Page 30 - Volume 14 Number 4

28 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
APRIL 2020
The first Laird Tractor under construction in downtown Wichita. The biplane’s chief feature was the front cockpit that could accommodate two or three people. (Joan Laird Post Collection)
In the prairie city of Wichita, Kansas, however, the Roarin’ Twenties seemed light years away. Founded in the early 1870s when America was rapidly expanding to the west, by 1919 the town’s economy was largely based on agriculture and crude oil. Wheat was still king but an increasing number of wildcat wells dotted the landscape.
Although its citizens could not have known what the future held in 1920, the Peerless Princess of the Prairie stood on the threshold of a new era that would replace wheat with wings. In 1919 the Aviation Committee of the Chamber of Commerce had designated a large field north of downtown as Wichita’s official “aerodrome.” One member of that committee, Jacob Melvin Moellendick, believed fervently in the airplane as a vehicle for commercial transportation, and he was seriously interested in forming a company aimed directly at promoting air travel.
Fortunately for “Jake,” as he was known around town, he had the money to make that dream come true. Oil had made him a wealthy man. He often made “air trips” to his drilling sites east of the city flying in the front cockpit of a war- weary Curtiss Canuck (a Canadian version of the ubiquitous Curtiss JN-4 Jenny) operated by the Wichita Aircraft Company, of which he was a principal investor.
The company and its well- maintained airfield were located northeast of the city. Funded chiefly by Moellendick, the fledgling operation offered flight training, an air taxi service and planned to create a passenger/freight airline route between Wichita, Kansas City, Kansas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Thanks to Moellendick’s cash, four hangars were eventually erected on the airfield to house three Canucks.
The photograph taken in 1920 shows four fuselages under construction in Laird’s manufacturing facilities located in downtown Wichita. Simple jigs and fixtures were used to fabricate the wood fuselage.
(Joan Laird Post Collection)