An oilman buys an aircraft company

In January 1928 oilman William G. Skelly bought the struggling Mid-Continent Aircraft Manufacturing Company of Tulsa, renamed it Spartan and founded the Spartan School of Aeronautics alongside it. Its first product was the C3 open-cockpit biplane trainer. The Depression strained Skelly’s finances, and in 1935 J. Paul Getty bought a controlling interest. Skelly kept the venture going through the early Depression years while it developed a line of aircraft, from the C3 biplane to the C2 and C4 monoplanes.

The Executive

Skelly had wanted a fast, comfortable aircraft for wealthy executives like himself, and the result was the 7W Executive of 1936. All-metal, with a 450 hp Wasp Junior and retractable undercarriage, it cruised at about 200 mph and had a range of over 1,000 nautical miles. About three dozen were built. Spartan also built 201 NP-1 biplane trainers for the US Navy, and in the Second World War made sub-assemblies for warplanes.

From aircraft to trailers

After the war Getty ended aircraft production and turned the factory to travel trailers using the Executive’s monocoque methods. Spartan built more than 40,000 trailer homes before production ended in 1961. The firm moved into insurance, and the Spartan name went to the school, today Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology. The trailers were sold as luxury goods, at prices above 4,000 dollars. Aircraft engines were still being overhauled under the Spartan Aircraft Company name as late as 1970.

Fabrieken

• Tulsa works · Sheridan Avenue, Tulsa Municipal Airport, Oklahoma — Aircraft and later trailer factory

Mensen

• William G. Skelly · founder — Oilman who reorganised Mid-Continent as Spartan in 1928
• J. Paul Getty · owner — Bought control in 1935 and took direct control in WWII