Founders Of Three Famous Companies Worked There First

Beech, Cessna, and Stearman all share one thing in common. The people with those famous aviation names all got their start working for the Travel Air Airplane Manufacturing Company in Wichita, KS.

That's just one of the reasons the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) will designate the former airplane factory as a Historic Aerospace Site.

Builder of some of the most famous airplanes during the golden age of aviation in the 1920's, the company produced the Travel Air 5000 and the sleek “Mystery Ship” air racer, winner of the 1929 Thompson Trophy. Travel Air was the incubator in which Wichita's present-day status as the world's "air capital" first developed.

Walter Beech, Clyde Cessna, Lloyd Stearman and countless other employees helped the company launch general aviation. Travel Air promoted  personal  aircraft with the early development of steel and tube construction, and developed the monoplane into a safe, viable design.

The plant was also the site of the first municipal airport for Wichita.

Other sites designated as an AIAA historic site include the original Bendix Aviation Company in Teterboro, NJ; the Boeing Red Barn in Seattle, WA; Kitty Hawk, NC; the site of the first balloon launch in Annonay, France; and Tranquility Base on the moon.

The dedication ceremony will take place on September 26 in Wichita.

FMI: www.aiaa.org