The Travel Air biplane, built in Wichita, Kansas, was one of several that entered the general aviation market in 1925, when World War I surplus types were beginning to wear out and the performance advantages of new design were finally able to hold their own against the cheap surplus prices of the older ships.

It was developed late in 1924, when Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman left Swallow Airplane Manufacturing Co. after a dispute with the owner over fuselage construction. Beech and Stearman advocated welded steel tubing while the owner held out for the time-proven wood-and-wire. Forming a partnership with Walter lnnes, Jr., and Clyde Cessna, Beech formed the Travel Air Manufacturing Co., with Stearman as chief engineer.

The ruggedness of the new model is evident today in that there are over 137 Travel Airs still in operation-more than any other model of the 1925-1930 period.

The Travel Air took a great step ahead of the wartime Jennies with the use of steel tubing for the fuselage and tail. It had the advantage of permitting two passengers to sit side-by-side in the front cockpit, but most significant was the provision made for powerplant interchangeability.

The customer could choose his engine to fit his power requirement or his pocketbook, from the cheap surplus Curtiss 90-hp OX-5 to the 200-hp Wright J-4 radial on the early models or the 330-hp Wright J-6-9 on the 1929 model.

The engine determined the model designation of the airplane, since practically all differences were ahead of the firewall. OX-5 models were called 2000 after being redesignated from Model B; those with Wright-Hispanos, or "Hissos," were 3000s and those with the Wright 3-4 or 5 were 4000s.

After Models 8000 and 9000 with the Fairchild Caminez and the SiemensHalske radials appeared, all of the biplanes with "modern" radial engines were lumped into the 4000 category with a prefix to designate the power-plant: A-4000 for Axelson, C-4000 for Curtiss Challenger, E-4000 for Wright 3-6-5, etc. The 2000 and 3000 designations were retained for models with wartime and early postwar powerplants.

This designation by the engine does not carry into the present day, however. A 2000 and 4000, each fitted with an identical modern engine, are still 2000 and 4000 in the eyes of the FAA.

In its original form, the Travel Air greatly resembled the famous German Fokker D-VII fighter of World War I in general proportions and especially in its use 0f "Elephant Ear" overhanging ailerons. In 1928, a revised wing, with rounded tips and Frise ailerons, could be had as alternate equipment. Later, a further wing revision resulted in the shorter-span "Speedwing." The term "Elephant Ear" was not used until after the rounded-tip "standard" wing appeared and a need for differentiation arose.

The marked resemblance of the "Elephant Ear" models to the Fokker brought about a brisk demand for Travel Airs to work before the cameras as German fighters in the popular air-war movies that began with "Hell's Angels" in 1929 and continued well past World War II. Because of this activity, the Travel Airs became known as "Wichita Fokkers."

While the venerable biplanes were replaced as first-line airmail, business, and school equipment by the later and more economical models of the 1930s, they remained almost supreme in the agricultural field where they served as dusters.

It is a high compliment to the fundamental soundness of this 1925 design that it was still able to do full-time work in direct competition with later models with little major revision other than installation of a dust hopper and a World War II surplus engine.

The Travel Airs were quickly outnumbered by war-surplus Stearmans in the postwar dusting business, but they held on until new designed-for-the-purpose agplanes began to take over in the early 1960s. Thanks to the current antique airplane boom, the now venerable biplanes were saved from the scrap heap to be rebuilt to their original configurations as private owner and sporting types. Some 15 Ox-5 powered 2000s are operated as acknowledged antiques, but of the 102 4000s still registered in 1974, 32 use the 220-hp Continental W-670 and 45 use the 220- to 300-hp Lycoming R-680.

In 1929, the Travel Air firm became part of the great Curtiss-Wright organization and both the earlier and late products of the Wichita factory have confused the public ever since by being listed sometimes as Travel Air and sometimes as Curtiss-Wright in various official and unofficial publications.

While the classic 2000s and early 4000s are officially Curtiss in FAA records today, they will never he anything but Travel Airs to those associated with them or to the devoted aeroenthusiasts and students of aviation history.