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along the Suez Canal and above the Red Sea in search of U-boats. In addition, the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China received 10 UC-43/GB-2 airplanes and the United States provided another 31 to Brazil during the war.
With the end of hostilities in sight by mid-1945, orders for the venerable UC-43 and GB-2 ships began to dwindle, and after VJ-Day many of the military Model 17s began to find their way back to their original owners or migrated into the civil aircraft market as war surplus equipment. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation supervised civilian purchase of these airplanes, which sold for a fraction of their original cost. The Royal Navy returned a majority of its Traveller Mk. 1s to the United States, where they were either sold as surplus or scrapped, but a small number remained in England and were sold to private individuals.
It is a testimony to the leadership and the workforce of the Beech Aircraft Corporation that between 1941 and 1945 employment skyrocketed to 14,100 from 2,354, and more than 7,100 airplanes were built. The D17S proved to be a reliable, rugged workhorse in every theater of war in which it served. The UC-43 in particular, had ferried people, supplies and mail throughout the European Theater of Operations, flew above the trackless deserts of Arabia, and accompanied American forces in their relentless march from Guadalcanal to Tokyo Bay.
Despite its sterling record of military service, by 1946 the Model 17 biplane was considered obsolete. Its welded steel tube and hand-stitched, fabric-covered airframe had been eclipsed during the war by the all- metal monoplane. It appeared that the end had come for Ted Wells’ flying machine that had put Beech Aircraft Corporation on the road to success, but Walter Beech had a trick up his sleeve that would give the Staggerwing one last, brief moment of glory. KAKA
Notes:
1 Information on Sidney Cotton and the C17R courtesy of historian Peter Berry.
2 An excellent and highly comprehensive history of the Model 18 can be found in R.K. Parmerter’s “Beech 18: A Civil and Military History.”
Originally published in July/August 2010 issue of King Air magazine.
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, Kansas. 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.
MARCH 2022
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 27