Page 30 - Volume 10 Number 10

engine rated at 90 horsepower. Laird estimated that the diminutive biplane would easily exceed 100 mph. The OX-5 powerplant, however, was replaced by a 150-horsepower Wright Martin Hispano-Suiza that propelled the racer to a maximum speed of about 125 mph. “Matty” and Walter Beech took turns flying the airplane in local and regional air races and were rewarded with a checkered flag at many of those events. The valuable prize money helped keep the company in the black. Walter would not forget the value of racing and its ability to contribute to the company coffers.
Beech flew the racer to vic-
tory at a race in nearby El
Dorado, Kansas, for airplanes
powered by engines in the
150-horsepower class, and
later placed second in a
race at St. Joseph, Missouri,
attaining a speed of 117 mph.
By December 1921, Laird and
Beech (particularly Beech) had
won 14 air racing events during
the spring, summer and early autumn months of that year. In addition, Walter and other company pilots earned money flying passengers on “joy rides” over Wichita. Sunday afternoons proved to be particularly profitable because large crowds came to the local flying field to observe flying and parachute jumping activities.
Laird and Beech were opposites in many ways, but both men shared a common passion for aviation. Whereas Walter was gregarious, always at ease speaking with total strangers, “Matty” was content to remain in the background. Despite their differences they learned to work together for a common cause – keeping Laird’s airplane company in business. As Beech’s flying experience increased, so did his talent for winning races and exhibitions. He flew a Swallow to victory at an air meet in Monmouth, Illinois, and won the aerobatic contest in addition to clinching first place in the race for OX-5-powered airplanes. Gradually, the press began to take notice of the novice aviator from Wichita. One newspaper reporter wrote that Beech “startles pilots and onlookers, first by a 2,000-foot tailspin, then by 22 consecutive loops that set the throng on fire, and later by five Immelmann turns and a direct sidewise flight before landing.”2
In June 1922, Walter continued his winning ways by earning $300 during an exhibition at El Dorado,
28 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
Kansas, and a team of aviators from Wichita flying won first prize in every event they entered. Not to be outdone by his contemporaries, Beech placed first in the dead-stick landing competition, won the aerobatic contests and a race for airplanes in the 150-horsepower class, placed first in the Free-For-All event and won the race for Swallow biplanes. As the summer wore on, Walter just kept on winning. In July he took home $750 at an “air meet” held in Detroit, Michigan, and in September earned a whopping $1,000 by finishing first in a 250-mile race held at Okmulgee, Oklahoma. In October, Beech returned to Detroit and captured first place and another $1,000 for flying a commercial airplane with the heaviest load over the longest distance. In addition, that month he completed a highly successful 1922 racing season by winning the “On To Detroit” race, pocketing another $500.
Despite Walter’s success at air shows and exhibitions, by 1923 the E.M. Laird Company was in financial trouble. To make matters worse, Laird and business partner Jacob Moellendick did not agree on how the business should grow, and in October Matty resigned, returned to Chicago and established the E.M. Laird Airplane Company in rented facilities near Ashburn Field. Meanwhile back in Wichita, Moellendick promoted Lloyd Stearman to chief designer and Walter
Beech managed manufacturing and sales.
As 1924 drew to a close, Beech and Stearman resigned to build a new three-place, open cockpit biplane recently designed by Lloyd. With the help of a few local businessmen and thanks to a healthy injection of money from pioneer aviator Clyde V. Cessna, they created the Travel Air Manufacturing Company, Inc. In March 1925, the first Travel Air Model “A” made its initial flight. Walter Beech knew he would have to return to the cockpit and earn Travel Air some hard cash if it was to survive its first year of existence.
Beech had helped make the Swallow a household word in the fledgling aviation community, and he was quick to put that same expertise to work in demonstrating the Model A. Winning races and competing in events at aerial exhibitions would bring in much-needed cash to pay the company’s small workforce. There were plenty of air races, and Walter wasted no time getting the new
Emil Matthew “Matty” Laird was a self-taught aviator and aircraft designer who played a critical role in establishing Wichita, Kansas, as an important city for the growth of commercial aviation in the early 1920s. Chicago-bred, in 1919 Laird joined forces with Kansas oilman and aviation visionary Jake Moellendick to build the Swallow.
(EDWARD H. PHILLIPS COLLECTION)
OCTOBER 2016