Beard was elected President of Braniff Airways with Fred Jones, an original Braniff investor, as Chairman of the Board.
During the 1970s, passengers arrived via Trans International Douglas DC-8 and Braniff International DC-8s (the Pickle and the Banana) flights from Travis AFB, California (via Honolulu and Guam).
Among the airlines that had models released by Dyna-Flites included FedEx, Delta Air Lines, Eastern Air Lines, Pan Am, TWA and Braniff.
Mr. Gordon approached famed artist Alexander Calder and brought him to Braniff International Airways Chairman Harding Lawrence with a proposal for Calder to paint a Braniff jet airliner in what would become the world's first flying artwork.
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As a result of his bringing American Modern Master Alexander Calder to Braniff Airways to paint a Braniff jet which would become the world's first flying mobile, he received the 25 million USD per year Braniff account, in 1972.
Braniff co-founder Thomas Elmer Braniff was an insurance magnate and now the third major owner (Senator William A. Blakley was the second largest owner of Braniff after 1954) of Braniff was also an insurance executive.
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(Ed Acker was Executive Vice President and President of Braniff from 1965 until 1975 and became Chairman of Pan Am in 1981.) During the 1980s, Lawrence worked at Wells Rich Greene Advertising alongside his wife, advertising legend Mary Wells Lawrence who Lawrence married in November, 1967.
In 1982, he had a famous conversation with Braniff CEO Howard D. Putnam, in which he told Putnam that if Braniff raised their prices, American would too.
Texas Senator William A. Blakley, who in 1961 was appointed to then Senator Lyndon B. Johnson's seat after LBJ was elected Vice President of the United States, created with Tom Braniff, the Blakley Braniff Foundation.