Travel Air
Encyclopedia
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
in the United States in January 1925 by Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, and Lloyd Stearman.
Company history
The company initially built a series of sporting and training open-cockpit biplanes, including the Model A, Model B, Model BH, and Model BW. (renumbered so that A = 1000, B = 2000, BH = 3000, BW = 4000). Other types included the 5000 and 6000 high wing cabin monoplanes and the CW / 7000 mailplane.The A differed in some minor details such as lacking the overhanging Fokker
Fokker
Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names, starting out in 1912 in Schwerin, Germany, moving to the Netherlands in 1919....
style ailerons that gave the rest of the series the nickname Witchita Fokker (not present on all of the later models though), while the B, BH and BW differed only in the engine installed - the A and B had a Curtiss OX-5, the BH had a Hispano Suiza V-8, the BW had a Wright radial (of various types) though other radials would be installed later (especially after it became the 4000).
Aside from the Witchita Fokkers seen in such movies as Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
' Hell's Angels
Hell's Angels (film)
Hell's Angels is a 1930 American war film, directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jean Harlow, Ben Lyon, and James Hall. The film, which was produced by Hughes and written by Harry Behn and Howard Estabrook, centers on the combat pilots of World War I...
, likely the most famous of the open cockpit biplanes was a D4D (the ultimate derivitive of the BW) painted in Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
Colours for airshow use which survives in the Hiller Aviation Museum
Hiller Aviation Museum
The Hiller Aviation Museum, located in San Carlos, California, USA at the San Carlos Airport, is an aircraft history museum. The museum was founded by Stanley Hiller, Jr., in June 1998. and is endowed by members of the Hiller Family . It specializes in Northern California aircraft history and...
in San Carlos, California
San Carlos, California
San Carlos is a city in San Mateo County, California, USA on the San Francisco Peninsula, about halfway between San Francisco and San Jose. It is an affluent small residential suburb located between Belmont to the north and Redwood City to the south. San Carlos' ZIP code is 94070, and it is within...
.
The 5000 was a custom built long range high wing monoplane
Monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed wing aircraft.-Types of monoplane:...
similar in concept to Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
's Spirit of St. Louis
Spirit of St. Louis
The Spirit of St. Louis is the custom-built, single engine, single-seat monoplane that was flown solo by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris for which Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize.Lindbergh took off in the Spirit from Roosevelt...
, named Woolaroc which won the disastrous Dole Air Race
Dole Air Race
The Dole Air Race, also known as the Dole Derby, was a tragic air race to cross the Pacific Ocean from northern California to the Territory of Hawaii in August 1927. Of the 15-18 entrant airplanes, 11 were certified to compete but three crashed before the race, resulting in three deaths...
from Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
in which the majority of contestants disappeared at sea or otherwise died attempting the crossing. A second 5000 was built for airline service but wasn't successful.
Travel Air then produced the model 6000
Travel Air 6000
|-References:NotesBibliography* Auliard, Gilles. "Time Machine." Air Classics, April 2006.* Davies, R.E.G. Airlines of the United States since 1914. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998. ISBN 1-888962-08-9....
, a five or six-seat high-wing cabin monoplane intended for airline use, and for very wealthy private owners.
In 1928, National Air Transport operated the Type 6000 on their mail and passenger routes from Chicago to Dallas, Kansas City and New York. Two Travel Air 6000 were purchased by the Paraguayan government during the Chaco War
Chaco War
The Chaco War was fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the northern part of the Gran Chaco region of South America, which was incorrectly thought to be rich in oil. It is also referred to as La Guerra de la Sed in literary circles for being fought in the semi-arid Chaco...
(1932-1935) for the Transport Squadron of its Air Arm. These planes belonged to TAT with the registrations NC624K (c/n 6B-2011) and NC9815 (c/n 6B-1029); They received the military serials T-2 and T-5 (later reserialled as T-9). The planes were intensively used during the conflict as air ambulances. They both survived the war and continued flying in the Air Arm. In 1945, they were transferred to the first Paraguayan Airline, Líneas Aéreas de Transporte Nacional (LATN) and received the civil registrations ZP-SEC and ZP-SED. They were withdrawn from use in 1947.
The CH or 7000 found little success but ended up in Alaska as an early bushplane with an enclosed cabin for the cargo or passengers. Unfortunately the pilot was not given the protection of the cabin but sat behind it in an open cockpit.
Travel Air was also responsible for a series of very successful racing aircraft, which due to Travel Air being extremely secretive, were named Mystery Ships
Travel Air Type R Mystery Ship
|-References:NotesBibliography* Phillips, Edward H. Mystery Ship: A History of the Travel Air Type R Monoplanes . New Brighton, Minnesota: Flying Books International, 1999. ISBN 978-0911139297....
by the press. The Mystery Ships dominated the racing circuit for several years and had the distinction of being faster than anything the US military had on strength. Its renown led to one example being sold to the Italians which inspired the design of a racing aircraft and the Breda Ba.27
Breda Ba.27
|-See also:-External links:...
fighter.
