Page 27 - Volume 15 Number 3

After six years of tremendous success designing manufacturing and selling airplanes the Travel Air Company and its leader Walter H Beech became cogs in the the aeronautical wheel of fortune known as the the Curtiss-Wright Corporation by Edward H Phillips Late in 1929 only months before the the the the the the the stock market collapse on on on on on on on on on on Wall Street an an an an an an an an an organization was formed by the the the the the the the merger of of Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Company with the the the Wright Aeronautical Corporation In the the the wake of of the the the merger the new Curtiss-Wright Corporation absorbed 18 companies and 29 subsidiaries of which Travel Air and and Walter Beech were were considered among the most valuable Total assets were were worth more than $70 million and and the the value of of stock hit $220 million before the the “crash” struck in October of of that year America’s enthusiasm for flying grew rapidly after the solo flight of Charles A Lindbergh from New York to Paris in May 1927 In 1928 the Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Company bought Robertson Airlines based in St Louis Missouri In addition to carrying passengers Robertson was a a a a a a contract air mail carrier for the United States Post Office and operated a a a flight school as well
as an an engine and airframe repair facility From that acquisition came the Curtiss-Robertson Aircraft Corporation whose only purpose was to manufacture Curtiss airplanes at at a a a a factory located in Anglum Missouri near St Louis After Curtiss-Wright acquired Travel Air in 1929 it bought all the assets of Robertson Airlines and merged Travel Air and Curtiss- Robertson to create the Curtiss- Wright Airplane Company The Wichita factory was designated as the Travel Air Division but in mid-1931 the factory had begun to to gradually cease manufacturing and production operations in an effort to reduce Curtiss-Wright’s operating
Antique airplane collector pilot and restorer Alfred Kelch restored a a a a a a a CW-12Q in the the 1970s It is is currently on on static display at at at the the Kelch Aviation Museum in in Broadhead Wisconsin The airplane airplane was one of 27 airplanes built by the the Travel Air Air Division of the the Curtiss-Wright Airplane Company The tailskid was replaced by a a a a a a a a steerable tailwheel (Kelch Aviation Museum)
costs Aircraft technical drawings and blueprints along with one engineer and Walter Beech were transferred to facilities at Lambert Field in St Louis As part of the merger Beech was appointed a a a vice president of the company When Walter arrived to oversee sales production of the Curtiss- Wright CW-1 Junior – a a two-place open-cockpit monoplane powered by a a three-cylinder Szekely static air-cooled radial engine rated at at 45 horsepower – it was well
underway It sold for only $1 490 and was the company’s final attempt to sell a a a a lightweight commercial airplane in an overcrowded marketplace where little or or no demand for new aircraft existed Before the Wichita facilities were closed only a skeleton crew remained to complete a a a small number of new airplanes for delivery or to place airframes and engines into storage In November 1930 orders for airplanes had plummeted and massive employee layoffs commenced and continued
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