Page 24 - March 2015 Volume 9, Number 3

Selling Walter’s Airplanes PART TWO
Walter H. Beech’s success as an airframe manufacturer during the 1930s can be traced to three things: the Beechcraft Model 17 series, a hefty bank account and a network of dealers dedicated to selling the airplanes that bore his name.
by Edward H. Phillips
“I’m just a country boy. Go get a picture of me when I first came to Wichita. I’ve made good and I’m not afraid to say so,” Walter H. Beech told local newspaper
reporters in August 1929. Walter was not one to openly boast of his success, but neither did he apologize for it. The merger late that summer that brought Travel Air Company under the corporate umbrella of Curtiss- Wright Corporation had made Mr. Beech wealthy to the tune of about $1 million (much of that wealth, however, was tied up in company stock).
At the time of the merger, one share of Travel Air stock that had been worth $100 in 1925 now sold for about $4,000 and the company was valued at a staggering $3.5 million. In addition, the one-time farm boy from Pulaski, Tenn., was appointed president of the Curtiss-Wright Sales Corporation responsible for sales of commercial Curtiss-Wright airplanes. He would oversee that operation from offices in St. Louis, Mo. and New York City.
When Walter and Olive Ann Beech struck out on their own to start the Beech Aircraft Company in April 1932, they took with them valuable lessons they had learned during their six years at Travel Air and three years at Curtiss-Wright. Those lessons, coupled with Walter’s bank account, contacts and reputation within the aviation industry would be put to use selling the infant company’s first and only product – the Beechraft Model 17R1 cabin biplane.
Mr. Beech quickly realized, however, that none of those lessons would help him sell an $18,000 airplane in a market ravaged by the Great Depression. After 18 months of operation, the Beech Aircraft Company had sold only one airplane, had an order on hand for one
Walter and Olive Ann Beech posed for a photographer on July 4, 1936, while attending air racing events held in Denver, Colo. The C17L probably was a company demonstrator flown to the races and placed on exhibit. The pilot is unidentified, but bears a strong resemblance to Homer “Ding” Rankin, chief pilot for the company. (COURTESY MARY LYNN OLIVER)
22 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
MARCH 2015