| Industry | Aircraft manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1927 in Temple, Texas |
| Founders |
|
| Defunct | August 1930 |
| Fate | Ceased production |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Products | Passenger and mail light aircraft |
The Texas Aero Corporation of Temple, Texas, was formed about 1927 to construct passenger and mail light aircraft. The company's origin can be traced back to George W. Williams Texas Aero Manufacturing Company of 1911.
George Williams was a pioneer aviator who lived in Temple. He had built and flow his own monoplane called the Prairie Queen in 1910. [2] Williams had been experimenting with aircraft design from at least 1908. [3] Williams first aviation company was the Texas Aero Manufacturing Company, formed in 1911, which became in turn George Williams Airplane and Manufacturing Company in 1920. [4] Williams also wrote articles on aviation for the Scientific American. [5]
Williams, aged 45, died in an air crash in August 1930, while training Clyde Moore, a student pilot. The plane had stalled at low altitude and crashed 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Temple near the hospital dairy farm. [6]
Eric Locking was born on January 4, 1894, in Wandsworth, London, England. He joined the Royal Flying Corps in January 1918 and served with them until the end of 1919. He attained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. Locking was based at Talliferro Airfield near Fort Worth at the end of the war. The airfield had been set up by the Royal Flying Corp to train American airmen. Locking was considered one of the best pilots in America at the time. [7]
He moved to Temple after the war and took charge of flying the Temple Daily Telegrams two aircraft. While there he joined the Williams' Temple Aero Club. Locking left the Club in 1921 to set up the Abilene Aviation Company in Abilene, Texas, with J W Locking, his brother, and A Locking, his father. The company aimed to carry passengers, give flying exhibitions, undertake aerial advertising, and a make general sales. Locking was the Chief Pilot and Instructor. [7] [8]
He died on May 8, 1921, in Abilene, also in a plane crash. [7]
In 1911 Williams and others formed the Temple Aero Club. [9] The club was based at Woodlawn Field, Temple, Texas. Its officers in 1920 were President, Eldon Kent Williams (Williams' newspaperman brother); Secretary-Treasurer, George W Williams; and Field Manager, Lieutenant Eric A Locking, ex RAF.
The club had its own airship in 1920. [10] It offered flying lessons, passenger flights, aerial photography, stunt flying, and aerial advertising.
In October 1927 the Aero Club changed its charter to form the Texas Aero Corporation. Its purpose was to manufacture aircraft in Temple. At the time the Corporation commenced it had orders for six aircraft. [11]
James Albert Jackson Carroll (aka George A Carroll), was born on April 4, 1902, in Belton, Texas, and died on July 17, 1987, in Tujunga, California. Carroll had joined with the Williams' to found the Texas Aero Corporation. the first commercial aircraft fabricating facility in Texas.
To increase the Corporation's capital in June 1929 it offered 100,000 shares at $10 per share in 1929. [12] A 4-acre site was acquired at Love Field, Dallas for a new factory to replace its Temple facility. [13]
George Williams and Carroll designed and built the Texas Monoplane. In total 12 aircraft were constructed between 1928 and 1930 when the Corporation ended. The models known to be constructed were:
Temple Aero Club
Texas Aero Corporation - planes registered as Texas-Temple and Temple
George Williams, who was one of the principal drivers of the Corporation, was killed in an air crash while on a training flight with a learner pilot in August 1930. The Corporation folded as a result. [6]
One Texas-Temple Sportsman still exists. It had been found in bits by an airplane restorer, Jerry D Ferrell, who reconstructed it. The plane undertook its airworthiness test on July 26, 1990. Ferrel donated the plane for display at the Frontiers of Flight Museum, Love Field, Dallas, Texas. [16] The plane is fitted with a Clyde Cessna modified engine, the Anzani.
A commemorative plaque was placed by the State of Texas on the site of the Corporation's original hangar in 1970. The plaque was replaced and relocated in 2010 because of a change to the adjacent interstate. [17]
The Curtiss JN "Jenny" was a series of biplanes built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft for the US Army, the "Jenny" continued after World War I as a civil aircraft, as it became the "backbone of American postwar [civil] aviation".
