Travel Air | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Type
R
Mystery Ship Photo: Robert Deering 8/20/2014 "Texaco No. 13" Museum of Science & Industry Chicago, Illinois |
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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 Travel Air 5000 was a Clyde Cessna designed aircraft ordered in small numbers for National Air Transport. Two were custom built long range endurance aircraft similar in concept to Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis. Woolaroc, flown by Art Gobel won the disastrous Dole Air Race from Oakland, California to Hawaii in which the majority of contestants disappeared at sea or otherwise died attempting the crossing.
Travel Air then produced the model
6000, 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
(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 They were withdrawn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 by
the press. The Mystery Ships
dominated the racing circuit for several years and had
the distinction of being faster than anything the U.S.
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
fighter.
Travel Air merged with the
Curtiss-Wright Corporation
in August 1929.
Curtiss-Wright 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.
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 company
where he would continue the numbering sequence with the
Beechcraft 17 Staggerwing.
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