Page 27 - Volume 10 Number 12

The U.S. Navy began operating the T-34B in 1954 and took delivery of 423 Mentors before production ended
in 1957. The only visible difference between the T-34A and T-34B was deletion of the small triangular fillet at the bottom of the rudder. The T-34B used the same engine as the T-34A. (EDWARD H. PHILLIPS COLLECTION)
instructing pilots in aerobatics and combat maneuvering. Veteran Beechcraft chief test pilot Vern L. Carstens took the prototype aloft for its maiden flight on December 2, 1948. Maximum speed was 176 mph at an altitude of 10,000 feet, with a cruise speed of 160 mph at a gross weight of 2,650 pounds.1
Development continued through 1949 and a Model 45 was sent on a nationwide tour of military bases in the United State and Canada to demonstrate the Mentor to officials of the U.S. Air Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Later, the airplane was shipped across the Atlantic Ocean where Beech demonstration pilots flew more demonstrations to showcase the Model 45’s capabilities to military forces in Western Europe. One of the more interesting demonstrations, however, occurred in 1949 during the National Air Fair held at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
On July 4, a Model 45 was flown by two-time women’s aerobatic champion Miss Betty Skelton before thousands of spectators. Beech Aircraft Corporation historian William H. McDaniel described it this way: “Proving that brute strength was not required to put the Mentor through a breathtaking array of maneuvers standard in military combat operations, pretty, petite, 100-pound Betty Skelton – only 22 years old and a two-time women’s aerobatic champion – thrilled the cheering crowds. To sober-minded military observers, they were a reminder of the need for continued readiness to maintain air power in the defense of the free world – a reminder already accented by the Communist blockade of Berlin.”2
Walter Beech believed in the value of public aerial demonstrations, but he was seeking orders from the military, and by the end of 1949 he had received none. In the wake of major budget cuts to America’s armed forces after World War II, money was scarce and both
DECEMBER 2016
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 25