Travel Air 3000

Travel Air · United States · first flew 1927 · light aircraft

The Travel Air 3000 is an American general-purpose biplane of the 1920s, a direct development of the Travel Air Model BH.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	Mid-mounted, straight
E — Engines	1 × piston, nose-mounted
F — Fuselage	7.37 m fuselage
T — Tail	Conventional

WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.

Spot it by:

Unequal-span, single-bay, staggered biplane of conventional design
Large aerodynamic balances ("elephant ears") on the upper ailerons
Hispano-Suiza 8 V-8 in the nose, with passengers and pilot in tandem open cockpits

Look for an open-cockpit staggered biplane with unequal-span wings and big "elephant ear" aileron balances, with a V-8 engine in a nose that is either closely cowled or flat-fronted.

Specifications

The Travel Air 3000 has a length of 7.37 m (24 ft).
It has a wingspan of 10.57 m (35 ft).
Its maximum speed is 180 km/h (112 mph).
Typical crew: 1.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

Travel Air built four Model 3000s in 1927 and continued production through 1928 and 1929. The design received type certificate ATC-31 in March 1928. Customers supplied their own Hispano-Suiza 8 engine of 150 or 180 hp.

Variants

The standard Model 3000 had Model A-style wings; the Model D-3000 had "speedwings". Some aircraft had contoured cowlings and others the simpler "flat-nose" installation, and two were re-manufactured as Model 9000s.

Where you'll see it

Around 30 to 50 were built. Louise Thaden set women's altitude, speed and endurance records in Travel Air biplanes, at least two of them in the Model 3000; they were also raced, barnstormed and used in films. One is preserved in Missouri.

Related aircraft

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