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Winstead, two of Wichita’s most skillful mechanics, to FOOTNOTES:
restore the ship to its configuration in the Dole race. After restoration it was flown to Arkansas City and placed in a hangar. In 1929, the airplane was removed from storage, inspected and made ready for a short flight to the Phillips ranch near Bartlesville, Oklahoma. By 1930, it had been placed on static display in a building on Phillip’s ranch. In 1980, it was moved to a large garage that had once housed automobiles and served as a bunkhouse for ranch hands, but the facility was woefully inappropriate for such a famous flying machine. In 1985 the old monoplane underwent a thorough restoration and the Woolaroc Museum on Phillips’ estate was expanded specifically to display the airplane.5
In addition to the Woolaroc, only one other Travel Air Type 5000 monoplane exists. It served with National Air Transport from 1927-1930 flying passengers on the Chicago-Dallas route before being gifted to Fort Worth aviation pioneer Amon Carter. In 2013-2014, it underwent a complete restoration and is on static display in downtown Fort Worth, Texas.6 KA
AFTERMATH
Of the eight airplanes that took off from Oakland on August 16, 1927, four soon returned to the airport and were out of the race, but another four managed to get airborne to begin the long journey toward Hawaii. These included the Woolaroc, Golden Eagle, Miss Doran and Aloha. Two hours after Art Goebel and William Davis arrived at Wheeler Field, pilot Martin Jensen and navigator Paul Schulter landed the Aloha to claim second place and $10,000.
The other two airplanes disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. No trace of the Lockheed or Buhl were ever found, despite a massive, week-long search that involved 40 ships of the U.S. Navy. The vessels swept 540,000 square miles of sea between the Farallon Islands and points 50 miles north and south of the Hawaiian Islands. A third airplane, the Swallow Dallas Spirit, was lost attempting to search for the others after taking off from Oakland on Friday, August 19. The death toll
1. Phillips, Edward H.: “Travel Air – Wings Over the Prairie;” Flying Books, Publishers and Wholesalers, Eagan, Minnesota; 1982.
2. Forden, Leslie: “Glory Gamblers – The Story of the Dole Race”; The Nottingham Press, Alameda, California; Second edition, 1986.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Meek, Ken: Woolaroc Museum, Bartlesville, Oklahoma;
conversations and correspondence, November/December 2014.
To read more about the Woolaroc go to www.woolaroc.org.
6. To read more about the Amon Carter Travel Air Transport go to http:facmuseum.org/travel_air_5000_saveaplane.aspx.
About the Author: Ed Phillips, now retired and living in the South, has researched and written eight books on the unique and rich aviation history that belongs to Wichita, Kan. His writings have focused on the evolution of the airplanes, companies and people that have made Wichita the “Air Capital of the World” for more than 80 years.
During the late 1920s, Goebel competed in air races and set numerous records for speed, including a west-to-east transcontinental dash flying a Lockheed Vega. (COURTESY OF WOOLAROC MUSEUM)
JULY 2015
As for Art Goebel, he went on to more fame (COURTESY OF WOOLAROC MUSEUM)
and fortune setting speed records and operating a flight school in Kansas City, Missouri. During World War II, he flew military transports in the Army Air Forces and retired with the rank of colonel. He died in December 1973, at age 78. His companion aboard the Woolaroc, Navy Lieutenant William V. Davis, Jr., had a distinguished career as a naval officer. He commanded Torpedo Squadron Five onboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Yorktown during the war and later served as captain of the carrier U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt.
After the war, Davis was appointed commanding officer of the Navy’s Patuxent River test facility in Maryland, and later became Deputy Chief of Naval Operations and Deputy Commander of the Atlantic Fleet. In 1949, Davis was the second naval aviator to fly faster than the speed of sound when he piloted the experimental research Douglas D-558 “Skyrocket.” His final assignment was Executive Director of the battleship U.S.S. Alabama (BB-60) that is permanently moored at Battleship Park in Mobile, Alabama. Davis died in July 1981. He also wrote his own account of the Dole Race entitled, “Long Trail with No Dust.”
for the race came to 10, including the pretty 22- year old, sixth-grade school teacher from Michigan, Mildred Doran. In addition, five airplanes were wrecked and thousands of dollars lost by financial supporters of the various contestants.
William Davis held increasingly important leadership positions in the U.S. Navy during World War II and the postwar era.
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