From Tennessee farm boy to famous aviator and respected entrepreneur, Walter was a driving force in the commercial aviation industry for 33 years. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Walter Herschel Beech was working as a trained chauffer and automobile engine mechanic for the White Motor Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota.…
In 1948, senior management at Beech Aircraft Corporation saw the need for a new military trainer to equip postwar air forces. Their solution was the Model 45 Mentor, which would become one of the most popular Beechcrafts built. When World War II ended with the unconditional surrender of Japan in September 1945, the United States…
In 1928, the Travel Air Manufacturing Company introduced a series of enclosed cabin monoplanes aimed specifically at the emerging business aviation marketplace. It is safe to state that the nonstop flight of Charles A. Lindbergh from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York, to Le Bourget Airport, Paris, France, in May 1927 ignited a massive wave…
The pioneering airframe manufacturer began operations in 1925 and its legacy has greatly outlived its six-year lifespan. During a cold December in 1924, Walter H. Beech and Lloyd C. Stearman contemplated forming a new airplane company, but they needed help. They met with their friend Clyde V. Cessna, one of America’s true aviation pioneers, who…
During the 1970s and 1980s, the Beech Aircraft Corporation served up the E90 and F90 King Air using special ingredients drawn from their “kitchen” library of recipes. As the decade of the 1970s arrived, the Beech Aircraft Corporation had built more than 1,300 King Air business and military airplanes since the introduction of the Model…
In the late 1950s, the U.S. Army’s inventory of the versatile L-23/U-8 Seminole series of light military transports ended with introduction of the L-23F – the versatile Beechcraft that set a new standard for fixed-wing Army aviation. Thirteen years after the end of the bloodiest conflict on earth known as World War II, Americans were…
In 1945, Beech Aircraft Corporation built the most powerful ground attack aircraft of World War II – the mighty XA-38 Grizzly. Armed with a 75-mm cannon and six machine guns, the twin-engine gunship was large, powerful and fast, but the war ended before the enemy could feel its offensive punch. In 1944, Beech Aircraft Corporation…
Starting with the Model E33A, in 1968 Beech Aircraft engineers dug deep into their airframe “cookbook” to create the company’s most popular and versatile Bonanza – the Model 36 series “The biggest, most versatile Bonanza ever built.” That was how Beech Aircraft Corporation described the new Model 36 Bonanza when it was certified in May…
During the mid-1930s Walter Beech and his engineers developed a new series of Model 17s that added laurels to Beech Aircraft Company’s reputation and black ink to its battered balance sheets. The decision in 1933 to downsize the bullish Model 17R into the popular Model B17 series had proved to be the correct one…
Beech Aircraft Corporation’s versatile Model 300 and Model B300 exemplified the company’s determination to keep a firm grip on the premier cabin-class, turboprop market segment As the decade of the 1970s came to a close, management at Beech Aircraft Corporation decided the time had come to expand the company’s King Air product line. Although sales…