In 1937, the Beech Aircraft Company introduced its first multi-engine,
cabin-class transport that would become the undisputed icon of business
aviation and the grand patriarch of the legendary Beechcraft King Air.
It had been five years since the dreadful “Black Thursday” of October 1929 had inaugurated the worst collapse of prosperity in American history. Millions of people were out of work. Breadlines and soup kitchens struggled to fill empty stomachs. A new phrase, “Hey, buddy, can you spare a dime?” was heard from coast to coast. Worse yet, the Midwest “bread basket of America” turned into a gigantic dust bowl as layers of precious topsoil were blown as far east as New York City.
Despite these woes there was, however, a dim light at the end of the tunnel: President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s often controversial “New Deal” social and governmental programs were beginning to pay off, growing not only the economy, but creating jobs that put food on the table for millions of workers.
The aviation industry was an early victim of the debacle on Wall Street. Among the worst casualties was Wichita, Kansas. In the halcyon days of the “Roarin’ Twenties,” the city had proclaimed itself the “Air Capital of the World,” and by 1929 was home to three major airframe manufacturers – the Travel Air Company, Cessna Aircraft Company and the Stearman Division of the Boeing Aircraft Company. Travel Air, under the leadership of Walter H. Beech, became a subsidiary of Curtiss-Wright Corporation in August 1929, but was forced to close its doors in 1931.
In April 1932, Beech, in concert with his wife Olive Ann, engineer Theodore “Ted” Wells and a handful of ex-Travel Air employees, opened for business as the Beech Aircraft Company. Throughout 1933 and into 1934, the infant manufacturer struggled mightily to sell a few Beechcraft Model 17R, A17 and A17FS cabin biplanes. Fortunately, Beech was quick to realize that the bullish, high-horsepower, fuel-guzzling (but magnificent!) biplanes, which sold for about $18,000, were grossly overpriced for a depression-driven market. Wells redesigned the expensive cabin biplanes into a series of smaller aircraft designated the Beechcraft B17. These ships were powered by fuel-efficient radial engines and, more importantly, priced at about $8,000 to fit a restricted market.1
As the national economy began what would be a slow, painful, but determined recovery in the mid-1930s, Walter Beech and his worldwide sales organization managed to sell 48 B17 airplanes. The company coffers were still thin, but the red ink that stole away any profit in 1932-1933 had disappeared by 1935. Beech, however, knew the company could not survive with only one product – the Model B17. He needed a new design, one that could compete with a flock of modern twin-engine, all-metal cabin monoplanes that were emerging from the drawing boards.
Although it remains uncertain precisely what prompted Walter Beech to develop a new aircraft, it is probable that a competition held by the Bureau of Air Commerce in August 1935, provided that impetus. According to an article printed by the Bureau, the request for bids was intended to “…bring into being a small transport airplane for its own airline inspectors,” thereby paving the way for “small operators to purchase similar types from the industry without having to shoulder the initial engineering and development expenses that are involved in all new airplane design projects.2
Among the companies intending to bid were the Lockheed Aircraft Company, led by former Travel Air designer Lloyd C. Stearman; Monocoach, the Stinson Aircraft Company, Barkley-Grow and the Kinner Aircraft Company. Of these, the Monocoach, Kinner and Stinson designs featured a single vertical stabilizer. Ted Wells and Walter Beech were familiar with these competitors, and were particularly impressed by the sleek Lockheed Model 12 transport that featured two vertical stabilizers, as did the Barkley-Grow design.3
The chief reason the next-generation Beechcraft featured twin vertical stabilizers can be traced to the evolving science of stress analysis, which in the mid-1930s was still not fully understood when applied to all-metal, semi-monocoque airframe structures. Wells had learned about the pitfalls of analysis from a series of errors he made during certification of the Model 17R1 biplane in 1932. When he submitted documentation on the empennage showing how the calculations were made for various forces acting on the welded steel tube structure, his work was criticized in a letter to Walter Beech written by officials of the Bureau of Air Commerce (a division of the Department of Commerce). They alleged that Wells’ work bordered on incompetence and ordered him to resubmit the analysis. Ted’s 10 years of experience working with welded steel tube airframes were of little help when faced with determining stresses imposed during flight on an all-metal airframe.
In the wake of that experience, Wells decided to build the new Beechcraft’s aluminum alloy fuselage around a welded steel tube frame. He considered designing the twin-engine transport with a single vertical stabilizer, but there was a problem: torsional stresses imposed on the aft fuselage during flight with one engine inoperative would be difficult to calculate (such analysis was not fully understood by many aeronautical engineers of that era). Ted’s solution was to design the airplane with two vertical stabilizers, analyzing each one separately as a single structure. In addition, mounting the two vertical surfaces outboard on the horizontal stabilizer had the advantage of retaining the total area required for adequate directional control under flight with one engine inoperative.
