Page 20 - June Volume 10 Volume 6

The Air Capital of the World: REVIVAL
By the early 1930s, the Great Depression had decimated Wichita’s once booming aircraft industry, but a few courageous entrepreneurs were willing to gamble everything to put new wings on their dreams.
by Edward H. Phillips
As the wave of economic devastation continued its sweep across America in 1931, sales of new commercial airplanes remained in a tailspin. Every airframe, engine and component manufacturer in the country was struggling to keep its doors open and its workforce employed.
A look at some statistics from the period will illuminate the situation quite clearly: According to the Aircraft Year Book for 1931, production of new commercial and military aircraft that year was only half of what it was
in 1929. American airframe manufacturers built 2,684 new airplanes in 1930 compared with 6,034 the previous year. Of these, 1,937 were commercial ships and another 747 were procured for the military. The number of new and used aircraft actually sold in 1930 (commercial and military) totaled 3,125.
Wichita’s crippled aircraft industry contributed little to those numbers as demand for small airplanes continued to shrink. By 1932, the city’s only major airframe manufacturer still operating was the Stearman Aircraft Company that had managed to survive during 1930-1931 thanks to its corporate relationship with parent United Aircraft & Transport Corporation (UA&TC). Before the new Stearman factory opened for business in December 1930, Lloyd Stearman and businessman Walter Innes, Jr., hosted a meeting of the Wichita Manufacturers Club. During the event, City Manager Bert C. Wells, who also served as head of the town’s Unemployment Conference Committee, urged businessmen to “refrain as far as possible from decreasing their forces” and suggested that if “they could not work more than half a force,” to work “all the men half of the time instead of half of them all of the time.” In addition, he pleaded with members of the organization not to cut wages any further. The Stearman facility was the only active airframe manufacturer in Wichita and employed only 125 men and women. Their wages, once among the best in the nation, had been slashed in an effort to stem the flood of red ink brought on by an industry that had almost collapsed overnight. The employees, however, were happy to have a job because more than 100 of their fellow workers had been laid off.
In addition to Lloyd Stearman and Mac Short, famed aeronautical engineer John K. “Jack” Northrop would play a minor role in the history of the Stearman company. Northrop had designed and built the Alpha series of modern, all-metal monoplanes.1 Back in 1929, officials of UA&TC, in particular its president Frederick B. Rentschler, decided to absorb the Avion/Northrop Aircraft Corporation. In 1931, Rentschler consolidated the Northrop and Stearman companies and relocated Northrop’s operation to Wichita. Walter Innes viewed the consolidation with enthusiasm, stating to the press that the transfer of men and equipment from Burbank,
Despite America’s worsening economic situation, the Stearman Aircraft Company continued to advertise its products. The full-page artwork illustrated here shows a Model 4E Junior Speed Mail built in 1930 expressly for the Standard Oil Company of California. A total of three were built and delivered. Another Model 4E was built for the Standard Oil Company of Louisiana. All four biplanes were powered by various Pratt & Whitney static, air-cooled radial engines. (KANSAS AVIATION MUSEUM)
18 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
JUNE 2016