Page 31 - Nov 2015 Volume 9, Number 11

In 1945, Beech Aircraft Corporation introduced the Model D18S to the commercial market.
Starved for new aircraft following four years of global conflict, the postwar business aviation industry welcomed the D18S. More than 1,000 were manufactured from 1945-1955 before production transitioned to the upgraded Model Super E18S.
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transport equipped to teach navigation by the sun and stars. The cabin was equipped with drift meters, work tables and various compasses. In addition, an auxiliary instrument panel displaying essential flight information such as airspeed and altitude was installed in the front of the cabin for student reference in solving navigation problems. Celestial sightings at night were made through a small, clear Plexiglas dome in the upper fuselage. The AT-7 trained thousands of navigators who later guided hordes of American bombers to their targets over Germany and Japan. The Army took delivery of 884 AT-7 during the war.4
• AT-11: The AT-7 trained navigators, but the Army’s AT-11 trained men to drop bombs on the enemy. The airplane was equipped with a large Plexiglas nose section for the student bombardier and housed the top- secret Norden bombsight that made accurate bombing possible. Based primarily in the Southwestern United States because of the region’s favorable flying weather year round, the AT-11 normally flew with two pilots and three students. The fuselage featured internal bomb racks that held 10, 100-pound practice bombs. As with navigators, bombardiers were desperately needed for the massive bombing campaigns over occupied Europe, the Pacific and Japan. As a result, more than 1,500 AT-11s were built.
• Other minor variations of the C18S produced only in small numbers were the AT-7A, equipped with floats and skis; AT-7B, specially equipped for service in cold weather climates in sub-zero temperatures; and the AT-7C was equipped with more sophisticated avionics and autopilot than the standard airplanes. The AT-11A was an AT-11 configured for aerial photography as well as bombardier training. The type was also designated T-11-BH.
By war’s end, more than 14,000 Beechcrafters had manufactured more than 7,000 military aircraft for U.S. and allied fighting forces. The majority were versions of Model C18S, but a few hundred “Staggerwing” cabin biplanes were built as military variants of the commercial Model D17S. Late in 1944 it became obvious that a devastated Germany and a fanatical Japan were facing certain defeat at the hands of the Allied nations. Walter Beech was anxious to return to peacetime production, and he soon had Ted Wells working on a postwar replacement for the trusty Model C18S.
That replacement was the Model D18S that featured a maximum gross weight 20 percent higher than that of its predecessor. Other major upgrades included a redesigned main landing gear, stronger wing center section, lengthened engine nacelles and a new instrument panel. When
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