Travel Air 6000

The Travel Air 6000 (later known as the Curtiss-Wright 6B when Travel Air was purchased by Curtiss-Wright) was a six-seat utility aircraft manufactured in the United States in the late 1920s.

Development and production

It was developed as a luxury version of the Travel Air 5000 marketed principally as an executive aircraft, although its size proved popular with regional airlines, which purchased most of the roughly 150 machines built.

The 6000 was a high-wing braced monoplane with a fuselage constructed of steel tube and covered in fabric. In keeping with its intended luxury market, the fully-enclosed cabin was insulated and soundproofed, and included wind-down windows. The basic model was priced at $12,000, but numerous options were offered that could nearly double that price; actor Wallace Beery's aircraft cost him $20,000 and was the most expensive Model 6000 built.

Airline operation

6000s were operated in 1928 by National Air Transport on their US mail and passenger routes from Chicago to New York, Chicago to Dallas and Chicago to Kansas City.

Two Travel Air 6000 were purchased by the Paraguayan government during the Chaco War (1932-1935) for the Transport Squadron of its Air Arm. These planes belonged to TAT with the registrations NC624K (c/n 6B-2011) and NC9815 (c/n 6B-1029); They received the military serials T-2 and T-5 (later reserialled as T-9). The planes were intensively used during the conflict as air ambulances. They both survived the war and continued flying in the Air Arm. In 1945, they were transferred to the first Paraguayan Airline, Líneas Aéreas de Transporte Nacional (LATN) and received the civil registrations ZP-SEC and ZP-SED. They were withdrawn from use in 1947.

In 2006, eight examples remained on the US civil register, with perhaps half of them actually flying.

Variants

• Model 6000 - six seat version, powered by a 220-hp (164-kW) Wright J-5 engine
• Model 6000A (or A-6000) - version powered by 450-hp (336-kW) Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine
• SA-6000A - floatplane version of the Model 6000A
• Model 6000B (or B-6000, later 6B) - version powered by 300-hp (224-kW)Wright J-6-9 radial engine.
• S-6000-B - floatplane version of the Model 6000B

Operators

Template:Country data Paraguay

• Paraguayan Air Force
• LAIN

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Davies, R.E.G. (1998). Airlines of the United States since 1914. Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 1-888962-08-9. 
• Taylor, Michael J. H. (1989). Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. London: Studio Editions, 288. 
• Auliard, Gilles (April 2006). "Time Machine". Air Classics. 
• airminded.net
• aviation-history.com
• Hagedorn, Dan & Antonio Luis Sapienza: Aircraft of the Chaco War, 1928-1935 Schiffer Publishing Co. Atglen, PA. 1996

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Travel Air 6000".