Travel Air 4000 Biplane Photo 8x10 - Wright J-4 Air Tour Champion For Sale

Travel Air 4000 Biplane Photo 8x10 - Wright J-4 Air Tour Champion
Beech Aircraft Corp Factory Print, Wichita, Kansas
DESCRIPTIONThis is an original vintage 8 x 10 inch photograph of a Travel Air Model 4000 biplane at rest in a grass airfield, factory photo number 1045, lettered "Travel Air Mfg. Co., Wichita, Kansas" on the tail.The verso carries a typed factory caption reading "Travel Air Model 4000, Wright J-4 Engine, 200 HP, 3-place biplane, 1928-1929," along with a "Photo From Beech Aircraft Corporation, Wichita, Kansas" stamp and a handwritten serial number, 11680 B.Beech Aircraft Corporation later absorbed the Travel Air photographic archive, which is why this Travel Air-era image carries a Beech stamp rather than a Travel Air one.The Model 4000 marked a turning point for Travel Air: it took the same airframe that had made the company famous and swapped the aging 90-horsepower Curtiss OX-5 engine for a 200-horsepower Wright J-4 Whirlwind radial, more than doubling the available power.Walter Beech, one of Travel Air's three founders alongside Clyde Cessna and Lloyd Stearman, flew a J-4-powered Model 4000 to first place in the 1926 Ford Reliability Air Tour, a high-profile cross-country competition that put Travel Air's name in front of the whole country.The same Wright J series that powered this airplane, in its later J-5 form, was the engine family behind Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis the following year.Travel Air biplanes of this era, prized for their handling, also found steady work as Hollywood stand-ins for German Fokker fighters in silent-era war films, and counted period celebrities like cowboy star Ken Maynard and Braniff Airways founder Paul Braniff among their private owners and pilots.This print has no visible registration number, so it can't be tied to a specific surviving airframe or named flight, but it is a clean, correctly captioned factory photograph of the exact model and engine configuration that carried Travel Air's name to a national win in 1926.CONDITIONExcellent for age. Measured and confirmed at 8 x 10 inches on the original Kodak-stock paper, sharp image with strong contrast and no fading. Close inspection shows light corner wear, a few scattered handling specks, and a faint scuff on the tail roundel lettering...all typical of a factory archive print nearly a century old and none of it disruptive to the image. No tears, no creases through the photo, no writing on the front. Verso is clean and intact with the original typed caption label, "Photo From Beech Aircraft Corporation, Wichita, Kansas" stamp, and handwritten serial number 11680 B.