Page 30 - Volume 12 Number 12

Walter Beech nally found a buyer for NC499N in April 1934, two years after the Beech Air- craft Company had begun op- erations. The Ethyl Corporation ordered modi cations to the ship, including a wider landing gear and a new Wright R-975 static, air-cooled radial engine rated at 420 horsepower. The airplane crashed in December 1935, killing the pilot and a passenger.
(Textron Aviation)
and Wells that the Model 17R design was not viable in the existing business aircraft market. It was a great flying machine, but the harsh economic realities of the Great Depression were simply too ruthless to sustain sales. Walter and local pilots George Harte and L.G. Larson continued to fly NC499N on trips to prospective customers, and the ship had become a common sight at many airports across the nation.
Finally, in April 1934, the first Beechcraft built was sold to the Ethyl Corporation. At the time of the sale,
the ship had accumulated 500 hours in the air since its first flight in November 1932. The corporation’s pilot, Dewey L. Noyes, handed Walter a check for $11,827.35 and took delivery May 24 before flying the ship back east to New York City.
During the next 18 months Noyes was kept busy flying company executives around the country, logging 460 hours in the left seat. On Dec. 11, 1935, Noyes and a company official were killed when NC499N struck a hill near Munda, New York, in bad weather, including fog and low clouds. Noyes may have been descending slowly hoping to make visual contact with the ground. Suddenly the Beechcraft ripped through a stand of trees. The thick trunks quickly amputated all four wings before the fuselage slammed into the ground and toppled to a stop in an open field. The Wright radial engine was torn from its mount and rolled across the ground before coming to rest a short distance from the twisted and mangled fuselage.
It was a sad end1 for a historic airplane and a tragic loss of two lives. During its brief career, however, NC499N had succeeded in thrusting Walter Beech and the Beech Aircraft Company’s name to the forefront of aviation. KA
NOTES:
1 In 1983 pilot and mechanic Steve P ster excavated remains of the airplane that had been buried by the landowner 48 years earlier after the accident. He began constructing a new NC499N using some salvaged parts but died before completing the airframe. Noted aircraft restorer James Younkin took over the project, and the reborn NC499N is on display at the Staggerwing Museum in Tullahoma, Tennessee.
Ed Phillips, now retired and living in the South, has researched and written eight books on the unique and rich aviation history that belongs to Wichita, Kan. His writings have focused on the evolution of the airplanes, companies and people that have made Wichita the “Air Capital of the World” for more than 80 years.
DECEMBER 2018
28 • KING AIR MAGAZINE