Page 23 - January 2015 Volume 9, Number1

Walter H. Beech and the
Ford Reliability Tours
“Air Tours” that made their debut in the mid-1920s thrust the Travel Air Manufacturing Company and Walter Beech into the public spotlight when the daring aviator claimed back-to-back victories in 1925 and 1926.
by Edward H. Phillips
Wichita, Kansas, in the early 1920s was still a sleepy little town tucked away amongst America’s once-vast prairielands. Known chiefly for its wheat industry, the city’s reputation began an exciting transition in 1925 when aviation planted its roots in the “Peerless Princess of the Prairie.” Three men, Clyde V. Cessna, Walter H. Beech and Lloyd C. Stearman had forged a new entity named the “Travel Air Manufacturing Company, Inc.” and set up shop in a tiny workspace behind the Broadview Hotel located downtown.
The infant company was struggling to meet growing demand for the “Model A” that was available with either the Curtiss OX-5 or OXX-6 of 90- and 100-horsepower, respectively. Company officials, led by vice president Walter H. Beech, realized that additional income was essential to help keep the balance sheets in the black. As a result, Travel Air soon began offering flight instruction at the flying field located about five miles from city center. A lease agreement with the City of Wichita was arranged and two Model A ships were located at the field and housed in makeshift hangars that were crude but functional.1
In addition to giving flight instruction to student pilots who could afford to pay the high price of $50 per hour, Travel Air operated an air taxi service at the field that was kept busy flying people to points within Kansas and beyond. The company also gave “joy rides” to the curious souls who wanted to experience soaring above the earth. According to company information provided to the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America, Inc., in 1925 the two hard-working Travel Airs made about 3,200 flights carrying an estimated 6,500 passengers a total of 75,000 miles. The revenue gained from these flight operations went into the company coffers and contributed substantially to paying the bills.
In today’s highly-regulated, ultra-sophisticated glass- cockpit and automated world of aviation, it is easy to forget that the birth and growth of commercial flying in the United States after World War I was a very slow and laborious process. Nearly 90 years ago, in an effort
JANUARY 2015
Early in 1926, a Travel Air Model “B” equipped with the navigation technol- ogy developed by Pioneer Instrument Company was flown on the East Coast to conduct flight tests and aid in development of the new earth inductor compass. The ship was powered by a Curtiss OXX-6 engine rated at 100 hp. (SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRAIRIES)
View of the Travel Air Model “BW” as it appeared in the 1926 Ford Reliability Tour equipped with Pioneer instrumentation. The fuselage
was slightly wider than a stock Model BW to accommodate installation
of equipment in the aft cockpit area. Two liquid compasses are visible, one below the upper wing center section and the other forward of the aft cockpit. The airplane was powered by a Wright J4 static, air-cooled radial engine rated at 200 hp. (SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRAIRIES)
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 21