The company was forced into liquidation in August 1929 by the drop in sales caused by the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. The company's assets were purchased by the Curtiss-Wright
Curtiss-Wright
The Curtiss-Wright Corporation was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the United States at the end of World War II, but has evolved to largely become a component manufacturer, specializing in actuators, aircraft controls, valves, and metalworking....
corporation, which continued to manufacture some of the Travel Air designs though they were renumbered again so that the 4000 became the 4, the 6000 became the 6. Additional types that had been close to production number from 8 to 16 were built while under Curtiss-Wright management such as the Curtiss-Wright CW-12
Curtiss-Wright CW-12
-See also:...
. which in various marks was sold to several South American countries.
One of the founders of Travel Air was Walter H. Beech who quit shortly after it was amalgamated into Curtiss Wright and later formed the Beechcraft
Beechcraft
Beechcraft is an American manufacturer of general aviation and military aircraft, ranging from light single engine aircraft to business jets and light military transports. Previously a division of Raytheon, it has been a brand of Hawker Beechcraft since 2006....
company where he would continue the numbering sequence with the Beechcraft 17 Staggerwing
Beechcraft Staggerwing
The Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing is an American biplane with an atypical negative stagger , that first flew in 1932.-Development:...
.
Powder Puff Derby
In August 1929, the first Women's Air DerbyWomen's Air Derby
The first Women’s Air Derby during the 1929 National Air Races, commonly known as the “Powder Puff Derby”, was the first official women’s only air race in the United States. Nineteen pilots took off from Santa Monica, California, on August 18, 1929...
was held. Of the 20 entrants in the Women's Air Derby, otherwise known as "the Powder Puff Derby", seven flew Travel Airs and it was Louise Thaden
Louise Thaden
Iris Louise McPhetridge Thaden was an aviation pioneer, holder of numerous aviation records, and the first woman to win the Bendix Trophy.-Birth and education:...
who won the Santa Monica, Calif., to Cleveland race. Opal Kunz
Opal Kunz
Opal Kunz, also known as Opal van Zandt Giberson Kunz was a noted early American aviator, the first president of the "Ninety-Nines", a women pilots’ organization, that was formed in her living room, and an early feminist. She was married to Dr. George Frederick Kunz.As an aviatrix, Opal Kunz...
finished eighth. The other five Travel Airs were flown by Pancho Barnes
Pancho Barnes
Florence Lowe "Pancho" Barnes was a pioneer aviator, the founder of the first test pilots union and the owner of the Happy Bottom Riding Club, a bar and restaurant. She broke Amelia Earhart's air speed record in 1930...
, Claire Fahy, Marvel Crosson, Mary von Mack and Blanche Noyes
Blanche Noyes
Blanche Noyes was an American pioneering female aviator who was among the first ten women to receive a pilot's license. She was Ohio's first licensed female pilot in 1929.-Biography:...
.
That there was overt sexism shown against this group of women was obvious from the first. One of the odd qualifications was that the aircraft would have to have horsepower “appropriate for a woman.” Opal Kunz was told her airplane was too fast for a woman to handle, and had to get another craft or stay out of the race. “…Though Opal Kunz owned and flew her own 300 horse power Travel Air, it was disallowed since it was deemed by the judges to be “too fast for a woman to fly.” With $25,000.00 in prize money at stake, she bought a lesser horsepower Travel Air craft to race.”
Aircraft
- Travel Air 1000
- Travel Air 2000, 3000 and 4000
- Travel Air 5000Travel Air 5000-External links:*...
- Travel Air 6000Travel Air 6000|-References:NotesBibliography* Auliard, Gilles. "Time Machine." Air Classics, April 2006.* Davies, R.E.G. Airlines of the United States since 1914. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998. ISBN 1-888962-08-9....
- Travel Air 7000
- Travel Air 8000 = renamed from 4000-CAM
- Travel Air 9000 = renamed from 4000-SH
- Travel Air 10 = a scaled down 6000 (small cabin monoplane)
- Travel Air 11 was converted from D-2000. B-11D was converted from 4-D
- Travel Air Type R Mystery ShipTravel Air Type R Mystery Ship|-References:NotesBibliography* Phillips, Edward H. Mystery Ship: A History of the Travel Air Type R Monoplanes . New Brighton, Minnesota: Flying Books International, 1999. ISBN 978-0911139297....
- Curtiss-Wright CW-12 Travel Air
- There was no 13...
- Curtiss Wright CW-14 Osprey
- Curtiss Wright CW-15 Sedan (improved 6/6000)
- Curtiss Wright CW-16