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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.
Cessna Piston Twins
DECEMBER 2021
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 27