Beech before Beechcraft or The Other Travel Air
The Travel Air Model R was known as the “Mystery Ship” due to the secrecy maintained when it was being shown at the 1929 Cleveland National Air Races. It easily won over the higher-powered military biplanes.
By: Norm Goyer
Walter Beech was a biplane fanatic and loved to be best at whatever he tackled, be it designing aircraft, racing aircraft or selling aircraft. You could say that Walter Beech had aviation tunnel vision. In the early 1920s, three of the big names in aviation were indeed Walter Beech, Clyde Cessna and Lloyd Stearman. Sound familiar? These three aviation icons were all involved with the Travel Air Company. The three dynamic aviation visionaries found a small workshop in Wichita, Kansas, and started building outstanding aircraft, including future world-record-setting aircraft. The three all knew what they wanted in an aircraft and using their collective designing skills brought forth such aircraft as the Travel Air Mystery Ship, the beautiful Wichita Fokker (Travel Air 4000 biplanes) and the long-distance, award-winning, Travel Air 5000. This large monoplane flew non-stop from San Francisco, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii. But it was Walter Beech who had the public’s eye; he was the doer, the pilot, the dreamer, and he won races, tours and any aviation competition he entered. He managed to display 19 winning trophies on his mantle. He knew that the best way to sell aircraft in those depression years was by winning races. Also working at Travel Air was a comely lass who was a native of Wichita and worked as the company bookkeeper. As it came to pass, Walter asked Olive Ann to, “Come on to my house and look at my trophies”, just as good as etchings, I guess. Very soon Olive Ann became Mrs. Walter Beech and eventually became the CEO of the future Beech Aircraft Corporation after Walter’s death in 1950.
The most famous Travel Air Model R was the one owned by Frank Hawks who toured the country for the Texaco Company.
Walter Beech had always wanted to help design and build a racer that would clean the clocks of the Army and Navy’ racing entries. He knew that his Travel Air cohorts and dedicated workers could indeed build faster, more modern aircraft than the birdcage-biplanes of the military teams. Travel Air’s entry turned out to be the Model R also called “the Travel Air Mystery Ship.” After the aircraft was ferried to Cleveland it was hidden in a remote hangar and covered with canvas. Because it was so secret, the Model R was tagged by local journalists as the Mystery Ship. The military brought along their flying canary cages, namely the Curtiss XP-3A biplane powered with a big Pratt & Whitney R-1340-3 radial engine. The Navy flew their Curtiss D-12 powered F6C Hawk biplane.
This is the famous Travel Air “Wichita Fokker” 4000 biplane owned by “Cap’n Mac” Macpherson. It earned its nickname because of the similar elephant-ear aileron and surface-balancing method.
On race day, the boys from Wichita rolled out their little red and black low-wing monoplane to the sounds of, “Ho-hum, who are they kidding?” Their pilot was Doug Davis, a very experienced racing legend. The flag dropped and away they roared. Davis was way out in front when he accidently cut a pylon, so he circled it again and had to fight his way to first place once again. Of course he won, and the military started ditching their antique biplanes. The world of air racing had changed forever. It seemed that Davis and his Mystery Ship flew at an average speed of 194.9 mph, a full 8.06 faster than the Army, and 41.52 mph faster than the Navy. Davis completed one lap in 208.69. It was estimated that he was clocking 235 mph in the straightaway. You must remember that the Mystery Ship had only 400 hp which was less than that of the military entries, but was much lighter as well. Many aviation historians believe that the Golden Age of Air Racing began with this aircraft at the 1929 Cleveland Air Races.
The Travel Air 5000 was a large monoplane which set world records flying between San Francisco, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii.
Rumor has it that there is a Travel Air Mystery Ship in storage in the Lancaster/Palmdale area of Southern California. The legendary Pancho Barnes of the Soggy Bottom Riding Club, near Edwards AFB, owned and competed with her very own Mystery Ship. It is this aircraft that is still the “Mystery Ship”, 80 years later.
Walter Beech was part owner of the Travel Air Company in the early 1920s. He was an outstanding pilot, promoter and salesman.
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The name of Pancho Barnes’ club was the ‘Happy Bottom Riding Club’ and not the Soggy Bottom Riding Club. Pancho had a dude ranch type operation, and the saddles on the horses were especially comfortable. At least, General Jimmy Doolittle thought so, and as a joke he once referred to Pancho’s ‘Rancho Oro Verde’ as such, and the name stuck. Several years after Pancho’s passing in 1975, the Mystery Ship did languish in unrestored condition in a private hanger in the desert near to her former club and ranch. However, it was eventually sold to a collector in the UK. It reportedly has recently been restored. It is still a mystery who owns the plane, and when it will be unveiled.
I owned for a short period of time Travel Air (NX5519) that was owned by Pancho. The airplane I believe is stored in Mich. now, it needed a complete restoration but all the paperwork was there including a couple of repo’s for time to time from Pancho. I also owned a model R (mystery ship) project for awhile, unfortunately I had to make some hard decisions after 9-11 and it was sold to a person in Cal. David
I am trying to write a history of my Dad, Ted Cochran who worked for Beech/travelair beginning in 1924. You have a picture posted with this article showing the Travel Air 5000 and a group of men. My Dad is standing left of the aviator is his plus 4′s. Dad is wearing soiled white coveralls. His curly hair is higher than the aviator. The picture is too small for me to be certain, but it looks like my Uncle Bill behind the aviator, with his arms crossed. and a hat on. Is there any way I could get a copy of that picture?
Dad had a marvelous collection of aviation pictures, signed by all of the aviators and aviatrixes whose planes he had worked on, including Jimmy Doolittle, Pancho Barnes, Jacqueline Cochran, Lindbergh, Frank Hawkes, etc. He proudly took his pictures wherever tere were airplane enthusiasts o appreciate them. finally, he took them to a fly in in Ventura county, a young aviator took him down. When they were ready to check out of the hotel, dad set his suitcase down in the lobby and walked over to buy a paper. Someone took it and the loss of his pictures killed him. They have never turned up.
He had taken the pictures to Tullahoma, Tennessee several times. All we have is a copy of a video taken when two ladies came to the house and interviewed him, taking shots of some of his pictures as well as recording his memories. I did get that copied on a DVD when the original tape began to stick, but some was lost.
thank you Mary Lou Lyon