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…
Have you heard of The Flying Santa flights that have continued uninterrupted for 94 years? They started on Christmas Day 1929 in a floatplane built by Travel Air, the airplane manufacturer started in 1925 by Walter Beech, Clyde Cessna and Lloyd Stearman. Early aviation pioneer William Wincapaw loved flying, especially amphibious airplanes that were practical…
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…
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 “Mentor” that would become one of the most popular Beechcrafts ever built. When World War II ended with the unconditional surrender of Japan in September 1945, the United States Army…
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…
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…
Loaders rolling dynamite kegs into a ski-equipped Beechcraft S18A-172, registered CF-BGY, in Hudson, Canada (located 166 miles northwest of Lake Superior) recognized the “twin-tailed wonder” as the first of its type working commercially beyond the U.S.-Canada border. No one on that frigid January day in 1938 could have known that lessons learned would one day…