A bank boy who built a plane in the attic

Emil Matthew Laird, a Chicago bank office boy, built a monoplane in his mother’s attic and flew it in September 1913. He became a well-known barnstormer, and his 1915 Boneshaker biplane, lent to Katherine Stinson for her tour of Japan and China, is now in the Henry Ford Museum. In 1920 investors brought him to Wichita, where the E. M. Laird company built the Swallow, about 43–45 of them. Among its roughly 20 staff were draughtsman Lloyd Stearman and salesman Walter Beech; Clyde Cessna was an early customer.

The Swallow and the Wichita school

After a falling-out with his main shareholder, Laird sold out in 1923 — the Wichita firm became Swallow — and returned to Chicago to found the E. M. Laird Airplane Company at Ashburn Field. He kept sole ownership and refused outside capital, so it never exceeded 85 employees, but its Speedwings and commercial biplanes were known for speed and finish.

Racers that solved the Mystery Ship

Racing made the name. In 1930 Laird built the Solution in three weeks; Speed Holman won the Thompson Trophy in it, passing out several times from exhaust fumes. Jimmy Doolittle won the first Bendix Trophy in the Super Solution in 1931, and the Laird-Turner Meteor won the Thompson in 1938 and 1939. Laird closed his plant in July 1941 and took its machinery to war work in Indiana.

Fabrieken

• Ashburn Field works · Ashburn, Chicago

Mensen

• Emil Matthew Laird · founder, designer, pilot — 1895–1982
• Charles “Speed” Holman · racing pilot — Won the 1930 Thompson Trophy in the Solution
• Jimmy Doolittle · racing pilot — Won the 1931 Bendix Trophy in the Super Solution

Records en primeurs

• First Bendix Trophy, Burbank to Cleveland, 1931, Super Solution, Jimmy Doolittle
• Ottawa–Washington–Mexico City speed record, 12 h 36 min, October 1931
• Thompson Trophy 1930 (Solution) and 1938–1939 (Laird-Turner Meteor)