Walter Beech was known for taking calculated risks that were necessary in the capricious business aircraft industry, but before a final decision was made to proceed with design and construction of a twin-engine monoplane, he used a tactic that had proven useful during the halcyon days of the Travel Air Company. In 1928, he directed a massive marketing campaign to determine whether aviation-minded businessmen would buy a single-engine monoplane whose main feature was an enclosed cabin seating up to eight people.
His efforts were rewarded with a positive endorsement from the marketplace, and design of the Type 6000 was approved. Beech’s risk soon paid off handsomely. By late 1929, the Type 6000B and more powerful A6000A accounted for about 50% of the company’s production. The Type 6000’s growing dominance made it clear that businessmen preferred an enclosed cabin to the rigors of open cockpit flying.
The decision to design and build the Beechcraft Model 18 was made in the autumn of 1935, and preliminary work was already underway by December. In addition to chief engineer Wells, Wilfred Wallace and Dean Burleigh contributed their talents to the process, but a majority of the final decisions were made by Wells. Mr. Beech offered his input as he saw fit.
News of a new Beech airplane soon hit the pages of major aviation magazines. In the December issue of “Aviation,” journalists reported that “…it is a fair guess that the machine is being prepared to meet the specifications of the Department of Commerce for a transport for feeder airline service.” The brief article went on to state that the cockpit would accommodate two pilots, while the cabin would seat up to six passengers. Projected performance included a cruising speed of 185 mph, a service ceiling (two engine) of 20,000 feet and a single-engine service ceiling of 8,500 feet.
As work progressed, the new design was given the designation “Model 18.” The choice of engines was relatively easy because only two powerplants, the static, air-cooled radial Wright R-760 and the Pratt & Whitney R-985, met Wells’ horsepower requirement. Both engines were highly reliable and benefitted from years of refinement and improvements since they were introduced in the late 1920s, and both had been installed in many Model 17 “Staggerwing” biplanes since 1934. Ted chose the seven-cylinder R-760E-2 that was rated at 350 horsepower.4
The Model 18A prototype (Beech Aircraft Corporation airframe constructor number 62) was built in the former Travel Air factory complex located on East Central Avenue in Wichita. The facility, which included five large buildings, had sat idle since 1931 when parent company Curtiss-Wright moved production to its campus in
St. Louis, Missouri. During 1932-1933, however, Clyde V. Cessna and his son Eldon had leased one of the Travel Air buildings to design and construct (with assistance from engineer Garland Peed) two small, low-horsepower racing monoplanes known as the CR-2 and the CR-3. In an ironic twist of fate, during those two years Cessna was building monoplanes in Walter Beech’s biplane factory while Beech was building Model 17 biplanes in Cessna’s monoplane factory.
Having selected the engines for the new Beechcraft, Wells and his team began investigating a series of airfoils. It was imperative that the wing produce generous lift with minimum drag, but also had to possess an acceptable lift/drag profile at low airspeeds, and demonstrate safe stall characteristics. To test various airfoils, a wood model was built and suspended in a basic but useful wind tunnel located at Wichita State University. After careful analysis, engineers chose the 23000 series design developed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).
Plans called for using the 23018 section at the wing root, transitioning to the 23012 airfoil outboard of the engine nacelles all the way to the wingtips. After further testing, the wing chord featured a 3.5-degree twist from the root to the tip that demonstrated good aerodynamic performance at approach and landing airspeed. The twist, known as “wash out” in aviation parlance, meant that the wing root had an angle of incidence that gradually decreased toward the wingtip, thereby promoting a smooth airflow over the ailerons for roll control when the wing stalled.
In addition, electrically-operated plain flaps were installed under the wings, and the ailerons, elevator and rudders were aluminum alloy covered in cotton fabric. The conventional landing gear arrangement was extended and retracted electrically. To reduce drag, the R-760E-2 engines were closely cowled and small blisters were fabricated to clover the rocker boxes. After 13 months of construction, on January 3, 1937, the prototype Model 18A rolled out of the factory and into the Kansas sunshine. Its first flight, however, was delayed nearly two weeks until all components of the retractable main landing gear were completed and installed on the ship.
Ted Wells’ twin-engine monoplane was finally declared ready for its maiden flight on January 15, 1937. The flight test crew included company test pilot Homer C. “Ding” Rankin serving as co-pilot, with James N. Peyton occupying the left seat. Peyton was a highly experienced aviator who had worked for the Bureau of Aeronautics and performed flight tests of the Beechcraft A17FS early in 1935. He was familiar with the general flying characteristics and handling qualities of multi-engine aircraft and, when hired temporarily by Walter Beech to fly the Model 18A, was serving as a pilot with Transcontinental and Western Air (later known simply as “TWA”).
