Page 24 - Volume 11 Number 4

Debonair!
In 1959, Beech Aircraft Corporation took aim at the expanding business flying market by launching the Model 33 to compete with the Cessna “Skylane” and Piper “Comanche.”
by Edward H. Phillips
In November 1959, Beech Aircraft Corporation’s president Olive Ann Beech challenged the company’s global sales personnel to meet the ambitious goal of $60 million in sales during the upcoming 1960 fiscal year. As with other general aviation manufacturers in 1959, Beech Aircraft was recovering from the economic recession of 1958 that drove down sales and profits.
President Beech and her senior management were increasingly aware of gaps in the company’s product line, particularly the lightweight single- and twin-engine segments. Since 1957 the Model 95 “Travel Air” had closed the gap between the Model 35 “Bonanza” and the much larger Model 50 “Twin Bonanza,” but the model remained the company’s entry-level Beechcraft. To further expand its growing “Air Fleet of American Business,” in 1959 Beech Aircraft announced development of the Model 33 “Debonair” and promised its worldwide sales organization that the new Beechcraft would be available for the 1960 model year.
Since 1932, the company founded by Walter and Olive Ann Beech had focused on the upper echelon of the private/business flying market and the name “Beechcraft” was known worldwide as the “Cadillac” of small aircraft. In the wake of World War II, however, the general aviation landscape began to change as more and more people started to realize the advantages of flying their own airplane. Throughout the 1950s the number of men and women earning a private pilot’s license increased significantly, and airframe manufacturers such as Cessna Aircraft Company and Piper Aircraft Corporation offered a selection of affordable, four-place airplanes. By the mid-1950s these included Cessna’s all-metal Model 182 and Piper’s welded steel tube and fabric PA-22 “Tri-Pacer,” which barely accommodated four adults in its cramped cabin.
By contrast, Beech Aircraft’s entry-level airplane was the Model 35 Bonanza that, since its introduction in 1947, had enjoyed immense popularity with pilots who could afford to own one. Beechcraft Bonanza historian Larry A. Ball summed it up well: “For many years the Bonanza had reigned supreme – no other airplane could match its performance. If an aircraft owner wanted to fly
In September 1959, Beech Aircraft Corporation flew the Model 35-33 “Debonair” prototype, registered N831R, marking its entry into the low-price segment of the single- engine, high-performance market. The Debonair, however, was so spartan in its external appearance and cabin appointments that salesmen found it hard to sell against the Piper PA-24 Comanche and Cessna 182 Skylane. (WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES)