Curtiss-Wright D-4000

The Travel Air Manufacturing Company was the prelude for three important aviation innovators. In December 1924, Walter Beech, Lloyd Stearman, and Clyde Cessna joined forces to design and build a new biplane. Here all three men honed the skills they later used in their own companies. Travel Air succeeded in the late 1920s because they offered the 3-seat open-cockpit planes popular in the era, but they also develop closed cockpit planes capable of carrying up to six people. Increasing capacity and comfort were key needs for flight to become a profitable industry.
Although Travel Air built more aircraft than any other company between 1924 and 1929, the Great Depression endangered the company. In 1929, the Curtiss-Wright Corporation bought Travel Air and continued producing their designs into the 1930s.
For Cessna, Stearman, and Beech, lasting success came after they left Travel Air. Lloyd Stearman designed the rugged biplane best known at the primary trainer for World War II pilots. Both Cessna and Beech found success building small planes for private pilots and corporate operations. After many decades of independent operation, Cessna and Beech companies brought back together when Textron bought both companies in 2014 and 2013, respectively.
Finished on Saint Valentine’s Day in 1930, this Travel Air D-4000 Speed Wing was a minor celebrity. Owned by Hollywood stunt pilot Ray Murrell, he flew it in at least two motion pictures during the 1930s, “Central Airport” (1933) and “Air Devils” (1938). When not flying for the movies, Murrell performed at air shows with skydiver Dorothy Barden.