The Swallow Airplane Company was an early manufacturer of airplanes.

History

In January 1920, the E.M. Laird Aviation Company Ltd. was started with the purchase of the six-month-old Wichita Aircraft Company, its aircraft and the factory of the Watkins Manufacturing Company. Oilman Jacob Mollendick and Buick-Franklin salesman William A. Burke each contributed $15,000. The first Swallow designed by Buck Weaver and was test flown in April 1920. Later, in 1921, the company moved into a new factory building on North Hillside Street. Laird hired several aviators that became prominent in the business later, Buck Weaver who would co-found

Waco Aircraft Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...

Walter Beech Walter Herschel Beech (January 30, 1891 – November 29, 1950) was an American aviator and early aviation entrepreneur who co-founded the Beech Aircraft Company (now called Beechcraft) in 1932 with his wife, Olive Ann Beech, and a team of three o ...

, and

Lloyd Stearman Lloyd Carlton Stearman (October 26, 1898 – April 3, 1975) was an American aviator, aircraft designer, and early aviation entrepreneur. Biography Stearman was born in Wellsford, Kansas. From 1917 – 1918, he attended Kansas State Coll ...

who would develop the

Swallow New Swallow The Swallow Airplane Swallow is an American-built general purpose biplane of the mid- to late 1920s. Development The Swallow Airplane Manufacturing Co was formed in 1923 to take over the business of the E.M. Laird Aviation Co. of Wichita, Kansa ...

. Following the departure of Emil Matthew Laird in 1923 and his formation of the E. M. Laird Airplane Company, on 22 January 1924 the company was renamed as the Swallow Airplane Manufacturing Company. Swallow was notable for producing the Swallow TP in quite large numbers, for its day. A large proportion of pilots trained in the late 1920s and early '30s did so on the TP. In late 1927, owner Mollendick bet most of the company fortune on a record setting aircraft flown by noted aviator

William Portwood Erwin Lieutenant William Portwood Erwin (18 October 1895 - 19 August 1927) was an American World War I flying ace credited with eight aerial victories. On 19 August 1927, he disappeared during the Dole Air Race from Oakland, California to Hawaii. Early ...

, the

Dallas Spirit ''Dallas Spirit'', (aka Swallow Monoplane or Swallow Dole Racer), was a custom-built aircraft designed to compete in the ill-fated Dole Air Race, Dole Air Derby between California and Hawaii. Development ''Dallas Spirit'' was built to attempt t ...

, which was lost on a record attempt to Asia concurrent with the

Dole Air Race The Dole Air Race, also known as the Dole Derby, was a deadly air race across the Pacific Ocean from Oakland, California to Honolulu in the Territory of Hawaii held in August 1927. There were eighteen official and unofficial entrants; fifteen of ...

. In December of the following year the company was purchased by the General Aero Corporation of America – a holding company that also counted the

Cessna Aircraft Company Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing c ...

among its assets. Swallow was sold again in 1933 to E. B. Christopher – who would be killed in the crash of one of the company's airplanes in 1937. Sam Bloomfield, the company's chief engineer, eventually took over as company president. No longer manufacturing complete aircraft, it existed as an aircraft mechanic school and subcontractor for the B-29 and B-47 until 1956.

Aircraft

Swallow_Super_Swallow_Aero_Digest_July_1926

References

Notes

Bibliography

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External links

{{commons category, Swallow Airplane Company
Tihen Notes
– A listing of newspaper articles that mention, among other Wichita aircraft manufacturers, the Swallow Airplane Company Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States