Page 24 - Volume 11 Number 11

Walter Beech and the Dole Race to Hawaii
Soon after “Lucky Lindy’s” solo flight from New York to Paris in May 1927, Wichita’s Travel Air Company was deluged with orders for airplanes capable of flying nonstop to Honolulu. Competing in the trans-Pacific free-for-all would be risky business, but Walter Beech welcomed the challenge.
In June 1927, anyone walking past the office of Travel Air President Walter H. Beech would not have been surprised to see him puffing on his ubiquitous pipe as a column of smoke slowly rose to the ceiling. Earlier that year Beech had inherited the top management position from his friend and fellow aviation pioneer, Clyde V. Cessna, following the latter’s resignation to establish his own company.
Walter was busy perusing a pile of 17
telegrams on his desk, slowly sifting through each one in an attempt to digest its message. The local telegraph operator had been busy delivering them during the past few days, and more were anticipated. The telegrams all had one thing in common: How soon can Travel Air build an airplane to compete in the Dole Race?
It is hard for Americans today to understand just how tightly “flying fever” gripped the nation in the wake of Charles Lindbergh’s epic crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. To the public, whose generally negative perception of flight stemmed from deadly dogfights during the Great War, aviation was viewed as a new and dangerous activity with little or no future. In 1927, flying to Paris was akin to Apollo 11’s flight to the moon in 1969.
In February, the young airmail pilot had sent a telegram to Mr. Beech asking if Travel Air could build an airplane capable of reaching Paris. Yes, the company could design and construct such a ship, but Travel Air also had an obligation to meet existing orders from paying customers. In view of the very tight timeline of less than three months, Beech had no choice but to decline the opportunity. He was aware of the pressure the factory was experiencing as workers struggled to complete a contract for National Air Transport. The airline had ordered eight of Travel Air’s Type 5000 cabin monoplanes for service on its Chicago-Dallas route, and only three had been delivered.
Only four days after “Lindy” plunked down his Ryan monoplane on Le Bourget Field in Paris, half a world
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away in Hawaii a banner headline appeared in Honolulu’s Star Bulletin newspaper. James D. Dole, a prominent pineapple tycoon, was offering $25,000 to the first pilot to fly nonstop from the North American continent to Honolulu “within one year after the year beginning August 12, 1927.” The second place pilot would receive $10,000. As Dole Race historian Lesley Forden wrote, “And thus it was that James Dole, in his admiration for Charles Lindbergh and his enthusiasm to hasten air transportation to the Hawaiian Islands, launched the greatest air race of the time – a spectacular if ill-advised transoceanic marathon that would result for many flyers in financial frustration, hardship, and for others, death.”1
Although Dole’s contest was aimed at aviators flying commercial aircraft, the U.S. Army made the first nonstop flight to the Territory of Hawaii in the summer of 1927. On June 28, Lieutenants Lester Maitland and Albert Hegenberger took off from Oakland airport in their specially-prepared Fokker C-2 monoplane Bird of Paradise powered by a trio of Wright Whirlwind static, air-cooled radial engines. After a flight that lasted more than 25 hours, the C-2 landed at the Army’s Wheeler Field near Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii.2
by Edward H. Phillips
By the summer of 1927, Walter Beech (far left) was leading the Travel Air Manufacturing Company to new heights of success. His decision to build not one, but two, Travel Air Transports for the Dole competition was a bold but risky move. Art Goebel (third from left) had to convince Beech to build the Woolaroc and that he was the best pilot to fly it. (COURTESY MARY LYNN OLIVER)
NOVEMBER 2017