The Beechcraft Model 17 was not only Walter Beech’s bestselling airplane during the late 1930s, but it proved to be a military workhorse that served the Allied nations with distinction during World War II.
Walter Herschel Beech was a salesman – a very good salesman. He and his wife, Olive Ann, had co-founded the Beech Aircraft Company in 1932 and by the mid-1930s had come perilously close to bankruptcy more than once. Working together as a team along with their handful of employees, they barely managed to survive the vagaries of a ruthless economic depression. By 1939, however, the future looked much brighter. Market dominance of the Model 17 cabin biplane and the growing popularity of the all-metal Model 18 had propelled sales to the million-dollar mark for the first time in the company’s history.
Military sales were not high on Walter Beech’s list of priorities, but he did realize that there was a small, but profitable, market for the Model 17 in uniform. The United States Navy was the first to acquire a military Beechcraft. In 1936, a C17R was delivered to the service under the designation JB-1. Three years later, the U.S. Army held a competition to acquire a fast, efficient utility transport. The D17S defeated its opponents and three airplanes were ordered carrying the designation YC-43.
These ships were “off-the-shelf” commercial airplanes fitted with minimal military-specific equipment. No technical changes were required to meet the Army’s specifications. Delivered in June 1939, all three YC-43s were assigned to duty as transports for military and government personnel serving at the American embassies in London, Rome and Paris. Not to be outclassed by the Army, the Navy soon placed an order for seven D17S biplanes under the designation GB-1. These airplanes were assigned to naval bases and air stations where they served as liaison and VIP transports.
The Army and Navy, however, were not the only customers who saw the value of Walter Beech’s Staggerwing as a military machine. The Brazilian Navy added to the company’s order book when it plunked down a handsome check for two Model D17A airplanes in 1939. Delivered in November 1939, both ships were powered by a Wright Aeronautical R-760 static, air-cooled radial engine rated at 350 hp. Before America’s entry into the war in December 1941, Beech Aircraft Corporation (the name was changed from “Company” to “Corporation” in September 1936) sold an undisclosed number (possibly as many as 11) of modified Model D17S aircraft to China. Painted white overall with large red crosses on the fuselage and above the cabin, they operated as air ambulances during that nation’s war against the invading Japanese.
To this day these airplanes are surrounded by an aura of mystery. Very little is known about their modifications and delivery. Although photographs exist that were taken at the factory and in China, no records within Beech Aircraft’s archives are known to survive that document their existence. In the 1970s, the author made inquiries to Beech Aircraft regarding information about these unique airplanes, but every request was met with a courteous, but firm, dismissal.
When Adolf Hitler plunged Europe into war in September 1939, Great Britain and France honored their pact with the Polish Government and took up arms against Germany. In response to pleas from Prime Minister Winston Churchill for help, in March 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress implemented the Lend-Lease Act that provided the British with the weapons they needed to fight back against the Wehrmacht on land, the Luftwaffe in the air and the Kriegsman on the sea.
In the wake of the president’s Lend-Lease initiative, a flood of orders for military Model 17s arrived on Walter Beech’s desk. Among these was a special Staggerwing to be built to specifications for Crown Prince Bernhardt of the Netherlands, whose government had relocated to England after the Nazis conquered the Low Countries in 1940. The Crown Prince was an avid and competent pilot, and in May contributions received from Dutch Americans allowed the Netherlands Purchasing Commission to order the D17S and its 420-hp Pratt & Whitney static, air-cooled, nine-cylinder radial engine.
The airplane was shipped to England and was delivered to the Royal Air Force (RAF) in October 1941. Painted in standard camouflage using a pattern and colors dictated by the RAF, including roundels and fin flash on the vertical stabilizer, the colorful Staggerwing aircraft was flown by Bernhardt to visit Dutch squadrons and for diplomatic missions involving the exiled Dutch Government.
The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by the Imperial Japanese Navy Dec. 7, 1941, plunged America into a two-front war that would last nearly four years. Production of commercial aircraft quickly came to halt as manufacturers of aircraft engines and airframes retooled their facilities to support the war effort. Beech Aircraft Corporation was no exception and delivered its final four civil biplanes to customers in January 1942, bringing total prewar production to 353 airplanes.
