Page 23 - Volume 12, Number 3

many experiments with airfoil designs, drag reduction, engines of all types; supercharging and turbocharging systems, lubricants, fuels, propellers and armaments. Mac resigned from McCook and enrolled in the equally prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned a Master’s Degree in Aeronautical Engineering in June 1925.2
By contrast, after the war Lloyd Stearman went to work as an apprentice architect at a company in Wichita, but in 1919 he was hired by aviation pioneer E.M. Laird as an assistant designer. At that time Laird was beginning to manufacture a three-place, double-bay, open-cockpit biplane known as the “Swallow.” Lloyd finally learned to fly in 1920 and when Laird resigned and departed Wichita in 1923, Stearman was elevated to chief engineer.
During 1921 he had become friends with Walter Beech, who served not only as general manager of the Swallow Airplane Manufacturing Company, but also developed into a successful salesman, demonstration and exhibition pilot. In 1922-1923, Walter flew various types of Laird airplanes in air races, including one or two that were highly modified Swallow biplanes featuring clipped wings and powered by war-surplus 150-180-horsepower Wright-Hispano Suiza V-type, eight-cylinder engines.
During the late summer of 1925, Short and Stearman approached Walter Beech about building a biplane for
By 1922 Walter Beech was general manager of the Swallow Aircraft Manufacturing Company, had become a talented salesman and was well known in the Midwest region of the United States as an air race pilot.
(SEDGWICK COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM)
MARCH 2018 KING AIR MAGAZINE • 21