Page 20 - Volume12 Number 5

The Hollywood Travel Air
In 1928 Tinseltown’s Wallace Beery paid Walter H. Beech $18,500 cash for a custom- built Travel Air Type A6000A cabin monoplane that, in terms of luxury, performance and quality, foreshadowed the Beechcraft King Air that flew 36 years later.
by Edward H. Phillips
On a typical business day late in 1927, Walter H. Beech, president of the Travel Air Manufacturing Company located in Wichita, Kansas, sat at his desk puffing on his ubiquitous pipe. By this time in his career Walter had traded the open cockpit of a biplane for the comfort of a spacious office, and a fur-lined flying suit and leather goggles for a custom-made, three-piece business suit and tie.
Since taking the helm of the company following the resignation of pioneer aviator Clyde V. Cessna and talented designer Lloyd C. Stearman, Walter had begun to build Travel Air into one of America’s foremost airframe manufacturers. As one of Wichita’s earliest aviation enterprises, Travel Air had grown from a product line of one biplane, the 1925 Model A, to nearly half a dozen biplanes and one monoplane. Although most of Travel Air ships built were being bought by sportsman pilots, flying schools and clubs, as well as air taxi operators, Beech noticed that an increasing number of businessmen were buying airplanes and using them for business travel – air travel. The country’s extensive railway system was an important asset, but trains were slow compared to the speed of an airplane, and that meant more time doing business and less time riding the rails and enduring layovers.
Walter Beech decided it was time to expand the product line further by offering a cabin monoplane
designed with the businessman in mind. The company had been building monoplanes since 1926, and in August 1927 Hollywood stunt pilot Arthur Goebel and navigator William Davis had flown a Type 5000 dubbed the Woolaroc from California to Wheeler Field, Territory of Hawaii, to win the Dole Race and $25,000 in first prize money.
The Type 5000, however, was not marketable as a business aircraft. It was designed primarily for short-haul airline and light cargo service and was far too utilitarian inside and out to meet the needs of the businessman. As a result, Walter took action. He ordered an in-depth market survey (one of the earliest for aviation) to find out if businessmen would buy a Travel Air cabin monoplane, a fresh, modern design where they could conduct business aloft in shirtsleeve comfort instead of a cold, noisy open cockpit. The businessman who flew was a new marketing opportunity for all airplane manufacturers, and Beech intended to keep Travel Air ahead of the competition.
The company’s chief engineer, Horace Weihmiller, listened to Walter as he explained his concept for the businessman’s Travel Air. It would have to be fast, powerful, have a two-place cockpit, wheel brakes, and above all, a spacious cabin that could be equipped with useful options such as a lavatory with hot/cold running water, a typewriter, a desk and perhaps a mimeograph machine and a Dictaphone. In addition, Beech dispatched
The Type 5000 cabin monoplane was originally designed for service with National Air Transport flying passengers and mail but was unsuitable for business aviation. (TEXTRON AVIATION)
18 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
MAY 2018