Page 4 - August 2015 Volume 9, Number 8

Olive Ann Beech was not impressed when first approached, in 1973, by the founders of the newly forming Staggerwing Museum Foundation in Tullahoma, Tennessee. She told the organizers she wasn’t a fan of museums and that they were often underfunded ideas that lost steam.
The then-chairman of Beech Aircraft had a change of heart, though, when she saw that after several years the museum was continuing to grow and operate debt-free, without financial support from her or her company.
The full glass hydraulically lifting hangar door of the Beechcraft Heritage Museum is often open during Beech Party. In this photo, the open doors showcase the first Travel Air Mystery Ship. (MUSEUM PHOTOGRAPHER BOB BURNS)
Olive Ann became very supportive, having historical documents and artifacts related to the Staggerwing sent to the museum, and visiting the museum for dedications of new hangars and galleries. Her family, the company and many long-time employees have continued to contribute items to the museum. Thanks to those contributions, donations and loans from other aviation enthusiasts, the museum has grown into the Beechcraft Heritage Museum, promoting aviation education and preserving the heritage of all Beechcraft models from 1932 through the present. Last year the museum attracted more than 3,500 driving or flying visitors, not including local school groups and another 500 who attended the museum’s annual Beech Party fly-in.
Why Tullahoma?
Walter H. Beech was raised in Pulaski, Tennessee, but the real reason a museum tracing the lineage of the company he founded in Wichita, Kansas, is located in Tennessee is that a group of Staggerwing enthusiasts happened to live in the middle Tennessee area when the idea for the museum came about.
A 1973 Staggerwing Club event in Tullahoma featured famed aviatrix Louise Thaden, who won the
Heritage Museum
Unique Aircraft, Rare Artifacts
by MeLinda Schnyder
“No question the centerpiece of the collection is the first Staggerwing and the first Beechcraft product produced – a Model 17R,” said Wade McNabb, curator and CEO of the Beechcraft Heritage Museum.
(PHOTO CREDIT: JONATHON CAMPBELL)
2 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
AUGUST 2015