Texas Aero Corporation
The Texas Aero Corporation of Temple, Texas was formed about 1927 to construct passenger and mail light aircraft. The companies origin can be traced back to George W Williams Texas Aero Manufacturing Company of 1911.
Origins
George W Williams Junior
George Williams was a pioneer aviator who lived in Temple. He had built and flow his own monoplane called the Prairie Queen in 1910.[2] Williams had been experimenting with aircraft design from at least 1908.[3] Williams first aviation company was the Texas Aero Manufacturing Company formed in 1911, which became in turn George Williams Airplane and Manufacturing Company in 1920.[4]
Williams died in an air crash in August 1930, while training a student pilot.
Eric Agar Locking
Eric Locking was born on Jan 04 1894 in Wandsworth, London, England. He joined the Royal Flying Corps in January 1918 and served with them until the end of 1919. He attained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. Moving to Temple, he joined with the Williams' Temple Aero Club.
Locking left the Club in 1921 to set up the Abilene Aviation Company in Abilene, Texas with J W Locking. The company aimed to carry passengers, give flying exhibitions, undertake aerial advertising, and a make general sales. Locking was the Chief Pilot and Instructor.[5]
He died on May 8, 1921 in Abilene, also in a plane crash.
Temple Aero Club
At an undetermined point in time Williams and others formed the Temple Aero Club. This could have been as early as 1910. The club was based at Woodlawn Field, Temple, Texas. Its officers in 1920 were President, Eldon Kent Williams (Williams' newspaperman brother); Secretary-Treasurer, George W Williams; and Field Manager, Lieutenant Eric A Locking, ex RAF.
The club had its own airship in 1920.[6] It offered flying lessons, passenger flights, aerial photography, stunt flying, and aerial advertising.
George A Carroll
James Albert Jackson Carroll (aka George A Carroll), was born on April 4, 1902 in Belton, Texas and died on July 17, 1987 in Tujunga, California. Carroll had joined with the Williams' to found the Texas Aero Corporation. the first commercial aircraft fabricating facility in Texas.
Formation
In 1927 the Club changed its charter and name to the Texas Aero Corporation. Whether this included a merger with Williams earlier company is uncertain. The club was increasing its capital by $50,000 and held contracts for the construction of 6 passenger and mail aircraft.[7] Once formed, the Corporation was the first commercial aircraft fabricating facility in Texas.
Aircraft
George Williams and Carroll designed and built the Texas Monoplane. In total 12 aircraft were constructed between 1928 and 1930 when the Corporation ended. The models known to be constructed were:
Temple Aero Club
- Prototype (1926) with an 80 hp (later 120 hp) Le Rhône rotary designed by Carroll and George Williams.
Texas Aero Corporation - planes registered as Texas-Temple and Temple
- Commercial-Wing (1927) with a 220 hp Wright J-5. Its specifications were: wing span: 39'4", length: 25'10", range: 550 miles, ceiling: 18,500 ft. The plane cost $10,500 with an inertia starter, brakes and metal prop. Four planes were made with the Wright engine (c/n 101 registration NC173, c/n 102 registration NC2506, c/n 104 registration NC5185, c/n 105 registration NC138N), one with a Hisso (c/n 103 - registration NC3801), and one with a 100 hp Curtis OXX-6. This later one could be a Sportsmans or the NC6525 registration aircraft.
- Aero C-4 (1928), possibly powered by a Wright J-5B engine. It was designed to carry 4 passengers in an enclosed cabin with the pilot in an open cockpit behind the wing. (c/n X-101, registration NC-7458)
- Speed-Wing (1928) carried 1 passenger and was a Commercial-Wing for carrying mail. It took a 500 lb payload over a 500 mile range. The plane cost $9,500. It was advertised as a 1 or 2 person sportplane. The first plane was powered by a 150 hp Hisso A engine and had a 39'4" wingspan. No registration found, but it could be the Commercial-Wing registration NC3801 above.
- Sport or Sportsman (1929) was powered by a 100 hp Cirrus Mk III. (c/n S 101 - registration NC480)(c/n - registration NC852H)
- Trimotor (1929)designed by Carroll and only partially completed. It was to be powered by three 60 hp Velie and used as a photographic survey plane. It's fate is unknown and it was never registered.
- Glider (year unknown) (c/n G-1 registration NC-63W)
- Unidentified type c/n A-1 registration NC6525, which had the same registration as a Curtiss JN-4C. One on-line copy of the FAA register contains a suggestion that this may have been a Curtiss rebuilt by the Corporation. No proof is given. It could be the Commercial Wing with the Curtiss OXX engine.
Demise
George Williams, who was one of the principle drivers of the Corporation was killed in an aircrash while on a training flight with a learner pilot in August 1930. The Corporation folded as a result.
One Texas-Temple Sportsman still exists. It had been found in bits by an airplane restorer, Jerry D Ferrell, who reconstructed it. The plane undertook its airworthiness test on July 26, 1990. Ferrel donated the plane for display at the Frontiers of Flight Museum, Love Field, Dallas, Texas.[8] The plane is fitted with a Clyde Cessna modified engine, the Anzani.
A commemorative plaque was placed by the State of Texas on the site of the Corporation's original hangar in 1970. The plaque was replaced and relocated in 2010 because of a change to the adjacent interstate.[9]
External References
References
- ↑ Some data on the invention of the airplane and the new airplane industry, Peter B. Meyer, Office of Productivity and Technology, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 5 April 2010
- ↑ Temple - Images of America, Michael and Nancy Kelsey, Arcadia Publishing, 2010, ISBN 0738580236, 9780738580234, page 119
- ↑ Historic Temple: An Illustrated History, Patricia K Benoit, HPN Books, 2009, ISBN 1893619966, 9781893619968, page 37
- ↑ William (USA), Bill Gunston, World Encyclopedia of Aircraft Manufacturers, Sutton Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0 7509 3981 8, page 504
- ↑ Aerial age - Volume 13, The Aerial Age Company, 1921, page 262
- ↑ Bartlett Citizens Ride in Airship, The Bartlett Tribune and News (Bartlett, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 35, Ed. 1, Friday, February 20, 1920, page 6
- ↑ To Manufacture aeroplanes at Temple, The Tulia Herald (Tulia, Tex), Vol. 18, No. 41, Ed. 1, Thursday, October 13, 1927, page 14
- ↑ Type Club Notes, Norm Petersen, Vintage Airplane, Vol 23 No 4, April 1995, page 10
- ↑ http://stony-ridge.org/georgecarroll.html
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