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The Travel Air Type R "Mystery Ships" were a series of wire-braced, low-wing racing airplanes built by the Travel Air company in the late 1920s and early 1930s. They were so called, because the first three aircraft of the series (R614K, R613K, B11D) were built entirely in secrecy and kept under cover prior to the 1929 Cleveland Air Races, with the builders even going so far painting the windows on the factory to keep the curious press from getting a look at it. The local Wichita paper picked up on the secret program, with one reporter even going so far as to scale a ladder to try to peek into the vents in the factory roof. The paper dubbed it the 'Mystery Ship' and the name stuck.
The environment in air racing at the time was one of give and take with the military. A civilian designer would take an existing plane, modify it for greater speed and enter it in the race. Since the military already had access to the fastest and most advanced planes available, it was simply a matter of upping the horsepower on whatever plane they were using and the problem was solved. This led to the military completely dominating the air racing scene. In an effort to combat this, two Travel Air designers; Herb Rawdon and Walter Burnham undertook proving that a civilian plane built from scratch and designed exclusively for racing (as opposed to combat or passenger/mail service) could out-fly the military. Rawdon and Burnham both knew that to approach Travel Air CEO Walter Beech would be fruitless, unless they hit him with the idea just before the air racing season began, so they designed the planes in their spare time, without pay until they could get Beech to agree to build them.
The use of the monoplane design, a NACA engine cowl and wheel pants significantly reduced aerodynamic drag. The Model R series set numerous speed records for both pylon racing and cross country flying, and were the most advanced aircraft of the day, by far outpacing anything that even the military could offer. In total, five Type Rs were built and flown by some of the most notable flyers of the day, including Jimmy Doolittle, Doug Davis, Frank Hawks and Florence "Pancho" Barnes.
References
- Mystery Ship: A History of the Travel Air Type R Monoplanes by Edward H. Phillips
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