Page 30 - Volume 15 Number 11

In August 1927, the Travel Air Type 5000 Woolaroc won the Dole Race from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. Beech posed with pilot Arthur Goebel (right) soon after the monoplane was completed that summer.
(Edward H. Phillips Collection)
throughout the facility except for certain areas such as the dope room where special fireproof doors were installed. If a fire broke out, the doors were designed to contain flames within the shop and prevent the fire from spreading to other areas. Travel Air’s modern factory had a total floor space of 21,650 square feet and cost the company $32,000 to construct to original specifications laid down in 1926 by Beech and Cessna. Five offices were included at the west end of the building for Walter, secretary and office manager Olive Ann Mellor and her assistants.
By mid-summer all production had been transferred with only minor interruptions. At that time 11 Type 5000 aircraft were under construction for NAT and other customers. Three had been delivered to NAT and five more scheduled to be completed within the next few months to finish the order. In the wake of Charles A. Lindbergh’s solo flight from New York to Paris one month earlier in May, Travel Air was soon inundated with orders for the Type “B” and Type “BW” biplanes as well as the Type 5000 monoplane.
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As autumn approached it became obvious to Beech and factory manager William “Bill” Snook that a second factory unit was essential to meet production requirements. A flood of orders for new ships had created a five-month backlog and Beech had to find a solution, and fast! Fortunately, the Henrion Company was able to begin construction of a second building in late September. Although possessing the same dimensions as the first (but without office space), the new unit would be dedicated largely to dope and fabric work. To minimize the danger of a fire spreading to other shops, the large workspace would feature the same fireproof doors as the first unit, now known as Factory “A.” In addition, a large concrete ramp area would be poured between “A” and the new unit, separating the structures by 100 feet.
Pilot Arthur Goebel, victor of the Dole Race from California to the Territory of Hawaii in August, flew the Woolaroc to Travel Air Field. In a brief ceremony October 5, Beech made a speech commemorating the event, Goebel laid the cornerstone for Factory “B” before
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