Moments and Milestones: Travel Air’s Mystery Ship
- By George C. Larson, Member, NAA
- Air & Space magazine, September 2010
The "Texaco 13," the most famous Mystery Ship, set more than 200 speed records in the early 1930s. NASM (SI-A-4111-H-)
Back in the 1920s, the National Air Races were as popular as NASCAR events are today. The race got its start on Long Island but relocated to Cleveland in 1929. That year, a couple of employees of the Travel Air Manufacturing Company in Wichita, Kansas, and its head honcho, Walter Beech, who was one of the founders (Clyde Cessna and Lloyd Stearman were the others), got it in their heads to build a racer that would beat the fast and powerful military pursuit aircraft that dominated competition. But because the factory was running full bore to fill orders for its airplanes, the two race enthusiasts couldn’t build a racer on company time.
In 1928, Travel Air delivered more than 400 aircraft, and the following year it became the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial monoplanes and biplanes: A workforce of about 1,000, producing at a peak rate of 25 a week, delivered 547. One reason for the impressive sales figures is that aircraft straight out of the factory were making headlines by setting records and winning races. In 1927, a Travel Air 5000 owned by Phillips Petroleum won the Dole Race by flying from Oakland, California, to Wheeler Field in Hawaii.
From the beginning, Herbert Rawdon and Walter Burnham kept their racer project a secret from the public. They named it the R (for Rawdon) and, working nights and weekends, incorporated every new breakthrough in the science of aeronautics. One, developed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, was a cowl—a shroud around a radial engine that greatly improved cooling airflow and reduced drag.
The airplane’s later “Mystery S” moniker, which seems to have come from newspaper stories, reflects how secretive Travel Air was about it, covering it with canvas and hiding it in hangars. It was compact and light, and built around a 400-horsepower Wright Whirlwind engine that may have been tweaked to produce more power. The plywood monoplane wings were thin and braced with wires. The fuselage followed the shape of the cowl; in front of the brief opening for the cockpit was a windshield so small it looked flush with the skin. A turtle deck extended from there to the vertical tail, constituting a kind of fairing for the helmeted head of the pilot. Enormous wheel pants extended the painstaking effort to reduce drag.
On race day in September 1929, pilot Doug Davis flew the airplane, no longer a mystery but forever after known as the Mystery Ship, in a 50-mile, closed-circuit, pylon race, took the lead, and never looked back. After that, the Travel Air R set a list of records that few have matched since. In a 1971 book on the history of Beech Aircraft commissioned by the company, writer William H. McDaniel quoted a report from an undisclosed source on the airplane’s triumphal 20,000-mile tour of the continent: “The old world had justly prided itself on the achievements of its Schneider [Trophy] fliers…but it had not a single machine that could stand long flights day after day with the same engine at speeds above 200 miles per hour.” And that was the Mystery Ship’s true contribution to aviation.
George C. Larson, Member, NAA
Related topics: Air Racing Propeller Aircraft Golden Age of Flight
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Comments (4)
I would like to know about the Walter Burnham in your article.
What is his middle name and what city was he born in. My grandfather was a Walter Burnham. I knew that he built bridges, worked on hydroelectric dams and was the state engineer of Oklahoma for some years. There is an outside possibility that he had been asked to do the Golden Gate but turned it down because he either didn't have, or want to take the time to learn the geology of the area. Never did I hear that he had anything to do with airplanes, except.
On television, a show about an airplane I don't remember which, perhaps the sst, they said the had consulted a bridge builder about a truss to strengthen the wings.
I'd love to see how this all plays out. If we are talking about the same Walter Burnham, it would confirm the idea that he had possibly caused my father a job. My father worked for Jack Northrop.
Posted by Robert Branchflower on September 16,2010 | 10:22 PM
The Walter Burnhaham of Mystery Ship fame died in 1975, and of of his writings, drawings and photos are in the library at Wichita State University in Wichita,KS. I am building a 1/4 Scale R/C Mystery ship and have been researching the man and the plane.
Posted by Scott Walker on February 3,2011 | 12:01 PM
I would like to gather stats, photos, plans for the Travel Air R613K version of the Mystery Ship to aide in building a 1/4 scale rc plane
Posted by Russ Hilyard on June 7,2011 | 12:57 PM
I would like to know more about Doug Davis, pioneer aviator from Georgia who won many races including the 1929 Thompson and the 1934 Bendix. He was one of the co-founders of the Atlanta airport and was a barnstormer and owned a flying circus along with "Buffalo Bill" Cody's daughter. His Bendix trophy is in the Smithsonian's Air and Space museum. He was my great uncle.
Posted by Doug Ballard on July 22,2011 | 06:48 PM