BY THOMAS A. HORNE North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 310 used 240-hp Continental engines. code name for a Russian bomber, the A compromise was made by choos• The name Travel Air is an almost sa• idea was dropped. After all, this was in ing 180-hp Lycoming engines for the cred one to the Beech Aircraft Corpo• the middle of the Cold War. Travel Air-the same durable 0-360s ration. Walter Beech, when he formed It was also an age when every other that soon would see use in the first sin• his first aircraft company with Lloyd major manufacturer had a light twin on gle-engine Piper Comanches and Stearman and Clyde Cessna in 1924, the market. Piper's Apache had been would serve well a multitude of light called that company Travel Air Incorpo• around since 1954. Cessna's 310• airplanes in the future. rated and named the first production air• granted, a larger, more powerful air• The first Travel Air was test flown plane the Travel Air 1000. The Travel plane, but the smallest of their twin• on August 6, 1956. On June 18 of the Air 2000, 4000 and 8000 followed. engine models-also came in 1954, next year, the Travel Air received its The next time the name was used and its sales were especially energetic. type certificate under the old Civil Aero• came in 1958, when Beech Aircraft in• With the Travel Air, Beech sought to nautics Administration regulations. troduced its light twin-the Model 95 ply the middle ground between the The Travel Air, simply put, is a Bo• Travel Air. Before you become too sen• Apache's marginal performance (it nanza with two engines and a T -34 timental about this hallowed resurrec• came equipped with 150-hp, then Mentor's tail, plus some special touch• tion, you should know that Beech orig• 160-hp, Lycoming engines) and the es. You notice the tail and flaps first, inally intended to call the Travel Air, 310's pitch to those wanting a light though. The vertical tail is just that. It the Badger. But since this was the twin with as much pomp as power. The sticks straight up and reminds you of 68 • AUGUST 1981 PHOTOGRAPHY BY ART DAVIS the much larger Twin Bonanza, a con• would not have to apologize. Ambience low the mixture levers. Off to the left temporary of the Travel Air. The flaps was just as important to Beech then, as of the quadrant is the friction lock. on all but the 95s and B95s attract at• it is now. The seats are large and com• Also on the left of the quadrant tention because they extend beyond fortable, you sit up high, and the visi• housing is the flap control, a large, pdd• the rest of the trailing edge of the wing. bility is very good. Twisting your head die-shaped switch that moves through More than a little engineering work around, you actually can see back as far three positions in a large slot, free of went into the flap system because it as the 4:30 and 7:30 positions, thanks detents. It is either Up, Off or Down. was a Fowler design. When the flaps to the rear windows. Two stripes painted across the leading are extended, they not only go down, The Travel Air's panel bears a large edge of the left flap give visual confir• they move aft a bit, too-an advanced Gothic yoke, trim wheels and rudder mation of flap position. As the flaps are feature on a light airplane this old. pedals, another standard feature of all lowered, the stripes become visible. If you have any time in Bonanzas or Beech products. The controls on the The first stripe is labeled 10 degrees, Barons, you will find the Travel Air's power quadrant are arranged in the the next 20. There is no stripe to indi• cockpit and cabin remarkably similar. manner of all the older Beech twins. cate the full-down position. With the "Beech means business," the slogan The propeller controls are on the left, 1964 095 Travel Air came flap posi• goes, and Travel Air promotion of the followed by the throttles and then the tion indicator lights; a red one for the day was quick to point out that this mixtures. Up until the 095 Travel up position and a green one for full flap light twin had the kind of dimensions Airs, the cigarette lighter is mounted deflection. and appointments for which you inexplicably on the quadrant, just be- The landing gear switch is located to AOPA PilOT· 69 conhnurd [ the right of the power quadrant. Be• Travel Air's safe single-engine speed. lot's side. There, the yoke's bar blocks cause the Travel Air was certificated The rest of the Travel Air's cockpit is the view of your redundant gauges. under the old regulations, three green a collection of all those good-and In the 