Page 24 - Volume 11 Number 12

Muscle Beech – the Mighty Turbo Barons
Despite being manufactured in small numbers, the Model 56TC and A56TC were the most powerful Barons built and helped pave the way for development and production of the distinctive Model 60 Duke.
by Edward H. Phillips
The decade of the 1950s and 1960s had been good to Beech Aircraft Corporation, and the company’s executive vice president, Frank E. Hedrick, reflected on those years in an address to the North America Newcomen Society in September 1967. He recalled that total sales (commercial and military) for Beech Aircraft in 1950 were $16.6 million, and by 1966 sales had exploded to 10 times that amount to $164.6 million. In addition, he anticipated that sales for 1967 would hit $175 million, and they did.
Hedrick said it took the company 25 years – from 1932 to 1956 – to achieve cumulative sales worth $1 billion, but only another 10 years to reach the ethereal $2 billion level. He also remarked, “Let it be recorded here and now that we at Beech Aircraft are profoundly proud of the heritage of our pioneering past – from 1933 with sales of $17,552 and 10 employees, to sales of $175 million and 10,000 employees [in 1967] with accumulative sales of $2.2 billion.”
One month later in Wichita, Kansas, more than 600 company officials and Beechcraft salesmen from around the world were attending the International Sales Spectacular and were told that two new airplanes would be entering the general aviation/business flying segment of the industry in only a few months. These were the Model 60 Duke (undergoing final development and flight testing) and the Turbo Baron 56TC that was entering production for the 1967 model year.
The Turbo Baron 56TC was based on the Model 95- D55 Baron airframe and a pre-production prototype, designated constructor (serial) number TG-1, made its first flight on May 25, 1966, with company engineering test pilot Bob Hagan at the controls. What gave the new Baron its muscle were two of Lycoming’s most powerful piston powerplants – the turbocharged, fuel- injected, opposed six-cylinder TIO-541-E1B4, each rated at 380 horsepower at 2,900 RPM and 41.5 inches of Hg (mercury) manifold pressure.
Impetus for development of the Turbo Baron was two- fold. First, Cessna Aircraft Company and Piper Aircraft
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Company were developing the twin-engine Model 401 series and the PA-31 Navajo, respectively. The sleek Cessna was powered by 300-horsepower Continental TSIO-520E engines, while the Navajo featured either the Lycoming IO-540-M rated at 300 horsepower or the optional TIO-540-A1A that produced 310 horsepower. As it had in the past, Beech Aircraft needed to respond to the competition and offer Baron buyers an airplane possessing overall performance equal to or better than the Model 401 and Piper Navajo.
The second reason was, perhaps, of primary importance. In the mid-1960s Beechcraft engineers and marketers had begun working on design and development of the all-new Model 60 Duke – a cabin-class, piston- powered business airplane that was intended to set a new standard of style and performance unmatched by any other aircraft in its class. The Turbo Baron would act as a platform for development and FAA certification of the Duke’s unique engine package, while offering Baron pilots the opportunity of owning one of the fastest lightweight twin-engine airplanes in the world.
The Turbo Baron’s Lycoming powerplants were housed in large, streamlined cowlings featuring nacelles that swept across the top of the wing and extended all the way aft to the wing trailing edge. Development of the Lycoming O-540-series engines had begun in 1959, and by the mid-1960s had evolved into the 380-horsepower TIO-541 and 450-horsepower TIGO-541. The engines were equipped with three-blade, constant-speed, full-feathering propellers manufactured by Hartzell. To satisfy the thirst of the Lycoming engines, Beech engineers increased the D55’s total fuel capacity to 182 gallons in bladder-type cells. In addition, maximum gross weight grew significantly to 5,990 pounds.
General dimensions of the 56TC remained the same as for the Model D55, with a wingspan of 37 feet 10 inches and the larger horizontal stabilizer/elevator of the Model 95-C55 that spanned 15 feet 11.25 inches.
The 56TC’s cabin essentially was unchanged from that of the D55 Baron and featured six seats, but the
DECEMBER 2017