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The first Model 17 to wear “war paint” was C17R-115, designated as a JB-1 by the United States Navy when it entered service in 1936. Always in search of sales, Walter Beech was interested in obtaining more business with the U.S. military. In 1938 the company submitted the D17S version in a competition held by the Army Air Corps and the Navy. The Beechcraft was up against some formidable competition from Stinson Aircraft, Spartan Aircraft and the Molded Aircraft Corporation.
When the dust settled at Wright Field in Ohio where the trials were held, the D17S emerged victorious and 13 airplanes were ordered, to be designated YC-43 by the Army and GB-1 by the Navy. Essentially “off- the-shelf” airplanes, they were fitted with parachute- type seats and various other military equipment. These airplanes had a maximum speed of 202 mph and a range of more than 800 statute miles. Of the 13 ships delivered in 1939, the three YC-43s were assigned to U.S. military offices in London, Paris and Rome, while two of the 10 GB-1s served the Navy in Madrid, Spain, and Mexico City. The remaining eight ships were operated at various Naval bases in the United States.
Shortly before war enveloped Europe after Germany’s invasion of Poland in September 1939, the British were hard pressed to detect the presence and movements of the German fleet. Specifically, the British Naval Intelligence Division became increasingly concerned that if war was declared, the Germans would attempt a “breakout” into the North Atlantic, sending their capital ships into the sea lanes between England and the United States. What the Admiralty needed was a reconnaissance mission by a non-military aircraft that could locate and report the position of those warships.
For that clandestine task, a man named Sidney Cotton, who had purchased Beechcraft C17R-118 early in 1939, was asked by the Admiralty to overfly the port of Wilhelmshaven in northern Germany. His mission was to photograph any ships at anchor there. Cotton responded to the call and prepared his Staggerwing for the flight. All he needed was good
weather and an effective plan of action, and Cotton soon had both. On Sept. 2, one day after Germany’s invasion of Poland began, pilot Robert Niven and a trained photographer departed the aerodrome at Heston for Germany. The C17R was well suited to the task at hand. With a maximum speed of more than 200 mph and the ability to climb and maintain an altitude of 20,000 feet over Wilhelmshaven, the Beechcraft would be difficult to detect.
After making the long climb toward the Dutch coast, Niven entered German airspace but encountered no Luftwaffe fighters as he neared Wilhelmshaven, where the Luftwaffe was known to conduct routine patrols over the port.
Fortunately, the mission was flown exactly as planned and the Beechcraft returned to Heston safely. After the photographs were developed and analyzed by the Admiralty, it was determined that the battle cruiser Gneisenau and the battleship Deutschland were in port. Unknown to the Admiralty, however, between Aug. 25 and Niven’s secret mission Sept. 2, the pocket battleship Graf Spee had weighed anchor and slipped away undetected into the North Atlantic. The day after the C17R’s flight, England and France declared war on Germany. During the next four years, Cotton’s gallant Beechcraft soldiered on after being impressed by the Royal Air Force in May 1941 but was scrapped in 1944 after an accident that damaged the airplane beyond economical repair.1
Meanwhile, back in America, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was making good on his promise to keep
MARCH 2022
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 23