Travel Air Manufacturing Company

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Travel Air Manufacturing Company

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1925
resolution 1929
Reason for dissolution Merger with Curtiss-Wright Corporation
Seat Wichita , Kansas
Branch Aircraft construction

Travel Air 6000
Travel Air Model D-4-D from 1928

The Travel Air Manufacturing Company was an American aircraft manufacturer from Wichita , Kansas . The company was founded in January 1925 by Clyde Cessna , Walter Beech , and Lloyd Stearman .

history

The company initially manufactured a range of sports and school double-deckers with an open cockpit . These included models A, B, BH and BW , the names of which were later changed. Other models included the high-wing 5000 and 6000 as well as the CW / 7000 mail plane .

Model A differed only in small details from model B. It did not have the overhanging horns on the ailerons , which were based on the Fokker D.VII and earned the other models in the series the nickname "Wichita Fokker". The models B, BH and BW differed only in the engine. Models A and B were powered by a Curtiss OX-5 . In the model BH was a Hispano-Suiza - V8 - engine installed and the model BW had a Curtiss-Wright - radial engine . Later, especially after the name was changed to 4000, the BW model was also equipped with other radial engines.

In addition to the Wichita Fokker, which in films like Hell's Angels of Howard Hughes played a role, a D4D with was registering N434N (a version of the model BW, the colors of Pepsi was painted) for air shows and skywriting used. This specimen has survived and is now in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC

A second copy of the D4D with the registration N343P, which was later used by Pepsi to supplement and replace the original aircraft, is in the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos , California .

The Travel Air 5000 was a design by Clyde Cessna , which was used in small numbers by the airline National Air Transport . Two of them were converted into long-haul aircraft in the style of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis . The Woolaroc , flown by Art Goebel , won the fateful Dole Air Race from Oakland in California to Hawaii , in which the majority of the participants disappeared over the sea without a trace or were killed in some other way.

Travel Air then manufactured the Model 6000 , a propped shoulder- wing aircraft with a cabin and five to six seats, which was intended for wealthy owners and for use by airlines.

In 1928, the National Air Transport Model 6000 operated on its mail and passenger routes between Chicago and Dallas and between Kansas City and New York . The Paraguayan government bought two Travel Air 6000s during the Chaco War for their air force's transport squadron. The aircraft received the registrations NC624K and NC9815 and the military IDs T-2 and T-5, which was later renamed the T-9. They were used as ambulance aircraft during the conflict . Both copies survived the war and initially remained with the Paraguayan Air Force. In 1945 they were handed over to the first Paraguayan airline, the Líneas Aéreas de Transporte Nacional (LATN) , and received the civil registrations ZP-SEC and ZP-SED. In 1947 they were retired.

The model CH or 7000 was not very successful and was used in Alaska as a bush plane for the transport of cargo and passengers. In contrast to the passengers, the pilot did not sit in the cabin, but behind it in an open cockpit.

Travel Air also manufactured a number of very successful racing planes , dubbed Mystery Ships by the press due to the company's secrecy. The Mystery Ships dominated the racing circuit for several years and had a reputation for being faster than anything the US military had to offer. This reputation led to a copy being sold to Italy and used as a model for racing aircraft designs and the Breda Ba.27 fighter aircraft .

In August 1929 the company merged with the Curtiss-Wright Corporation . Curtiss-Wright continued to manufacture various Travel Air constructions under different names. The model 4000 became the model 4 and the model 6000 became the model 6. Further models with the designations 8 to 16, which were about to be introduced, were also built under the leadership of Curtiss-Wright - for example the Curtiss -Wright CW-12 , which was sold in various variants in South American countries.

Co-founder Walter Beech left the company shortly after the merger with Curtiss-Wright.

Women's Air Derby

In August 1929, the first Women's Air Derby , also known as the Powder Puff Derby, was held. Of the twenty participants, seven flew a Travel Air plane and Louise Thaden won the race from Santa Monica to Cleveland . Opal Kunz came in eighth. The other five Travel Air machines were flown by Pancho Barnes , Claire Fahy , Marvel Crosson , Mary von Mack, and Blanche Noyes .

One of the strange starting conditions was that the planes had to have "women-friendly" engine power. Opal Kunz's plane was classified as too fast to be controlled by a woman. She was given the choice of using another aircraft or not participating in the race. With the prospect of a prize of 25,000 US dollars they bought a Travel Air with lower engine power and competed in the race.

Planes

literature

  • REG Davies: Airlines of the United States since 1914 . Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998, ISBN 1-888962-08-9 (English).
  • Bill Gunston: World Encyclopedia of Aircraft Manufacturers . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1993, pp. 307 (English).
  • Dan Hagedorn, Antonio Luis Sapienza: Aircraft of the Chaco War, 1928-1935 . Schiffer Publishing Co., Atglen, Pennsylvania 1996 (English).
  • Antonio Luis Sapienza Fracchia: La Contribución Italiana en la Aviación Paraguaya . Author's edition, Asunción 2007 (Spanish).

Web links

Commons : Travel Air aircraft  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ed Phillips: Woolarc! In: American Aviation Historical Society Journal . 1985 (English).
  2. ^ REG Davies: Airlines of the United States since 1914 . Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998, ISBN 1-888962-08-9 (English).
  3. ^ Travel Air to Merge With Curtiss-Wright . In: Lawrence Journal-World . August 7, 1929 (English, google.com ).
  4. ↑ Article in the Flight Journal . February 1998 (English).