Although many military Staggerwings built from 1942-1945 were produced for Lend-Lease to America’s British, Chinese and South American allies, a majority were manufactured for service with the U.S. Army and Navy. These airplanes were built in a separate facility located south of the main factory, which was dedicated to producing military versions of the twin-engine Model C18S. To help meet the costs of escalating contract obligations, Walter and Olive Ann Beech ordered expansion of the second facility, known as Plant Two, in order to accommodate a much higher rate of production to meet demand. In addition to significantly expanding floor space, money from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation was used to increase size of the airfield by 320 acres and increasing length of the north-south runway to nearly 5,000 feet.
By the end of the war in 1945, the company had built 412 C/UC-43 and GB-2 aircraft. Of these, the Army Air Forces and the Navy took delivery of 270 ships, but various batches of these were soon reassigned to Allied air forces through provisions of the Lend-Lease Act. A total of 122 GB-2s were accepted by the Navy, and the remaining 20 airplanes were acquired by the Brazilian government for its air force. Great Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy received 105 aircraft that were designated Traveller Mk. 1, including 74 that were assigned to the Fleet Air Arm land bases.
These airplanes were flown extensively within England transporting high-ranking officers of the British Admiralty and Allied forces. The RAF shipped 18 Traveller Mk. 1s to the Middle East, but all were lost at sea when the transport S.S. Argurmonte was sunk by a U-boat May 29, 1943, off Cape Province, South Africa. The RAF eventually operated a small number of Traveller Mk. 1s on reconnaissance missions and patrols along the Suez Canal and above the Red Sea in search of enemy submarines.
Detailed information about combat operations of UC/C-43 and GB-2 aircraft in the European and Pacific Theaters of War is minimal at best, but some interesting tidbits do exist. For example, in the December 1994 issue of the Beech “Log” (an in-house publication) a UC-43 flown by Col. Lloyd O. Yost was reported to be standing up well under the harsh, jungle environment of the South and Central Pacific regions. Yost used his UC-43 to fly emergency missions in support of local troops from short, unimproved airstrips. He praised the airplane’s ability to take off and climb over obstacles (usually tall palm trees) at maximum gross weight.
As for the Navy, which also operated its GB-1 and GB-2 Staggerwings in the Pacific, pilots flew missions similar to those performed by Yost. Occasionally these light transports carried high-ranking Navy and Marine officers, but more often they were kept busy ferrying pilots from reserve pools to new squadrons, carrying mail and other small cargo, or flying as navigation aircraft leading Navy and Marine fighters from one island to their new base on another island.
One undated account of these navigation flights that resides in Beech Aircraft’s archives mentions “little commercial Beechcrafts” that served as pathfinders for the fighter pilots. The UC-43 and GB-1/GB-2 ships fit this mission well because they were equipped for instrument flight and could navigate more effectively, ensuring that pilots did not become lost or disoriented above the vast Pacific Ocean. Although very little information is available about the exploits of these “little commercial Beechcrafts,” there is little doubt that the UC-43 and GB-1/GB-2 versions played an important part in flying specific missions in combat areas.
Beech Aircraft terminated production of the UC-43 and GB-2 series in September 1945 after building 312 airplanes during the war. Many war-weary Staggerwings found their way back into civilian service through surplus sales conducted by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which sold UC-43 and GB-2 airplanes for a fraction of their original cost to the U.S. government. In accordance with provisions of the Lend-Lease Act, the Royal Navy returned a majority of its Traveller Mk. 1s to the United States. These ships were issued new serial numbers, declared surplus and were either sold or scrapped. Other ex-RAF and Royal Navy aircraft were sold to civilians in England.
All C/UC-43, GB-2 and Traveller Mk. 1 airplanes built during the war were based on the commercial D17S, but a large number of older Model 17s were impressed by the War Department after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Of these, one B17R served as a UC-43H and one C17R was designated as a C-43E, while 13 D17R were designated C-43A and a single D17A became a C-43F. As for the D17S, a total of 25 were operated by the U.S. military under the designation C-43B. During the war some of these airplanes crashed or were damaged beyond repair, but surprisingly, many survived and were returned to their owners or sold to other buyers.
A majority of Staggerwings flying today are ex-military airplanes, chiefly D17S models. Beech Aircraft Corporation manufactured more Staggerwings during the war than all of commercial production from 1932-1940. According to official records at Beech Aircraft Corporation, from 1932-1948 total production of the classic Model 17 series came to 785 aircraft.
The Beechcraft Model 17’s performance throughout the war served to further reinforce its reputation as a reliable aircraft that proved to be well suited to the rigors of military service. It had flown above the desert sands of the Middle East, ferried supplies and personnel across the European and Pacific Theaters of Operation, and had accompanied American forces as they island-hopped across the vast Central Pacific in a campaign to subjugate Japan.