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being rushed off to the west side of town to dedicate Clyde Cessna’s factory, followed by officiating at the opening of Lloyd Stearman’s facility north of the city (Stearman had recently returned to Wichita after a year’s absence in California).
To relieve pressure on the production line while the new building was under construction, Walter and the board of directors notified Travel Air dealers and distributors that no new orders would be accepted during September and October. Meanwhile, the Henrion Company worked feverishly and met Walter’s deadline of late December for completion.
As 1927 drew to a close, Beech was quietly engaged in discussions with chief engineer Horace Weihmiller about design and construction of a new monoplane tentatively designated as the Type 6000. Walter was convinced that the success of the Type 5000 on NAT’s airline passenger routes between Chicago, Dallas and other cities in the Midwest justified producing a cabin monoplane aimed directly at companies and corporations. The business owner who flew was an emerging and potentially lucrative market for airframe manufacturers such as Travel Air. Design work on the monoplane commenced late in 1927 but a prototype would not be ready to fly until April 1928.
With 1927 at its end, Beech could look back on what had been a banner year for a small company that had
been in business for less than three years. The value of stock had skyrocketed to $150 per share from only $50 in 1925. Capitalization, too, had increased significant to about $200,000 from the original $50,000. Best of all, Ms. Mellor reported to President Beech that the company had an order for every day of 1928!
As of Dec. 31, 1927, Travel Air had built and delivered 200 airplanes since its founding in 1925. These included 162 Type “B” (Curtiss OX-5 or OXX-6), 16 Type BW (200 horsepower Wright J-4), five Type BH (Wright/ Hispano-Suiza V-8) and 18 Type 5000 monoplanes (200-225-horsepower Wright J-5 radial). In his first year as president, Walter had demonstrated his ability to manage a profitable company that was expanding rapidly into one of America’s highly respected aircraft companies. The next year would prove to be more successful than the farm boy from Tennessee could ever have imagined. KA
Ed Phillips, now retired and living in the South, has researched and written eight books on the unique and rich aviation history that belongs to Wichita, Kansas. His writings have focused on the evolution of the airplanes, companies and people that have made Wichita the “Air Capital of the World” for more than 80 years.
NOVEMBER 2021
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 29