Page 29 - Volume 15 Number 4

The shy girl from rural Kansas was no stranger to aviation – she learned the business as “boss” of the office at the Travel Air Company from 1925-1931, where she was known by her co-workers as strictly “Miss Mellor.” In 1930, she changed her last name to Beech and in 1932, amid the depths of the Great Depression, co-founded the infant and struggling Beech Aircraft Company with her husband Walter. She was a key co-executive with Walter during the hectic years of World War II when the company produced more than 7,000 airplanes and built subassemblies for other aircraft.
When Mr. Beech died in November 1950, Olive Ann was more than prepared to step into his shoes as president and chief executive officer and she soon demonstrated that the lessons she had learned during the past 30 years had helped to hone her skills not only as a manager, but also as a “no-nonsense,” uncompromising decisionmaker. The “bold, new step” she heard about that day in the boardroom was nothing short of revolutionary.
It centered on marrying the proven and robust airframe of the Model 80 series Queen Air with the gas turbine power of Pratt & Whitney’s new, innovative PT6A turboprop engine. The PT6 was a major design and technical breakthrough in gas turbine technology that promised to deliver significantly more power than was available using reciprocating engines. Although highly reliable, the large displacement, turbocharged engines built by Continental and Lycoming would remain in demand for years to come; they were approaching the limit of their development in terms of horsepower. The New England-based company’s compact, lightweight and powerful PT6A was among the earliest turboprop engines developed specifically for the general aviation segment (which included business aircraft) and delivered 550 shaft horsepower (shp) for takeoff and 500 shp for continuous operation. In addition, it could deliver more than 1,000 pound-feet of torque to the propeller via a simple, reliable, planetary-type reduction gearbox.
Although development of turbojet engines began in the late 1930s, it accelerated quickly during World War II and continued into the 1950s, the focus of engine manufacturers was primarily tied to military and commercial airframes, not business aviation. With the advent of the PT6A, however, gas turbine technology that was forged in the “Jet Age” was finally beginning to trickle down to the general aviation market. As far as Beechcraft’s senior engineers were concerned, the Queen Air airframe was a logical match for Pratt & Whitney’s powerplant. All that remained was to convince Olive Ann Beech.
Olive Ann Beech at her desk during the postwar years. Prior
to the death of her husband Walter Beech in 1950 she already played an increasingly important role in both the management and direction Beech Aircraft Corporation would take in the years ahead. (Courtesy Mary Lynn Oliver)
After a thorough investigation of the facts and input from her officials, she gave a green light to what would become known as “Project King Air.” Originally conceived in 1961 as the 300-mph Beechcraft Model 120, the new airplane was officially introduced July 14, 1963, and made its first flight Jan. 24, 1964. The company’s engineering department had grafted the PT6A onto the Queen Air airframe, which had been modified to allow the cabin and cockpit to be pressurized to 3.4 psid (pounds per square inch differential).
Pressurization was not new in aviation, having been developed late in the 1930s and employed successfully on airplanes such as Boeing’s Model 307 Stratoliner airline transport. But in 1963, it was a novel concept for a small business airplane designed to carry four to six passengers and two pilots, yet the engineers and Beechcraft marketing officials believed it would put the company far ahead of the competition – exactly where Olive Ann Beech wanted it to be.
APRIL 2021
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 27