Page 29 - Nov 2015 Volume 9, Number 11

customers who preferred the more powerful engine. The first of that version was built in May 1938. The interior appointments, in terms of fabric material, color and texture, were often selected or suggested by Olive Ann Beech.
Despite the improving economic conditions in the United States by 1938, selling the Model 18 proved difficult. Operators were hard pressed to come up with as much as $37,000 for the new Beechcraft, and many business executives remained unconvinced that airplanes could be an effective tool for increasing their business. During the years 1937-1940, only 28 twin- engine Beechcrafts were delivered. The winds of war, however, were beginning to blow with more intensity across Western Europe as Germany’s Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler, increasing his saber-rattling rhetoric while building up the Third Reich’s powerful army, navy and air forces. In addition, diplomatic relations between Washington, D.C., and the Japanese capital of Tokyo were becoming increasingly strained as the Nipponese military flexed its aggressive muscle in Manchuria and China while casting a lustful eye on the rich oil fields of Indonesia.
The Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939 led to Great Britain and France honoring their obligation to defend Poland by declaring war on Germany. In the wake of that declaration, American opinion was steadfastly against involvement in that conflict, but as time wore on, it was becoming obvious that the United States would be drawn into the war. Any doubts about that probability were brutally dashed on December 7, 1941, when the Imperial Japanese Navy crippled the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
By 1940, with the war going badly for Great Britain and France, both of which entered the fray woefully unprepared to confront Hitler’s modern and well- equipped war machine, the United States slowly began to rearm its own military forces. President Roosevelt was committed to helping the British by declaring America the “arsenal of democracy.” Beech Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and other small aircraft manufacturers played a vital role in the United States’ rearmament initiatives.
DECEMBER 2015
Walter and Olive Ann Beech knew that if the nation went to war, their company would be called upon to produce aircraft for the cause of freedom.
When Roosevelt signed the National Defense Act of 1940, $300 million was made available for the specific purpose of buying 6,000 aircraft for the Army Air Corps and to increase personnel to more than 3,000 officers
The U.S. Navy’s SNB-1 was almost identical to the Army’s AT-11. The electrically-operated, revolving gun turret atop the fuselage housed twin 0.30-caliber machine guns and was designed and built by Crocker- Wheeler. During the war, Beechcraft workers manufactured more than 325 of these training airplanes for the Navy. (EDWARD H. PHILLIPS COLLECTION)
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KING AIR MAGAZINE • 27