Travel Air:
Wings Over the Prairie

by Ed Phillips

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Travel Air Airplane Manufacturing Company produced some of the most famous aircraft in the 1920s, including the Travel Air 5000 and the sleek “Mystery Ship” Racers. 

Travel Air achieved worldwide fame by 1929 as a builder of high quality commercial biplanes and monoplanes. Every facet of the company’s history is chronicled, including the "Mystery Ship" racers.

The Travel Air firm was also responsible for four aviation legends firmly establishing themselves in Wichita and forming the nexus between Wichita and world aviation: These include Walter Beech, Olive Ann Mellor (later Olive Ann Beech), Clyde Cessna, and Lloyd Stearman.

Book includes technical and construction data on every model including 3-view Scale Drawings.

The 1920s witnessed growing interest in air travel and "the businessman who flew was a new market for all airplane companies." At Travel Air a "sedan model," targeted "businessmen who needed fast, comfortable travel capability." It proved to be the "most successful and worthy of the Travel Air name." A high wing, semi-cantilever monoplane with a fully enclosed cabin, "the Model 6000 was billed as the 'Limousine of the Air.'”

The interior featured cabin heating and "roll-down automobile style windows." While many Model 6000s served fledgling airlines, one unit was modified for the personal use of actor Wallace Berry. It incorporated plush velour seats, a couch for napping while in flight, and a lavatory with hot and cold running water and sported a larger, more powerful 420-hp Wasp engine which required a strengthened structure.

Interior options alone cost Berry an additional $1,000 and the total cost, at $20,000, was "the most expensive Travel Air ever built." In comparison the price for a standard Model 6000-B with a 300hp Wright engine was $13,500. While significantly less than Berry's, even at this price it was unlikely to be in the range of the average owner/pilot seeking personal air transportation.

Aircraft manufacturers were able to use data from experiments conducted at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio. There, in the 1920s, "many experiments with airfoils, drag reduction, engines, supercharging and turbo-charging, lubricants, fuels, propellers and armaments were being conducted." While primarily for military purposes, some of these technological advancements diffused to the commercial sector. One company was Travel Air, Inc.

For a time, before he started his own company, Clyde Cessna worked for Travel Air. He was one of the organizers, contributed $5,000 initially, served on the board as vice-president, and loaned wood working equipment to get the company going. Other notables with Travel Air were Walter H. Beech, secretary, and Lloyd C. Stearman, chief engineer. In time Cessna, Beech, and Stearman would leave a legacy of aircraft monikers all their own, but before that they created Travel Air designs recognizable for their reliability, attractiveness, and style.

The company fell victim to a failing economy at the onset of the Great Depression and ceased to exist in 1932.

Chapters Include:
Wichita – The Air Capital
Travel Air Mfg. Co: Beginnings
Travel Air: Early Days
Down on Douglas
Travel Air: Monoplane Fever
Travel Air Mfg. Co. Inc: Bigger and Better
Travel Air: The Scarlet Marvel
Inside Travel Air
Travel Air: The Standard of Aircraft Comparison
Travel Air Potpourri

Travel Air book includes: 128 pages, 8.5x11, softbound, 200+ photos and 3-view drawings.

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