95 and B95, there is that little lights were not required. One green light, bad-things that aviation writers love panel of toggle switches off on the electrically connected to the nose gear, to talk about, but that make for the right side, just waiting for you to hit illuminates for "agear-down indication. character of the airplane. Here are a the wrong switch and put the lights Critics of this nonstandard control few. The propeller controls block the dark. And how about those eight fuel arrangement point to its potential for pilot's view of the fuel gauges. The drains, not to mention the fuel slosh• what the National Transportation control yoke's massive bar prevents ing/unporting problem in the Travel Safety Board, in one of its special reports, easy access to the gear and flap Airs that do not comply with Airwor• calls a "design-induced accident," one in switches. You inadvertently can cut off thiness Directive 68-26-6. This AD which a pilot unknowingly retracts the the right engine's ignition with your requires a placard warning against fast gear instead of the flaps. left knee, if you bump the protruding turns while taxiing prior to takeoff or Likewise, the old regulations did not switches on the left subpanel. the installation of internal baffles to require a red radial indicating Vmc The older Travel Airs do not use the prevent fuel unporting. (minimum controllable airspeed with standard T display of flight instru• And there are those allegations that the critical engine inoperative) on the ments: a drum-style, wartime direc• the Travel Air likes to wallow in turbu• airspeed indicator. You will see a blue tional gyro is located where most of us lence, just like the V-tail Bonanza. line, showing the best single-engine expect to see the attitude indicator. All levity aside, there is one concern rate-of-climb speed (87 knots), but no When you switch fuel tanks, the that has been the ongoing subject of graphic display of Vmc (73 knots). Al• gauges will not show automatically the some recommendations by the Nation• though the Travel Air was produced fuel quantity in the newly selected al Transportation Safety Board. The long before anyone ever spoke of a tank. You have to flip a separate toggle NTSB thinks it would be a good idea minimum safe single-engine speed switch, just above your right knee, to for the Federal Aviation Administra• (Vsse), the speed below which no in• find out the quantity in each tank. In tion to convene a special certification• tentional engine failures should be some Travel Airs you might inherit an• review team. The purpose of the inves• simulated, the owner's manual points tiquated avionics, which are spread tigation would be to test disposition of out that the pilot should consider confusingly all over the right side and the Travel Airs and Barons to flat spin the blueline speed of 87 knots as the trail over to the underneath of the pi- out of a low-airspeed, high asymmet- 70 • AUGUST 1981 ric-thrust condition. A study conduct• tec series' total of 21 fatal accidents. ed by the NTSB found that, between And now for the good aspects. We March 1978 and March 1980, there already have mentioned the visibility were eight fatal flat-spin accidents in• and roominess. But how does 16 to 21 volving Travel Airs and Barons. Beech• gallons per hour (yes, that is for both craft has denied that there is any spe• engines) sound at cruise settings be• cial inclination for the Travel Air or the tween 60 and 75 percent? The Travel Baron to flat spin and has stated that Air can maintain 65-percent power up the accidents were the result of im• to 10,000 feet, where, at this setting, it proper flight instruction. These acci• theoretically will cruise at 166 knots dents, the company believes, happened and have a no-reserve range of 1,160 because instructors intentionally ren• miles if equipped with the optional dered an engine inoperative at air• 1I2-gallon fuel tanks. Its published speeds near or below Vmc. maximum cruise speed, according to In an NTSB special report entitled the flight manual, occurs at sea level, "Light Twin-Engine Aircraft Accidents where you never fly. But if you could, Following Engine Failures, 1972• the Travel Air would get you there at 1976," it was noted that the Travel Air The Travel Air bears 182 knots. With 75-percent power and suffered a per 100,000-hour engine• 2,450 rpm at 7,500 feet, expect a true failure accident rate of 2.87, placing it the look of the fifties airspeed of 174 knots and a fuel-con• above the Twin Comanche's 1.98 but and a spacious panel.