At the 1929 National Air Races in September, Walter H. Beech unleashed the Travel Air Type “R” monoplane that crushed the competition and ended dominance of the military biplane. The relentless heat of a Kansas summer was in full force during August 1929 in Wichita – the self-proclaimed “Air Capital of the World.” The city’s…
In 1930 America’s economy was in a tailspin when the Stearman Aircraft Company introduced the Model 6 biplane – a rugged design but one that found few commercial buyers and was rejected by the military as a primary trainer. The “Roarin’ Twenties” had been good to Wichita’s airframe manufacturers. In 1928, for example, the city’s…
Cessna Aircraft Company’s commercial Model T-50 was designed for airlines and air taxi service but evolved into one of the best twin-engine military trainers of World War II. In June 1939, officials of the Cessna Aircraft Company announced a major expansion of facilities that would allow for increased production of the single-engine Airmaster and the…
In 1926 the Travel Air Manufacturing Company offered pilots the “Type BH” biplane powered by the superb Hispano-Suiza V-8 engine. In an effort to expand the Travel Air Manufacturing Company’s product line, Walter Beech and the engineering department mated the proven Type “B” airframe with the war-surplus Hispano-Suiza engine rated at 180 horsepower. Following the…
During the late 1940s and into the 1950s the cyclical nature of the commercial and military aviation business forced the Beech Aircraft Corporation to seek new sources of revenue to survive. “It is said – not by us at Beechcraft but by those whose profession it is to know such things, that the history of…
The two-place Model 120/140 were modern, all-metal designs that established Wichita’s Cessna Aircraft Company as a leader in the highly competitive personal, training and business aviation markets. After five years of massive bloodshed, incalculable destruction and indescribable human suffering, World War II had ended in victory for the allied nations. During that terrible time the…
A century ago, the Laird Swallow launched Wichita, Kansas, on its way to becoming the “Air Capital of the World.” In 1920 a number of significant events occurred: the Treaty of Versailles took effect, officially ending World War I; the 19th Amendment became law, giving women the right to vote and Adolf Hitler organized the…
During the mid-1940s the Cessna Aircraft Company worked overtime to meet soaring demand for modern, all-metal monoplanes. In August 1945, after more than five years of vicious fighting, the worst war the world had ever experienced was finally over. Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, which he boasted would last a thousand years, was gone after only…
In 1933 the Stearman Aircraft Company’s Model 73 biplane helped save the company and brought national recognition of Wichita, Kansas, as a major provider of commercial and military aircraft. Five years after the worst economic debacle in American history had gutted Wall Street and laid waste to billions of dollars-worth of investments, personal fortunes and…
Sales success of the Cessna C-34 led to three improved versions of the versatile monoplane before the winds of war forced an end to production. The year 1936 witnessed a slow return to economic stability for the United States. Times were still tough and unemployment remained high, but Americans were going back to work thanks…