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During a cold December in 1924, Walter H. Beech and Lloyd C. Stearman contemplated forming a new airplane company, but they needed help. They met with their friend Clyde V. Cessna, one of America’s true aviation pioneers, who agreed to join the two young men in their ambitious endeavor.
All three men were seasoned aviators. Beech learned to fly in the U.S. Army Signal Corps after the end of World War I. Stearman became a pilot in 1920, and Cessna had been flying monoplanes of his own design since 1912 and operated the Cessna Exhibition Company until 1917.
Beech and Stearman were employed by the Swallow Airplane Manufacturing Company in Wichita, Kansas, led by Jacob Melvin Moellendick. In the wake of a strong disagreement between Beech, Stearman and Moellendick that centered on Jake’s blunt refusal to upgrade the Swallow’s wood airframe to welded steel tubing, Walter and Lloyd bravely decided to strike out on their own and build a better biplane.
In February 1925, the new company known as Travel Air, Inc. received its charter of incorporation from the State of Kansas and began
“Today there is a bit of Travel Air DNA in every Beechcraft King Air.”
constructing the first Model A biplane in the Kansas Planing Mill Company in Wichita. Originally conceived by Stearman, the airplane was a three-place, open-cockpit design powered by the ubiquitous, war-surplus Curtiss OX-5 engine rated at 90 horsepower. The welded fuselage and empennage structures featured 1020-grade commercial steel tubing, but the wings were of conventional wood construction.
On March 13, the first Travel Air made a successful maiden flight, flown by local aviator Irl Beach, and later that month it was sold to O.E. Scott of St. Louis, Missouri. The company was soon overwhelmed by orders for the Model A, and it became clear that a secretary and office manager was desperately needed to handle paperwork. To fulfill that important position, Clyde Cessna hired 22-year-old Olive Ann Mellor, a native of Waverly, Kansas.
By November, the renamed Travel Air Airplane Manufacturing Company had relocated production across the Arkansas River from Downtown Wichita. Lloyd Stearman replaced the Model A with the Model B, and in January 1926, the Model BW made its debut. It was powered by the new Wright Aeronautical nine- cylinder, J4 static, air-cooled radial engine rated at 200 horsepower.
FEBRUARY 2025
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 25