The ERCO Ercoupe is an American low-wing monoplane aircraft that was first flown in 1937. It was originally manufactured by the Engineering and Research Corporation (ERCO) shortly before World War II; several other manufacturers continued its production after the war. The final model, the Mooney M-10, first flew in 1968 and the last model year was 1970. It was designed to be the safest fixed-wing aircraft that aerospace engineering could provide at the time, and the type continues to enjoy a faithful following.
The Ford Trimotor is an American three-engined transport aircraft. Production started in 1925 by the companies of Henry Ford and ended on June 7, 1933, after 199 had been made. It was designed for the civil aviation market, but also saw service with military units.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1929:
The Curtiss Robin, introduced in 1928, was a high-wing monoplane built by the Curtiss-Robertson Airplane Manufacturing Company. The J-1 version was flown by Wrongway Corrigan who crossed the Atlantic after being refused permission.
The Grumman F3F was a biplane fighter aircraft produced by the Grumman aircraft for the United States Navy during the mid-1930s. Designed as an improvement on the F2F, it entered service in 1936 as the last biplane to be delivered to any American military air arm. It was retired from front line squadrons at the end of 1941 before it could serve in World War II, and replaced by the Brewster F2A Buffalo. The F3F, which inherited the Leroy Grumman-designed retractable main landing gear configuration first used on the Grumman FF, served as the basis for a biplane design ultimately developed into the much more successful F4F Wildcat that succeeded the subpar Buffalo.
The Boeing Model 40 was a United States mail plane of the 1920s. It was a single-engined biplane that was widely used for airmail services in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, especially by airlines that later became part of United Airlines. It became the first aircraft built by the Boeing company to carry passengers.
George Conrad Westervelt was a U.S. Navy engineer who created the company "Pacific Aero Products Co." together with William Boeing. Westervelt left the company in 1916 and Boeing changed the name of the company to the Boeing Airplane Company the following year.
The Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker was a six-seat utility aircraft, built primarily in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. It was a development of the Bellanca CH-200, fitted with a more powerful engine and, like the CH-200, soon became renowned for its long-distance endurance.
The Cunningham-Hall Model PT-6 was an American six-seat cabin biplane aircraft of the late 1920s and was the first design of the Cunningham-Hall Aircraft Corporation of Rochester, New York.
The Travel Air 2000/3000/4000 (originally, the Model A, Model B and Model BH were open-cockpit biplane aircraft produced in the United States in the late 1920s by the Travel Air Manufacturing Company. During the period from 1924–1929, Travel Air produced more aircraft than any other American manufacturer, including over 1,000 biplanes. While an exact number is almost impossible to ascertain due to the number of conversions and rebuilds, some estimates for Travel Air as a whole range from 1,200 to nearly 2,000 aircraft.
The Fokker F-11 was a luxury flying boat produced as an 'air yacht' in the United States in the late 1920s. Technically the aircraft was the Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America's Model 9. It was sold in North America as the Fokker F-11 and was offered in Europe as the Fokker B.IV. By the time the first six aircraft had been constructed, it was already evident that the design was not going to sell well. A few were sold, two to notable multi-millionaires; Harold Vanderbilt and Garfield Wood each purchasing one. One was bought by Air Ferries in San Francisco. The F-11A cost $40,000 but the price was slashed to $32,500 as the depression set in during 1930. The F-11 was a commercial failure.
The Stearman-Hammond Y-1 was a 1930s American utility monoplane built by the Stearman-Hammond Aircraft Corporation and evaluated by the United States Navy and the British Royal Air Force.
The Texas-Temple Sportsman is an American-built light single-seat high-wing sporting monoplane of the late 1920s.
Knoll Aircraft Company was an American aircraft manufacturer based in Wichita, Kansas.
Charles Townsend Ludington, , was a businessman of Philadelphia. He was an aviation pioneer who helped establish an every-hour-on-the-hour air service between New York and Washington. His airline ultimately became Eastern Airlines. He designed airports, airplanes, and gliders. One of his designs became a Navy training airplane. Another of his designs was a crash protection device installed on Navy airplanes that saved pilot lives. Ludington also make a line of boats that were designed by a professional outboard boat racer.
The Command-Aire 3C3 and similar 4C3 and 5C3 are American three-seat open cockpit utility, training and touring biplanes developed by Command-Aire in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
The Gee Bee Model A was an American two-seat open cockpit single-bay biplane developed by the Granville Brothers that first flew in 1929.
