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The UC-43 was built and sold to the U.S. military under the Lend-Lease Act for service with Allied nations, including the Chinese Nationalist Government that operated a number of these airplanes during the war. Note the retractable landing lights under each lower wing panel, and a large ADF antenna under the fuselage. (Special Collections and University Archives, Wichita State University Libraries)
the United States out of the European conflict. As the Battle of Britain raged in the skies over southern England during the summer and autumn of 1940, Roosevelt became increasingly convinced that America could not, and would not, allow England to sink into oblivion under German occupation. His resolve to help Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill and the British people fight the Third Reich led to creation of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941. It put America’s industrial might to work supplying ships, tanks, airplanes and armaments to the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force, while helping to break the economic grip of the Great Depression. Germany, however, was not Roosevelt’s only concern. In the Pacific, Japan was flexing her military muscle as she endeavored to implement the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.” America’s diplomatic relations with Japan had been on a slippery slope since the mid-1930s when she had invaded China, and by mid-1940 the situation had reached crisis proportions. Warlords such as Hideki Tojo were not interested in negotiation, only domination. When the United States stopped exporting oil and raw materials to Japan, the die was cast that eventually led to the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941.
As Old Glory continued to fly atop the smoldering carnage of Battleship Row in Hawaii, the Japanese war machine sprang into action and quickly captured American military bases at Wake Island and in the Philippines. Grossly unprepared to fight the attacking Japanese juggernaut, the United States and Filipino forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur fought bravely, and Beechcraft Model B17R-63 played a minor but heroic role in the final defense of the rock fortress known as Corregidor.
Originally sold into the Philippines in 1935, the Beechcraft was later impressed by the American military to fly humanitarian missions, bring in food and medicine as well as ferrying pilots to bases where fighters and
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bombers were being assembled to strike back at the Japanese. An example of how important the B17R was to the soldiers fighting on Corregidor – in April the airplane was used to evacuate P-35 and P-40 pilots as the Americans continued their retreat southward to Mindanao. After flying many missions in support of MacArthur’s rapidly dwindling forces, the B17R finally met its end in mid-April when it was intercepted by Japanese floatplane fighters and shot down near Malaybalay. The fight for the Philippines ended May 6, 1942, when American and Filipino forces surrendered to the enemy.
In the wake of Pearl Harbor, the United States government acted swiftly to impress existing civilian aircraft into military service until military aircraft production could be accelerated. Hundreds of civilian airplanes were soon turned over to the military by their
owners, including at least 129 Beechcraft Model 17s. Of these, the Army operated 118 and 11 were flown by the Navy. Two of the airplanes operated within the United States with the British Air Commission – the West Coast Delegation flew D17R-188 (redesignated RAF EB279) to supervise construction and delivery of airplanes ordered by Great Britain for its war effort, and D17S-327 (RAF EB280) served with the British Mission in Washington, D.C., performing diplomatic missions.
As demand for more aircraft increased during 1942, the Beech Aircraft Corporation began receiving additional government contracts for a series of Model 17s equipped for military service. The D17S became the standard airplane for all of the orders received and was designated as the C/UC-43 for the Army Air Forces and GB-2 for Navy. As 1942 unfolded, Walter and Olive Ann Beech had an order book that was bulging at the seams for Army and Navy versions of the D17S and the twin-engine Model 18, designated military AT- for “Advanced Trainer” (an airplane that proved to be highly versatile and with modifications served a myriad of training, liaison and
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VIP transport roles in the war). For example, during
Fiscal Year 1942, the company had orders on hand for 1,287 airplanes worth nearly $60 million, rising to 2,921 airplanes in 1943 worth more than $126 million.
Because production of the AT-series of twin-engine airplanes took priority at the main factory building on East Central Avenue, manufacture of the C/UC-43 and GB-2 series airplanes took place at the south end of the airfield in a building originally erected in 1927 to build the Knoll cabin biplane. After the stock market debacle in 1929, the Knoll company went out of business and the facility was used by various aircraft maintenance businesses as well as the Yellow Air Cab Company, which also failed to survive the Depression.
Still critically short of production space, Beech Aircraft Corporation received funding from the government’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation to expand facilities ›
MARCH 2022