The Travel Air company was one of the most successful aircraft companies of the interwar period, at one point selling more aircraft than the rest of its rivals combined. This should come as no surprise: included in Travel Air's designers were such later icons as Walter Beech, Clyde Cessna and Lloyd Stearman.
The company's big seller had been the reliable, superb biplane designs of the 1920s, but by 1926, the company realized that biplanes were becoming obsolete--at least in the public's eyes--and Travel Air's new design, the Model 5000, was made a high-winged monoplane. Besides giving the Travel Air 5000 good lift characteristics, it also provided the four passengers with views unblocked by a lower wing. To prove the design, two 5000s was entered into the Dole Air Race, a flight from San Francisco to Hawaii; one turned back and the other crashed, but the latter crashed in Hawaii, making it only the second aircraft ever to make the flight.
Only 13 Travel Air 5000s were sold, however, so the design was seen as something of a failure. To increase sales, Travel Air marketed an executive "sedan" version of the Model 5000, the Travel Air 6000. The cabin was made far more comfortable by giving it a plush interior, car-style wind-down windows, and soundproofing. The 6000 was an immediate hit after it flew in 1928, but ironically not with Travel Air's intended market: though some were purchased as executive aircraft, most ended up being bought by regional airlines, whose passengers would appreciate the pleasant interior. Travel Air was not disappointed either way: over 150 Model 6000s were built. The last few were built as Curtiss-Wright 6Bs, after Travel Air was bought out by Curtiss.
Though the Travel Air 6000 was rapidly left behind in the fast-evolving world of airline transportation in the 1930s, its reliable design ensured that eleven would survive to modern times, most of them still airworthy.
NC8865 was manufactured around 1929, but due to the Depression, it was some time before it found a permanent owner. That turned out to be the Bradley Mining Company of Boise, Idaho, who obtained the aircraft in the 1930s. Because of the reliability of the Travel Air, Bradley kept NC8865 until 1958, when it was sold to Johnson Flying Service of Missoula, Montana as a smokejumper aircraft. In the mid-1960s, as Johnson Flying Service began replacing its older aircraft with newer designs, NC8865 was sold to a private owner in South Carolina, and eventually a museum in Tennessee.
In 1985, it was purchased by a company in Twin Falls, Idaho, and restored to flyable status again, though it was flown only sparingly. By 2013, NC8865 got the interest of the Museum of Mountain Flying in Missoula, who hoped to obtain a copy of every aircraft that Johnson Flying Service had flown. It lacked a Travel Air, but NC8865 was bought by a private collector in Drummond, down the road. It was agreed to base NC8865 at the museum.
NC8865 remains flyable, and is in superb condition. Because of the placement of the museum's aircraft, a head-on shot was the only way to get the entire aircraft. We got to see the aircraft in September 2020.
