Black & Decker’s Flying Showroom

By Al LaPorte

Photo/Historical data courtesy of Black & Decker

The years between the end of WWI and the beginning of WWII witnessed the emergence of aviation as a major factor in commercial transportation. From the barnstorming pilots, to the pioneering air mail flights, to Lindbergh’s daring solo Atlantic crossing, the nation’s recognition of aviation’s potential was awakened.

The 1920’s saw the beginnings of commercial air travel, shrinking travel times for both passengers and cargo. A few enterprising companies envisioned the usefulness of aircraft as a means of advancing their business interests. One such organization was Maryland’s Black & Decker Manufacturing Company, as it was then known. It was among the first companies to employ aircraft for the purpose of expanding their sales horizons.

For many years Black & Decker had employed a modified bus as a traveling showroom. The condition of North America’s roads in those days was such that the bus would be shipped by rail to various regions of the United States and Canada and then travel through the area by road to display and sell power tools. The acquisition of an aircraft to supplement and modernize their sales operations was conceived as a logical extension of Black & Decker’s established policy of bringing their product directly to the customer’s site.

In 1929 Black & Decker placed an order through Curtis Flying Service for a Model 6000B six passenger Curtis-Wright Travel Air monoplane. Construction began at the Curtis-Wright plant in Wichita, Kansas in August of that year and the aircraft entered final assembly in October 1929. Upon completion it was flown to Baltimore and delivered to Black & Decker by year’s end. The delivery flight was piloted by Lieutenant W. L. Snowden, who was to become the company’s salesman-pilot of the Travel Air.

Travel Air models of this type were intended by Curtis-Wright to serve as regional airliners and corporate aircraft. In 1927 an earlier version of this aircraft, a Model 5000, flew from Oakland, California to Hawaii in 27 hours, setting a record as the first civilian aircraft to do so.

In keeping with Black & Decker’s intention to use the aircraft primarily as a flying showroom, the six passenger seats were removed and replaced with an interior layout suitable for tool storage and display.

The inaugural flight of the flying showroom took place in January of 1930 when the Travel Air embarked on a 38-day tour through 8 southeastern states. The primary target of the flying showroom was the growing aircraft industry. Since the major aircraft manufacturers and maintenance operations were all located on or immediately adjacent to airfields the concept of using aircraft to sell and deliver tools proved to be an innovative and efficient means of reaching this market segment.

Presently supported by a global manufacturing, sales, and distribution network, Black & Decker no longer requires flying showrooms to sell their products. Aircraft, however, remain an important corporate asset for the tool and domestic product manufacturer. The corporation now employs modern jet aircraft to assist in managing their worldwide operations.