2500 North Hillside, Wichita, Kansas

After Emil Matthew “Matty” Laird left Wichita, Kansas, and took his E.M. Laird Aircraft Company name with him (in 1923), his financial backer, oil field tycoon Jacob Melvin Moellendick reorganized the remaining assets of the company as Swallow Airplane Manufacturing Company. That company focused on building the Swallow that Laird had designed and which was already popular with air taxi operators and barnstormers.

Swallow remained at or near the top of the airplane manufacturing business until the Great Depression made airplane ownership a luxury few people could afford. The company declared bankruptcy in October 1932.

Swallow Mail Plane, owned by Varney Air Lines, 1926

SEE ALSO
E.M. Laird Aircraft Company

Questions or comments about this page?

This page was last updated on 09/23/2017.