Page 24 - Volume 12 Number 12

Breaking Point
By 1933 the Beech Aircraft Company was starved for cash and the future looked dim until a Texas oilman plunked down $12,000 for a custom-built Beechcraft.
by Edward H. Phillips
After more than one year in business, Walter H. Beech had yet to sell an airplane bearing his name. He had flown many demonstration flights in the first Beechcraft, but despite widespread enthusiasm for the biplane, excellent press exposure and success at air races, sales remained elusive.
In February, however, the company’s financial situation improved significantly when Walter received orders for not one, but two new airplanes. Thomas Loffland of the Loffland Brothers Company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, agreed to buy the first Model 17R-1, and the famous clothier, Goodall-Worsted company of Sanford, Maine, sent a check for $8,000 as a deposit on the more powerful Model A17F.
Loffland was no stranger to business aviation. In the late 1920s the brothers’ oil company had operated at
least five Travel Air biplanes, and Thomas was a strong advocate of flying as a rapid mode of transportation between drilling sites. To his way of thinking, however, airplanes were a business tool, not a luxury. He knew about Walter’s return to the airframe manufacturing business, and his demonstration flights in the Model 17R-1 had only whetted his appetite for speed and utility.
Instead of buying the Model 17R-1, which would have deprived Walter Beech of a demonstrator airplane, Loffland ordered a new Beechcraft built to his specifications – the Model 17R-2. It was almost identical to the first Beechcraft but featured a few notable changes. Chief among these was relocating the engine mount 3 inches farther forward to reduce cabin noise and improving longitudinal stability; the main landing gear structure was reinforced and a shock strut was installed on the tailwheel, which remained rigid as on the 17R-1. Other modifications included installation of a larger aft landing wire and an additional brace wire beneath the horizontal stabilizer, a new aileron spar and hinge were designed and a new drag truss member was installed at the interplane struts. The alterations increased empty weight of the 17R-2 to 2,767 pounds – 90 more than its sister ship.
Beech Aircraft’s chief engineer, Ted Wells, also made one other improvement that proved to be troublesome. Wells decided that the installation of a manually-operated “trimming flap” (trim tab) would replace the existing electric trim system that pivoted the entire empennage. Although the flap had its merits, it was but one of several problems that would plague government approval of the airplane and ultimately delay delivery to Loffland.
By the end of May 1933, construction of the Beechcraft Model 17R-2 was nearing completion. Both Walter and Ted were determined to meet the delivery date of June 16, and they knew Tom Loffland expected the ship to be ready for a cross-country flight he had planned in advance. Back in Washington, D.C., however, inspectors at the Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce informed Ted about a number of problems with the stress analysis and technical drawings that he had dutifully submitted for approval.
In addition to concerns about the trimming flap installation, questions arose about the tailwheel tire and shock strut. A review of the stress analysis revealed that the tailwheel fitting supporting the shock strut were
DECEMBER 2018
22 • KING AIR MAGAZINE