To watch over the two R-760 engines, Wright Aeronautical sent field representative Robert E. Johnson to Wichita, rounding out the flight test crew. Following a multitude of inspections to ensure that the Beechcraft was airworthy, Peyton and his companions took the Model 18A aloft late that afternoon for an uneventful flight that lasted about 50 minutes.5
The successful first flight was quickly followed by a series of planned tests including five flights on January 18 that totaled five hours, 10 minutes. Although the prototype Model 18A flew well, there were a number of issues that had to be corrected before the government would grant certification. These included the propellers that occasionally failed to go into high pitch, and the main landing gear gave the crew a scare on January 28 when it jammed in transit. It was a cold, misty day and the low temperatures may have contributed to the problem, but James Peyton managed to extend the gear and land safely at the old Travel Air flying field adjacent to the Beech factory.
In the wake of that incident, Peyton told Ted Wells and Walter Beech that he refused to fly the ship until the main gear operated properly regardless of the weather conditions. During the next two weeks the sleek Beechcraft stayed on the ground, receiving extensive modifications to its main gear under the direction of Wells and his staff. Although the changes addressed Peyton’s concerns, in February he was replaced by Jack Thornburg, another pilot flying for Transcontinental and Western Air. In only two weeks Thornburg flew the Model 18A a total of 34 hours to complete a relatively smooth, seven-week flight test program leading to issuance of Approved Type Certificate No. 630 on March 4, 1937.6
Thornburg’s enthusiasm for the Model 18A prompted him to write a letter to Walter Beech extolling the airplane’s overall flight characteristics. On March 15, 1937, he wrote: “I enjoyed every minute in the ship and now rate it as my outstanding favorite in its class. It is, indeed, a satisfaction for a test pilot to exceed slightly all of the estimated performance figures. I believe that very few airplanes in the field you are covering have been engineered so perfectly. I could make a great many rather startling statements concerning per-formance and handling quali-ties, however, that would run into pages which could eventually be summed up as – the greatest airplane of its kind I have ever flown. I am certain you are assured of success.” His words would prove to be highly prophetic.
Following certification, the prototype ship was prepared for a lengthy tour of the United States and Canada that was aimed solely at demonstrating the airplane to prospective buyers. Walter Beech, of course, hoped those businessmen and private individuals would line up and plunk down a hefty cash deposit for a new Model 18. The prototype, however, had already been sold to the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation and was scheduled to take delivery in June.
Walter Beech was at the controls of NC15810 for much of the tour, flying the monoplane for five hours before landing in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, before flying on to New York City and later Pittsburgh, where a series of demonstration flights were made. Later, Beech flew the ship west to the Pacific Aircraft Show held in
Los Angeles, California, where it drew admiring crowds and made another round of demonstration flights.7
During April, Mr. Beech spent more than 20 hours in the left seat of the Model 18A, flying the ship from Wichita to Dallas, Texas, then to St. Petersburg, Florida, before heading north to the nation’s capital, followed by a flight to New York City and eventually north into Canada. The Canadians in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and other cities were impressed by the new Beechcraft. In May, Walter Beech happily reported to the company’s stockholders that the two-month tour would soon secure orders for the first 10 production airplanes.8
Part Two of this series will discuss civil and military production of the Model 18 from 1938, through the years of World War II and the beginning of postwar deliveries in 1945.
Notes:
1. Phillips, Edward H.; “Beechcraft—Pursuit of Perfection”; Flying Books, Publishers and Wholesalers, Eagan, Minn.; 1992, Page 4.
2. More than 50 years later, Wells stated that the Bureau’s competition served as the primary motivation for development of Model 18. Historian Robert K. Parmerter, however, points out in his book, “Beech 18—A Civil and Military History,” that Beech Aircraft Company files show a signed order from the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation for a twin-engine cabin monoplane. The order is dated August 1, 1935 – two weeks before the Bureau released its request for bids. The Ethyl Corporation had bought the first Beechcraft Model 17R1 biplane in 1934 and flew the ship on business trips until it was destroyed in a weather-related accident in December 1935.
3. Years later Wells commented that late in 1935 a small groupof his engineers drove south to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, (another version states it was Ponca City, Oklahoma) to observe a Lockheed Model 10A “Electra” operated by the Continental Oil Drilling Company.
As a result, various stories have circulated for 80 years that Walter Beech had Wells copy the Electra’s design, but such claims have no basis in fact. Neither Wells nor Beech needed inspiration from other designers to be innovative. The Model 17R had proven that conclusively.
4. Early production Model 18 monoplanes used a variety of radial engines, including the Jacobs L-5 (285 horsepower) and L-6 (300) as well as the R-760. Introduced in 1939, the Model C18S was powered by the nine-cylinder R-985 rated at 450 horsepower.
5. Parmerter, Robert K.; “Beech 18—A Civil and Military History;” The Staggerwing Museum Foundation, Inc., Tullahoma, Tenn.; 2004; Page 23.
6. Ibid; Page 25.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
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