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The C/UC-78 was intended to serve as a lightweight, multi-engine aircraft for flying personnel and small cargo, occasionally including senior officers who used the airplanes for VIP flights. By war’s end, 937 C/UC-78 monoplanes served with the Army Air Forces, while another 67 were operated by the Navy and Marine Corps as the JRC-1. When production ended in 1944, the factory had built 1,052 AT-8 and AT-17-series, 3,160 C/ UC-78/JRC-1 airplanes, and all 40 commercial T-50 ships were impressed into military service for the duration of the conflict.
It is interesting to note that in addition to major orders for airplanes, the Stearman Division, Cessna Aircraft and Beech Aircraft also were under contract for subassemblies that were crucial to the war effort. During 1941-1942 the Stearman Division built flight control surfaces for the Boeing B-17 before shifting all of its assets to building the mighty B-29 beginning in 1943. Boeing needed help and the Cessna factory responded by manufacturing 1,400 vertical stabilizers, 1,894 rudders, 1,658 heat exchangers, 1,619 pilot and co-pilot instrument panels, 1,536 dorsal fairings, 1,567 elevators, 1,343 wing leading edges and 1,583 sets of rudder pedals for America’s super bomber. Meanwhile, Beech Aircraft and Cessna workers were busy building assemblies for the Douglas A-26 Invader. The Beechcraft factory completed 1,635 wing assemblies and the Cessna
company contributed 6,500 engine cowlings and 2, 046 landing gear sets for the speedy attack bomber.
Despite increasingly high workload demands, in June 1942 the three major airframe manufacturers were tapped by the War department to give top priority to manufacture of subassemblies for the Waco CG-4A troop-carrying assault glider that was destined to play a pivotal role in the D-Day invasion of June 1944. A total of 1,500 of the powerless gliders were to be built and delivered by October 1942 – a near impossible task. Beech was assigned to construct the inner wing panels, empennage surfaces and all forgings and castings. Cessna workers built the outer wing panels. When the two companies completed their work, the assemblies were shipped to the sprawling Boeing, Wichita Division factory where the gliders were assembled and delivered to the Army.9
As with the Stearman Division and the Cessna Aircraft Company, the Beech Aircraft Corporation began building “warbirds” well before America was suddenly thrust into the conflict. The first Beechcraft to wear military colors was a sole C17R built in 1936 for the United States Navy as the JB-1. In June 1939, the Army Air Corps received the first of three commercial D17S cabin biplanes designated YC-43 that were assigned to American embassies in England, France and Italy. That year the Navy ordered seven D17S models for service
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