The Travel Air company was founded in Wichita, Kansas in 1925 by three men who would become some of the most famous names in aviation. They were Walter Beech, Clyde Cessna, and Lloyd Stearman, and all would go on to found their own aircraft companies, two of which are still in business today. Their main product was a biplane that could carry three people, a pilot and two passengers.  Powered by engines from 90 to 235 horsepower these aircraft were used for a variety of purposes including charter, flight instruction, business travel, and even plain old joy rides and barnstorming.

   "Miss Marianna" rolled out of the Travel Air factory on December 28, 1928 as a Model 3000 with a 150 hp water cooled V-8 Hispano-Suiza engine, and was delivered that day to her new owner, J. L. Parker of Kansas City, Missouri.  The CAA had assigned registration number 9079, preceded by the letter "C" meaning it could be used for commercial purposes. Later the standard American identifier letter "N" was added so that the airplane could be  used for interstate commerce.  Parker must've been fairly high in the company to afford an airplane that cost $4,140 when the average annual household income was around  $2,000.

     Within a year Parker took C9079 back to the factory and had them convert it to a more advanced 5 cylinder Wright radial engine of 165 horsepower, making it a Model E-4000.

     J. L.'s grandson, Larry Shank, is a pilot today, and he was gracious enough to provide some old family photos of his grandfather with "Miss Marianna" (unfortunately nobody knows who Marianna was!), as well as letting us borrow J. L.'s pilot logbook, which shows that he flew C9079 on trips as distant as Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Denver.

     Another friend, Pete Colomello, has uncovered some old newspaper articles mentioning Parker and his travels in "Miss Marianna", and even an appearance at an airshow.

     In 1932 the airplane was sold to a buyer in Michigan, and in 1935 it went to Harold Tschantz of Indiana, who kept it until 1939.  We have been in touch with the Tschantz family, and were able to give some of them rides in '9079 in the summer of 2019.  One of the neat things that Harold did with the airplane was to take part in National Air Mail Week in May, 1938.  This was a promotional event sponsored by the US Post Office where local pilots were sworn in as Postal employees and flew the mail from their local airport to one of the normal Air Mail hubs.  So '9079 is a genuine Air Mail airplane.

     Then the Travel AIr went to Louisiana before ending up in Texas during World War 2.  Here it worked as a crop duster, which is probably why it survived when so many of its contemporaries were scrapped.  In the late 1940s the Wright engine was replaced with a 220 horsepower Continental 7-cylinder radial, a World War 2 engine known for its strength and reliability.  It still has that type of engine on it today. It continued crop dusting in Texas until the 1950s, when it was probably replaced by more modern purpose-built types, and was put into storage.

     In 1965 it was sold to Wayne Delp in upstate New York, and over some years he restored it back to its former glory, and flew it around the Eastern US to various airshows and events.  When Wayne died in 1999 his son Tom inherited C9079, and in 2018 we purchased the airplane from Tom.  It hadn't flown in about 10 years, and needed an engine overhaul and some other work, so we disassembled it and trucked it back to Virginia.  Finally, in March of 2019 it took to the skies again, and is now ready to go back to work, showing a new generation the thrill of open cockpit flying.

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