Every spring, company boss Walter Beech would come into the engineering department and suggest that they convert a stock design into a faster or more powerful airplane to be entered in that year's racing events.
"[3] He and his assistant Walter E. Burnham began working on their own at that point to design the Travel Air Type R Mystery Ship, which Beech accepted and built, just in time to enter the 1929 race.
[5] The Great Depression eventually forced Travel Air into bankruptcy, when airplane sales dropped dramatically.
He became an engineering instructor at the C-W Technical Institute in 1935, also serving as production manager for Spartan Aircraft Company during that time.
After retiring from Beechcraft, Rawdon performed consulting work for Lockheed, Cessna and Lycoming Engines.
After Rawdon's death in December 1975 his family donated his collection of papers, books, calculations and photographs to the Wichita State University libraries in 1981.
Since their chance of winning the government competition appeared slim, they converted the prototype into a cropduster, and built another five units in that configuration as local applicators learned of the product and sought them out.
When the Korean War broke out in 1950, Rawdon Brothers Aircraft received several government contracts to supply wing panels, empennage members and pilot seats.
By 1949 the airstrip boasted three intersecting grass runways (N-S, E-W and NW-SE), the longest the 2,550-foot diagonal strip.