![aircraft photos from before 1920s](sp130.jpg)
Albin K. Longren's first airplane. Circa 1911.
![aircraft photos from before 1920s](sp133.jpg)
Photo of Phillip Billard sitting in Albin K. Longren's 1916 No. 6 Model G airplane.
![aircraft photos from before 1920s](sp143.jpg)
"Silver Wings", a Cessna monoplane in flight. Circa 1911.
![aircraft photos from before 1920s](sp142.jpg)
A view of aviation pioneer Clyde Vernon Cessna (1879-1954), founder of Cessna Aircraft Company
of Wichita, Kansas, and spectators with his aeroplane in Burdett, Kansas. Circa 1914.
![aircraft photos from before 1920s](sp141.jpg)
Clyde Cessna and his 1916 airplane - the first built in Wichita, Kansas. Photo taken in Beaver,
Oklahoma with part of the Beaver Boosters. Clyde is second from right, advertising under wing
reads
Spines Clothing Store. Circa 1916
![aircraft photos from before 1920s](sp140.jpg)
Clyde Cessna standing in front of his Comet (the second of his aircraft with that name).
It is his first full-cantilever wing airplane. [
Thanks to Johan Visschedijk]
![aircraft photos from before 1920s](sp139.jpg)
This photograph shows the Goodland flying machine, a forerunner of the helicopter, designed
and patented by William Purvis and Charles Wilson of Goodland, Kansas. Purvis and Wilson
built the ship about 1910. The engine was apparently too small and the machine never flew. Circa 1910.
![aircraft photos from before 1920s](sp138.jpg)
A view of four new Laird Swallow airplanes parked in a field at 29th and Hillside Streets in
Wichita, Kansas. Designed by aviation pioneer Emil Matthew "Matty" Laird (1886-1982),
the first Swallow was built for the commercial market in 1920 by Laird Swallow Manufacturing
Company of Wichita. (circa 1920-1925)
![aircraft photos from before 1920s](sp137.jpg)
Albin K. Longren's airplane plant Topeka, Kansas (circa 1910-1920)
![aircraft photos from before 1920s](sp136.jpg)
Albin K. Longren's biplane. Circa 1910-1920.
![aircraft photos from before 1920s](sp135.jpg)
Walter H. Beech (left) pilot and Brice H. Goldsborough of the Pioneer Instrument Corp. and
navigator, standing by a Travel Air built by Beech. They demonstrated the practicability of
"blind flight" and won the 1926 Ford Reliability Tour. At the time of the photo, 1926,
Walter Beech was secretary of the Travel Aircraft Manufacturing Company, formed in December 1924
by Beech, Clyde Cessna (vice-president), Lloyd Stearman (chief engineer), Bill Snook (factory manager)
and Walter Innes (president and treasurer). So the Travel Air was built by Travel Aircraft, of which
Beech became president after Cessna and Stearman left in April and May 1927 respectively. The Beech
Aircraft Corporation was formed five years later, April 1932. [
Thanks to Johan Visschedijk]
![aircraft photos from before 1920s](sp134.jpg)
Walter Herschel Beech (1891-1951) and Olive Ann Beech (1903-1993) viewing
World War II aircraft production lines at the Beechcraft Plant
I in Wichita, Kansas in 1942. [
Thanks to Johan Visschedijk]