Page 27 - February 2015 Volume 9, Number 2

Walter Beech learned the importance of sales and product support beginning with the Travel Air Model “A” biplane of 1925. It was the first and the most prolific product of the Travel Air Manufacturing Company with more than 600 delivered from 1925-1930. War-surplus Curtiss OX-5 and OXX-6 engines were plentiful and inexpensive but not always reliable. Trouble with these powerplants forced Beech to order additional flight tests before customers accepted their new airplanes. (EDWARD H. PHILLIPS COLLECTION)
the increasingly dark danger that was closing in for the kill. For men such as Walter H. Beech, who had served as president of Travel Air since 1927, the collapse was both swift and devastating.
In the wake of the debacle on Wall Street, Mr. Beech may have sadly recalled that less than a year earlier the company had not only smashed all previous sales records up to that time, but was sitting on orders for new airplanes worth more than $300,000 (and that was just one month’s tally!). With customer demand far exceeding limited production capacity, delivery schedules soon became unmanageable. For example, in June 1929 the company was struggling to build 25 airplanes per week despite employing about 600 workers in three shifts, five and occasionally six days a week.
A great deal of credit for Travel Air’s bountiful success during 1928 and well into 1929 was due to the sales and marketing talents of Ray W. Brown and Owen G. Harned. Brown was hired by Walter Beech in 1928 and was instrumental in building a strong sales force in the field, while Harned formulated sales policy and led efforts to construct a worldwide network of Travel Air distributors that would prove highly successful. In addition to these duties, Brown was in charge of sales in the region between Cleveland, Ohio, and Denver, Colo.; Harned was responsible for the entire East Coast region. Both men were competent aviators as well as savvy salesmen. Another important facet of their jobs was to fly new Travel Air aircraft and visit every dealer and distributor in the United States. By doing so they established new dealerships, implemented sales policies
and taught personnel sales techniques and methods, particularly how to “close the sale.”
One distinct advantage of Travel Air’s acquisition by Curtiss-Wright in August 1929 was the availability of up to $10 million in financing for customers buying aircraft built by the corporation’s subsidiaries. These included, in addition to Travel Air, Wright Aeronautical Corporation (static, air-cooled radial engines), Curtiss Flying Service (Cessna and Curtiss airplanes) and Keystone/Loening (land and amphibious aircraft), all of which had access to the massive fund to help finance sales. It made buying an airplane almost as easy as buying a house or an automobile.
The years at Travel Air not only taught Walter Beech the ups and downs of the capricious airplane business, but also impressed upon him the value of an effective marketing, sales and support infrastructure. He also realized the value of a repeat customer and their loyalty to Travel Air airplanes. If a customer was treated fairly and with respect, he would probably return when ready to make another purchase. Mr. Beech believed and practiced that philosophy and worked diligently to instill it in every employee from the front office to the factory shops and flight line.
To keep an accurate track of what was transpiring in the field, dealers were required to complete a monthly sales form that was evaluated by the appropriate distributor and sent to the factory in Wichita. Office manager Ms. Olive Ann Mellor and her office ladies kept a file on every dealer and distributor for perusal by Mr. Beech or other company officials. In today’s electronic world of customer support, it may surprise King Air owners and operators to learn that Travel Air did not publish service manuals – maintenance was simply accomplished according to “acceptable practices and methods” of maintaining airworthiness. It was not until 1928 when the Type 6000 cabin monoplane was introduced that the first maintenance manual, albeit brief and simplistic, was provided to mechanics in the field.
The Type 6000 cabin monoplane was not the first of its kind but can be considered the “great granddaddy” of the future Beechcraft King Air. Walter Beech took a major interest in the design and development program. During 1928, he expended a great deal of time and effort surveying potential customers nationwide about the airplane. The day of the open cockpit business biplane was coming to an end – the cabin monoplane was the way of the future.
By the end of 1929, the Type 6000 series accounted for about 50 percent of Travel Air sales. (EDWARD H. PHILLIPS COLLECTION)
FEBRUARY 2015
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 25