Page 32 - Volume 10 Number 10

Walter Beech (left) congratulates aeronautical engineer Mac Short (center) and fellow pilot Lloyd Stearman on the rollout of the Travel Air Special they designed for air racing. Late in 1924, Beech, Stearman and Clyde Cessna, in concert with a few local businessmen who believed in the future of aviation, combined forces to create the Travel Air Manufac- turing Company. By 1925, when the Special flew for the first time, Beech was not only vice president of the company, but served as chief pilot and salesman. He flew the Special to victory at many air races and air show events to help meet the infant company’s payroll.
(EDWARD H. PHILLIPS COLLECTION)
Travel Air before the eyes of the public. During the past four years he had built a solid reputation as a pilot and salesman, and his name was already well known not only in the Midwest United States, but on both coasts as well.
Fortunately, an excellent opportunity presented itself in September 1925 when Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford,
donated a special trophy made of gold and silver to the Detroit Board of Commerce. The Board planned to award the trophy (which stood four feet tall) as part of an “air tour” intended to prove the reliability of the airplane as the latest mode of transportation. Officially designated “The National Air Tour for the Edsel B. Ford Reliability Trophy,” the name was often shortened to merely “the Ford Tour.” It was to be an annual event aimed chiefly at promoting advancements in aviation design, manufacture and performance, as well as development of a national infrastructure to support the fledgling aircraft industry.3
This well-known photograph captures the essence of aviator Walter H. Beech. By the time he retired from flying in 1945, he had accumulated more than 10,000 hours in the air. (EDWARD H. PHILLIPS COLLECTION)