I especially enjoyed these pictures since my first job after coming home from Korea in 1952 was as an illustrator at Boeing, Wichita.  I was there for three years and learned a lot of the history of Wichita.   I recall seeing a building that still had Swallow on it, and someone told me that was where Swallow airplanes were built.    Olive Beech took over after Walter died and many said that she did a better job of managing than he did.  Mr. Coleman of Coleman Lantern Company also lived and manufactured in Wichita.    I was told that he built a big Baptist Church in Wichita.

 

 

 IT IS MIND BOGGLING TO IMAGINE ALL THE CHANGES THAT HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN AVIATION.

Really Old Aviation Photos

Thanks to Hal Austin, we have a group of photographs from the early days.

Here are a few good ol' pictures from yesteryear.. .

Albin K. Longren airplane Photo of Albin K. Longren's first airplane

Date: 1911



 

1912



 

Albin K. Longren's No. 6, Model G airplane

Photo of Phillip Billard sitting in Albin K. Longren's No. 6, Model G airplane

which was built in 1911

Date: Between 1916 and 1920

Albin K. Longren's No. 6, Model G airplane

Photo of Albin K. Longren's No. 6, Model G airplane surrounded by a group of unidentified people

Date: Between 1911 and 1916


 

Albin Longren's first airplane

View of Albin Longren's first airplane in  Winfield,  Ks .

Date: November 25, 19 11

Cessna airplane Photo of "Silver Wings," a Cessna monoplane in flight.

Date: 1911

   Clyde  Cessna

A view of aviation pioneer Clyde Vernon Cessna, 1879-1954, founder of Cessna

Aircraft Company of Wichita , Kansas , and spectators with his aeroplane at Burdett, Kansas .

Date: 1914

ClydeCessnaClyde Cessna & his 1916 airplane; The first built in  Wichita , KS ; Photo taken at Beaver,

OK with part of the Beaver Boosters. Date: 1916

   Clyde Cessna Date: Unknown

Flying machine, Goodland , Kansas

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.

Date: Around 1910

Laird Swallows

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  .

Date: Between 1920 and 1925

 

Longren's airplane company

Albin K. Longren's airplane plant  Topeka , Kansas .

Date: Between 1910 and 1920

Longren's biplane

Albin K. Longren's biplane Date: Between 1910 and 1920


 

Walter Herschel Beech

Walter H. Beech, 1891-1951, (left) pilot and President of Beech Aircraft Corporation,

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. Date: 1926

Walter Herschel Beech and Olive Ann Beech

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 .

 Date: Between 1940 and 1945

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