The company’s small gas turbine proved to be the right engine at the right time for Beech Aircraft Corporation’s next generation of business aircraft By the late 1950s, the military forces of the United States, Great Britain, Russia and other nations had been developing and flying jet-powered fighters and bombers for nearly 10 years. Lessons…
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 Travel Air Company and its speedy Type “R” monoplane would dominate the 1929 National Air Races and realize Walter H. Beech’s dream of beating the Army and Navy to the checkered flag. Air racing had always been among Walter Beech’s favorite activities. He had flown Laird “Swallow” biplanes to victory in the early phase…
Walter H. Beech possessed a highly competitive spirit that drove him to win, and never was that passion expressed more fully than during his early days competing in air races and aerial exhibitions. Suddenly, the starter’s flag dropped and the race began. One after another the pilots shoved throttles all the way forward. In just seconds,…
When two teenage boys and a college girl yearned to fly, Walter H. Beech gave them the opportunity to “learn the business” and make their dream come true Walter H. Beech is remembered world-wide for the airplanes that bear his name. In addition, his skills as a pilot made him a household name during the…
During 1943-1944, the “Peerless Princess of the Prairie” became the epicenter of Boeing’s struggle to give General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold the Superfortress bombers he needed to inflict horrific destruction upon the homeland of Japan. The Imperial Japanese Navy’s surprise attack on the United States military base at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on December…
During World War II, the prairie city became a major contributor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Arsenal of Democracy” that helped to crush the Axis powers into submission. By 1939, the United States was slowly emerging from the Great Depression that had decimated the national economy for nearly 10 years. Job growth was increasing each…
The financial debacle that struck Wall Street in October 1929 not only set America on a downward path to economic ruin, but threatened to swiftly clip the wings of Wichita’s thriving aircraft industry. As the “Roarin’ Twenties” came to a close, the United States was riding what appeared to be an unstoppable wave of prosperity.…
By the early 1930s, the Great Depression had decimated Wichita’s once booming aircraft industry, but a few courageous entrepreneurs were willing to gamble everything to put new wings on their dreams. As the wave of economic devastation continued its sweep across America in 1931, sales of new commercial airplanes remained in a tailspin. Every airframe,…
The stock market crash in October 1929 thrust a knife into the heart of America’s economy and put Wichita’s thriving aviation industry into an unrecoverable tailspin. The ramifications of Wall Street’s disaster were both cruel and inevitable. Across the United States, banks began to fail as people rushed to take out their money and borrowers…