form the Beech Aircraft Company.
By the end of 1931 and into 1932, the few remaining employees were given layoff notices. Roy Edwards was one of the last employees retained by Curtiss-Wright and was ordered to sell off all of Travel Air’s factory equipment for pennies on the dollar. He recalled that only five years earlier the company did not have enough equipment to build airplanes fast enough, and now it was selling everything it owned with the giant factory complex going silent. The Travel Air Division in Wichita ceased to exist in September 1932.